John Thompson, SAS member in embassy siege and Falklands

Besides the commanding officer, John Thompson was believed to be the only member of 22nd Special Air Service Regiment to take part in both Operation Nimrod, the hostage release at the Iranian embassy in London in 1980, and the Falklands conflict two years later.
On April 30, 1980, six gunmen stormed the embassy at Prince’s Gate in South Kensington, taking 26 hostages and demanding the release of 91 Arabs imprisoned in Khuzestan, an oil-rich region in southern Iran for whose independence they claimed to be fighting. They threatened to blow up the embassy if their demands were not met by noon the following day. Police surrounded the building, and so did the world’s media.
The prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, called a meeting of the UK’s emergency response committee, Cobra (named after its usual meeting place, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A). Next day, 22 SAS’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel (later General Sir) Michael Rose, left Hereford, the SAS’s base, for London with his two operations officers and two specialist teams from B Squadron that had recently taken over as the stand-by counterterrorism squadron.
For four days the police negotiated with the terrorists while the SAS assessed the options for a rescue mission. B Squadron concluded that they needed more men. Thompson and three of his colleagues in A Squadron were about to leave Hereford to watch Liverpool, his home team, play Arsenal in a third replay of the FA Cup semi-final. Not wanting to miss any possible action, Thompson nevertheless had mixed feelings when he and the others were told to get ready for a Puma flight to London instead.
Meanwhile, after surveillance devices were drilled into the embassy from the Royal School of Needlework next door, and a briefing on the building’s layout by an off-duty caretaker, it was concluded that the front door and windows were too heavily armoured to be forced without explosives. The SAS began reconnoitring the roof instead, unlocking a skylight and attaching abseiling ropes. Thompson and a fellow A Squadron trooper were detailed to cover the front of the embassy in any assault.
By May 5, suspecting an assault was imminent, in part due to the suspicious bulge in a wall caused by the listening devices, the terrorists threatened to kill a hostage unless an Arab ambassador was brought for them to talk to. At 1.45pm three shots were heard. Two hours later, after more shots, the home secretary, William Whitelaw, ordered Rose to stand by, although it was still unclear whether or not a hostage had been killed. At 7pm the body of the cultural attaché was pushed out of the front door. Soon afterwards the SAS were ordered in.
Thompson and his partner fired numerous gas canisters from the street through the four first-floor windows, and stood ready to deal with any of the terrorists who tried to shoot their way out. In the event, as B Squadron teams dealt with the terrorists inside, Thompson and his partner had to deal with various guns and grenades thrown out of the windows in panic, as well as receiving the dazed hostages as they stumbled out of the main entrance.
The terrorists had killed one hostage and seriously wounded two others. The SAS killed five of the terrorists and freed the remaining hostages unharmed. It was all over in 17 minutes.
The following year, Thompson was posted from A Squadron’s Boat Troop to G (Guards) Squadron. Cross-posting was not common, squadron identity in “the Regiment” being strong because squadrons usually operated independently and sequentially, but there was an opportunity for promotion in G Squadron’s Boat Troop.
On April 2, 1982, after decades of political wrangling over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, the military junta in Argentina launched a surprise invasion. After an uncertain few days during which Thatcher received conflicting political and military advice on the feasibility of recapturing the islands, the first elements of a task force set sail on April 5. D Squadron 22 SAS, on standby for worldwide operations, sailed for Ascension Island, the intermediate staging post. Their initial task was to help to retake South Georgia, with G Squadron sailing a fortnight later for early reconnaissance of the Falkland Islands themselves.
Two G Squadron Troops were subsequently inserted at night by helicopter three weeks before the task force’s main landings at San Carlos on May 21 and their famous “yomp” across East Falkland towards the capital, Port Stanley. Thompson’s four-man patrol, commanded by Sergeant Gordon Mather, was assigned to watch Bluff Cove, West Stanley.
They reported the critical information that Mount Kent, the dominating height commanding the approaches to Stanley, was unoccupied, intelligence that would change the course of the fighting. The recommendation for Mather’s Military Medal described how they maintained observation for 28 days, the longest of any patrol, “In a totally hostile environment, with the only protection from ground and air search provided by the skill and stealth of his patrol … [they were] required to move [the] observation position to close and often obvious positions to gain the intelligence required … knowing that if compromised [they] could not have been extracted from any predicament caused by enemy action.” The weather varied from freezing rain to gale force winds, with few clear days.
Once the main force closed up, the patrol took part in several diversionary operations. Thompson carried most of the ammunition for the patrol’s machinegun in the diversionary attack for 2 Para’s assault on Wireless Ridge during the night of June 13-14.
John Vincent Thompson was born in Liverpool in 1942, and was inevitably therefore known as “Scouse”. At 17 he joined the junior leaders’ unit of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and on entering adult service at 19 joined the REME parachute company in 16th Parachute Brigade Group, serving with them in Cyprus in the wake of the Eoka emergency. He then transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps as a clerk, served in Korea for a year with the Commonwealth Liaison Mission and then moved to Hereford in a senior clerking role. In 1978, aged 35, the upper end of the scale, he undertook “Selection”, and dropped five ranks to join A Squadron as a trooper. He was especially popular because as a former clerk he knew every allowance a trooper was able to claim.
Thompson left the SAS in 1983 in the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 (RSM equivalent) and joined the Royal Oman Police Special Task Force and then the Sultan’s Special Force, serving in the rank of major. On returning to the UK in 1988 he was active in the security industry. He retired at 65, eventually to live on Anglesey, and became a 1st Dan Black Belt in Martial Arts, a National Swimming Lifeguard, and ran marathons for military charities. He leaves a wife and two daughters, who lead private lives.
In 2012, having discovered their value on a TV antiques show, he decided to sell his medals. Thinking the money would be helpful for his grandchildren’s education, he said philosophically and with a characteristically dry sense of humour, “If you don’t let your medals leave, you’ll leave your medals.”
John Thompson, SAS soldier, was born on November 14, 1942. He died of undisclosed causes on August 31, 2024, aged 81