Brigadier John Ormsby Evelyn 'JOE' Vandeleur DSO and Bar, ON (14 November 1903 – 4 August 1988) was a British Army officer who served in the Second World War.
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His family was originally from Kilrush, County Clare, where they were the local landlords. Vandeleur was born in Nowshera, India (now Pakistan).[1]
He was commissioned into the Irish Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1924, serving in Sudan and Egypt before the war.[1]
As Commanding Officer of 3rd Battalion Irish Guards[1] he led the breakout of XXX Corps during Operation Market-Garden. His cousin Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Vandeleur (their grandfathers were brothers) was acting Commanding Officer of the 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards.[2] He went on to command the 129th Brigade and 32nd Brigade.[1] He retired from the Army in 1951.[1]
His memoirs A Soldier's Story were privately printed by Gale & Polden in 1967.[3]
In the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, Michael Caine played J.O.E.[4] and Michael Byrne played Giles Vandeleur. Brigadier Vandeleur (ret.) acted as Military Consultant to the production.
Vandeleur died in Maidenhead, England in 1988.[1]
He lived out his life after the war in a magnificent manor house in Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead in Berkshire.
He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery.[1] His grave is marked by a simple headstone inscribed only "J.O.E. VANDELEUR" and underneath "ONCE AN IRISH GUARDSMAN".
Joe's Bridge — is the nickname given to Bridge No.9 on the Maas–Scheldt Canal in the Belgian city of Lommel just south of the Belgian–Dutch border.