Lieutenant Robert Morris Liddell Carruthers was the Adjutant and Intelligence Officer of 6th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Algeria in December 1942.
Lieutenant
180162
Lieutenant Robert Morris Liddell Carruthers (180162) served in 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the Second World War. He was the son of Lieutenant-Commander Robert Jardine Carruthers (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) and Georgina Rose Carruthers of Blindley Heath, Surrey, England, and the husband of Doris Joan Carruthers of Katesbridge, Co. Down.
Lieutenant Carruthers died on 4th January 1943 aged 22 years old. For the previous 15 days, he had undergone treatment at the Main Dressing Station at Thibar, Algeria. The Lieutenant was 6th Inniskillings’ Adjutant and Intelligence Officer. On 20th December 1942, he and Commanding Officer Lieutenant Terence Macartney-Filgate came under attack from a Messerschmitt ME109 while driving by car from El-Aroussa to Bou Arada.
20th December 1942 – In The Field.
0830: The CO and IO go to see A Coy along the El Aroussa to Bou Arada road. An ME 109 came out of the low flying clouds and put in a burst of machine gun fire through the car and disappeared within a few seconds. CO was hit on the right side of the head and IO through the skull. Also the AA sentry was slightly wounded. The driver (the only other occupant was not hit and was able to return to Bttn HQ immediately and collect the MO. They were all immediately evacuated to 165 Field Ambulance at Djebedi Ahmed, which was quite near at hand. MO returned and reported that the CO was not serious, Lt Carruthers grave and Fusilier Smith slightly hit. All three were later evacuated to MDS Thibar. Major Allen saw the CO at the Field Ambulance station before he left.
Lieutenant Carruthers’ grave is in Section 3, Row E, Grave 15 of Dely Ibrahim War Cemetery, Algeria. His headstone bears the inscription:
Greater love hath no man than this.