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Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 1971, Guardsman Paul Nicholls, 1st Battalion, The Scots Guards, was killed in Belfast.
His patrol had been carrying out a cordon-and-search operation on St. James' Crescent off the Falls Road. They approached a house which they did not know at the time had been taken over by at least four gunmen. The owner of the house had been made to sit in the kitchen with her hands on her head throughout the whole ordeal, and was later treated for shock.
The lance-corporal in charge of the patrol reported that Guardsman Nicholls, the radio operator in the four-man patrol, was walking some distance behind him when he heard a series of single shots fired in rapid succession. He saw Guardsman Nicholls lying on the ground, having been shot in the back, and called for help - sadly he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. No-one was brought to justice for his murder.
Guardsman Nicholls was the middle child in a family of five sons. He lies buried in the churchyard in the village of Halkirk in Caithness, and on his headstone are the words, "In loving remembrance of a son and brother too dearly loved to be forgotten". He is also commemorated on the Halkirk war memorial.
Paul, from Halkirk, was 18 years old.
His patrol had been carrying out a cordon-and-search operation on St. James' Crescent off the Falls Road. They approached a house which they did not know at the time had been taken over by at least four gunmen. The owner of the house had been made to sit in the kitchen with her hands on her head throughout the whole ordeal, and was later treated for shock.
The lance-corporal in charge of the patrol reported that Guardsman Nicholls, the radio operator in the four-man patrol, was walking some distance behind him when he heard a series of single shots fired in rapid succession. He saw Guardsman Nicholls lying on the ground, having been shot in the back, and called for help - sadly he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. No-one was brought to justice for his murder.
Guardsman Nicholls was the middle child in a family of five sons. He lies buried in the churchyard in the village of Halkirk in Caithness, and on his headstone are the words, "In loving remembrance of a son and brother too dearly loved to be forgotten". He is also commemorated on the Halkirk war memorial.
Paul, from Halkirk, was 18 years old.
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