Michael McCorkell

Colonel Sir Michael McCorkell KCVO OBE TD JP DL (3 May 1925 – 13 November 2006) was an Ulster soldier and British public servant, emulating the high level of British public service of successive generations of the McCorkell family, being Lord Lieutenant of County Londonderry for 25 years. His uncle, Sir Dudley McCorkell, had also been Lord Lieutenant of County Londonderry.

McCorkell was the son of Capt. B.F. McCorkell, of Templeard, Culmore, County Londonderry. He was born in Buncrana, Inishowen, County Donegal in 1925 and was educated at Rockport School in Holywood, County Down, and at Aldenham School. The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent curtailment of travel caused him to finish his education at Campbell College.

During the war, he joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner before being selected for a commission and going to the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) at Sandhurst. The Royal Military College had closed on the outbreak of war. Commissioned in the RAC he served with the 16th/5th Lancers, choosing that regiment because of its Irish heritage; the 5th had been the Royal Irish Lancers until 1922. In December 1944, he joined the regiment in the Apennine mountains where it was serving in an infantry role. As he was only 19 his father had had to sign a certificate to allow him to be posted overseas.

...
Wikipedia