Local war veteran celebrates his 100th in Mount Merrion
The folk at Mount Merrion Church hosted a very special community party last weekend for war veteran Teddy Dixon, who celebrated his 100th birthday on Sunday.
Teddy lives opposite the rectory and was one of the first residents of the Cregagh Estate. He witnessed both the house and the church being built and has always been a great neighbour to the rectory family – “a true gent”, says current rector, Revd Adrian Green.
As well as Saturday’s party in the church hall and a magnificent birthday cake, Teddy also had a visit from Bishop David. The bishop had a chance to pray with him and to hear something of his amazing life story.
Dachau
In 2014, Teddy was the subject of a BBC NI documentary From Belfast to Dachau which followed him on an emotional journey back to the concentration camp which he had helped to liberate 60 years before.
What makes Teddy’s story even more remarkable is that, during the second world war, he was fighting with the American Army.
Teddy’s family emigrated to the US in the early 1900’s and in 1920 Edward Copeland Dixon was born in New York City.
Five years later the Dixon family returned to Belfast and life went on as normal for Teddy, until war broke out and in 1944, aged 24, he was drafted into the US Army. Teddy joined the 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division which took recruits from “all over the place”.
The 42nd division landed in France in December 1944 and advanced through France as part of the 7th Army, entering Germany in March 1945. It was during the division’s rapid advance through Germany in April 1945 that Teddy’s new 12–man squad of buddies came across scenes of utter revulsion as they liberated 33,000 survivors from Dachau, north of Munich.
The difficult memories have never left him.
As the war drew to a close in 1945, Teddy’s unit was involved in the capture of Hitler’s deputy – Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering – in Austria, and it was the newly–promoted Sergeant Dixon who dispatched to check out reports of a salt mine filled with priceless artworks, and then tasked with guarding the treasures at Salzburg Castle.
Back in civilian life some years later, Teddy worked in the Ormeau Bakery and produced many splendid cakes for his neighbours. It was lovely for them to be able to reciprocate on this very special occasion!