Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Alexander Meysey Vandeleur, DSO (2 September 1911 – 9 March 1978) was a British Army officer during the Second World War.
He was commissioned into the Irish Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1931. As acting Commanding Officer of the 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards he served under his cousin Joe Vandeleur (their grandfathers were brothers) in the breakout of XXX Corps during Operation Market-Garden. He went on to become acting commander of the British 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in 1945. He retired from the Army in 1949.
In the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, based on Operation Market-Garden, Michael Byrne played Giles Vandeleur and Michael Caine, Joe.
Vandeleur died on 9 March 1978.
Famous quotes containing the word giles:
“I still feel just as I told you, that I shall come safely out of this war. I felt so the other day when danger was near. I certainly enjoyed the excitement of fighting our way out of Giles to the Narrows as much as any excitement I ever experienced. I had a good deal of anxiety the first hour or two on account of my command, but not a particle on my own account. After that, and after I saw that we were getting on well, it was really jolly. We all joked and laughed and cheered constantly.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)