Major Alastair Coke - Telegraph The wounded were extricated only with great difficulty. Coke refused to be evacuated until his company's position was stabilised. He was awarded the first of his MCs, the citation stating that his leadership in the action had been beyond praise. Alastair Hall Coke was born in Calcutta on December 2 1917. He was educated at Seaforth College and Sandhurst and joined the regimental centre of the Garhwal Rifles in Lansdowne, India, in 1937. After the campaign in Eritrea he was, for a time, ADC to "Bill" Slim (then a major-general), in Egypt. He was subsequently transferred to 1/18 RGR, which moved to the Arakan region of Burma. On the morning of March 25 1944, Coke was in command of two companies in Wet Valley which were pinned down by heavy fire from Japanese units, preventing them from crossing a road. An attack was launched at one o'clock in the morning behind a heavy concentration of mortar fire. After a determined charge, and some fierce, close-quarter fighting, the enemy position was taken. Although wounded in the head, Coke insisted on carrying on until the objective was achieved. Further successful operations took place in the days following and, by March 29, Wet Valley - which had been held by the Japanese in strength - was open again. Coke was awarded a Bar to his MC. After Independence in 1947, the Garhwal Rifles were allocated to the new Indian Army. Coke had to take down the Union Flag from a fort on the North-West Frontier. On his return to Bombay he saw at first hand the terrible sectarian violence as the nationals of India and the newly formed Pakistan clashed at the new borders between their countries. Having returned to England, he trained as a land agent and, after qualifying as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, managed several large estates. In retirement he lived in Devon and later in Dorset. Alastair Coke married, in 1947, Pamela Van Someren. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter. Major Alastair Coke, born December 2 1917, died May 24 2012