Harvey Andrews - The Soldier. Who was the soldier?

[iheartruby]

Someone has just played this song for me for the first time and it really got me - so sad... What I want to know is, was this about a named soldier and if so, who was it?
Thanks in advance.

[Braniac10]

He was killed at Springfield Road RUC station by an IRA blast bomb thrown into the reception area. A car stopped outside the station and a man, described as dark haired and in his mid-20s, emerged with a suitcase which he hurled through the front door. Several civilians were sitting inside when the device was thrown. Among them were Patrick Gray, a 27-year-old electrician, his daughter Colette and their neighbour Mrs Elizabeth Cummings and her four-year-old son, Carl. In his book Bombs Have No Pity, Lieutenant-Colonel George Styles wrote: 'Immediately he saw the suitcase hit the floor, Sergeant Willets realised what was about to happen. He thrust the two children down into a corner and stood above them, shielding them as the 30lbs explosive in the suitcase went off. He was killed instantly but the children he'd protected escaped with their lives. The police inspector in the room was seriously injured and across the road a two-year-old, being pushed in a pram by his mother, was blown through a shop window. He was to regain consciousness only after months in hospital.'


'A good man in a uniform': music, narrative, and message in Harvey Andrews' 'The Soldier'

As Andrews himself recounts, 'The Soldier' was written shortly after the renewal of violence in Northern Ireland, in response to the death of a soldier caught in a bomb-blast while trying to evacuate a room full of people. The crowd spat on his remains as they were brought out from the scene of the explosion.

[andy-hughes]

Harvey Andrews supported Dutch prog. rockers Focus at The Victoria Hall in Hanley - he lives about fifteen miles away in Uttoxeter. By the time he finished singing this song, most of the audience were in tears. When he next played the venue, most of the audience were in tears as he started to sing it.

I have played this song for a number of friends, ans do far no-one has escaped with dry eyes.

It's a classic tear-jerker, but no strings, overblown 'gear changes' or warbling wailing women in sight. Just one man, and a truth that we all recognise.

[iheartruby]

thanks guys - you're right andy hughes - hard not to shed a tear listening to it.

[wigwamglam]

You guys have just brought back a great memory, I had that song on a single and lost it, anyone know where I can get a copy of it, is it on release, ?

[Braniac10]

Yes wigwanglam. It is still availavle. The best place to go is Harvey's site itself at "www.harveyandrews.com" and can be found on his "Writer of Songs" album.

[wigwamglam]

Thanks Brainiac, what a great song, it gives us all a wakeup call.

[scottyness]

his name was Sgt Micheal Willets of 3 PARA.

[scottyness]

yes it was about a true story, his name was Sgt Micheal Willets of 3 PARA, although in the song it explaines how he lays on the bomb, but this was not the case, in reality he shut himself in a room after evacuating it and pressed himself against the door so the blast would not injure the other people on the other side, killing him instantly.