North Lynn man was hero of South Georgia

North Lynn man Robert Ashton was in the thick of the action as one of a gallant band of 22 Royal Marines who fought to keep the Union Jack flying over the island of South Georgia in the first battle of the Falklands War in 1982.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Marines mounted a heroic defence as the battle raged on Saturday, April 3 – the day after the Argentines invaded the Falklands.

“I didn’t think I was going to live through it,” he later told the Lynn News from his home in Columbia Way.

A former Gaywood Park pupil, Robert (23), was a Commando in the Royal Marines and had been aboard HMS Endurance since October 1981 on a survey between the Falklands and the Antarctic. Also on the Royal Naval ice patrol vessel were 13 scientists of the British Antarctic Survey team