Major General Sir John Jeremy Moore, KCB,OBE,MC & Bar (5 July 1928 – 15 September 2007) was a British senior Royal Marine officer who served as the commander of the British land forces during the Falklands War in 1982. Moore received the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.
Moore came from a military family. His father, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Moore, and paternal grandfather, who joined the York and Lancaster Regiment as a private, were both awarded the Military Cross in 1916 during the First World War. His maternal grandfather was wounded at Tel el-Kebir in 1880, and later commanded the 4th Hussars.
Moore was born the son of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Percival Moore, MC, and his wife Alice (née Bibby). He was educated at Brambletye school, East Grinstead, and Cheltenham college, and joined the Royal Marines in 1947, straight from school. After basic training, and service on the cruiser HMS Sirius, he joined 40 Commando Royal Marines (1950-53) fighting communist insurgents in Malaya. During fierce jungle combat, the marines killed or captured more than 200 guerrillas, and it was for his bravery during one such ambush that Moore was awarded the Military Cross in 1952.
Moore served as Housemaster of the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent in 1954, as an instructor at the NCO's School, as adjutant with 45 Commando from 1957 to 1959, spending much time in operations against EOKA in Cyprus, and then as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst until 1962.
He was posted to Brunei to join 42 Commando, as a company commander and later adjutant. While a company commander, he was awarded a Bar to the Military Cross in December 1962 when he led an attack against rebels holding the town of Limbang in the Sarawak area of Borneo, rescuing British and Australian hostages. He and his men were ferried across a river by Royal Navy Lieutenant Jeremy Black, who went on to command HMS Invincible in the Falklands War.
'I assess the most important factor in the success of the operation was first class leadership by junior NCOs. Their section battle craft was a joy to watch and the credit for this belongs to the troop and Section commanders.’
Captain JJ Moore RM
Moore led the 42 Commando on a tour of duty in the then Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) stronghold of New Lodge.
On promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1971, Moore was appointed in command of 42 Commando, completing two tours of duty in Northern Ireland, including participation in the high-profile Operation Motorman to eliminate areas proclaimed by the IRA as "no-go" to the Army and police. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1973.
Moore commanded the Royal Marines School of Music from 1973 to 1975, and then studied at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1976.
He commanded 3 Commando Brigade from 1977 until he was promoted to major general in 1979 and took command of all Royal Marine commando forces.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1982, and was on the verge of retirement when the Commandant General Royal Marines, Lieutenant General Sir Stuart Pringle, was badly injured by a bomb planted by the IRA. Moore remained as Major General Commando Forces to cover for Pringle while he recovered.
Moore was handing over to the recuperated Pringle when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982. He joined the task force planning team at Northwood before flying south to take command of land forces in theatre. His planning post was taken by Lieutenant General Richard Trant. Moore relieved Brigadier Julian Thompson as ground commander when he arrived shortly before the 5th Infantry Brigade, travelling ahead on HMS Antrim to reach the islands on 30 May.
Moore implemented the plans proposed by Thompson, with the British soldiers forced to march across the inhospitable islands in the absence of sufficient helicopters and against Argentine resistance. He accepted the surrender of the Argentinian commander, General de Brigada Mario Menéndez, in Port Stanley on 14 June 1982.
Moore was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 11 October 1982 "in recognition of service within the operations in the South Atlantic", and left the Marines in 1983.
He became Director General of the Food Manufacturers Federation, but left 18 months later. Later in life, he raised money for research into liver diseases after having a liver transplant.
He was Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines from 1990 to 1993, and joined the parade to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War at Horse Guards Parade and the Mall on 17 June 2007.
Moore married his wife, Veryan, in 1966. They had two daughters and a son. In later years, he suffered from arthritis and prostate cancer. Moore died on 15 September 2007, aged 79, and was survived by his wife and three children.
(Extracted from various sources and Wikipedia)
The Falklands War - CCBH Oral History Programme (edited by Andrew Dorman, Michael D. Kandiah and Gillian Staerck)
MOORE
Yes, well, I thought about this business of going down there and did consider going more quickly, because it was perfectly feasible to have flown on from Ascension and parachuted to the taskforce and just landed in the sea probably alongside Sandy in the hope that he would have a helicopter ready to get me out.
WOODWARD I would have agreed to that!
MOORE I did consider that. In the event I didn’t take it on for a variety of reasons. One was inclined to think that with me going down and not taking any extra troops, there would have been a one-over-one situation, with me trying to command Julian Thompson, who was getting on with the battle, which is not very helpful. I admit wrongly I allowed myself to be influenced by thinking of the media, who might get hold of it and think it was a marvellously dramatic way for a general to go to war. And in the end I rejected it. I think I was wrong, I think I should have gone on, in order to interpret for London what was going on, in discussion with Julian Thompson. It is an interesting point, I think, that William Whitelaw, come the autumn, did say to me that it made a lot of difference. He said that, in the Cabinet, for him at least, that, according to him, to others I don’t know, there came a point when I got down there and they were now getting messages from a chap whom they knew, with whom they had discussed the problems, and whose face they had before them, because of course none of them had ever met Julian [Thompson] before. This, he said, was very helpful. I also in fact deliberately instituted in my daily signal a paragraph in ordinary prose, designed to be read as ordinary prose not by my Commander-in-Chief, who would perfectly well understand the military style in the bulk of the signal, but other people outside the military chain who might not so readily be able to. And I believe it was probably helpful. So if I had started doing that earlier, it might have been helpful earlier, and I have always thought that I made a mistake not moving more quickly. On the other hand I learned a lot on those eight days in QEII about things, and perhaps it helped me to make up my mind about how I would do things when I got there. But I did put, I think, extra and unnecessary stress on my immediate subordinate Julian Thompson.
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