Anthony John Millar was killed in action on 26th November 1978 whilst serving with the 1st Battalion, Rhodesian Light Infantry, and only a few days before his release from the Army. He intended to go to Natal University to read Electronics, and with his good ability and diligence he was likely to have done well.
Anthony left at the end of 1976 and obtained four good A level passes. In his last year he was a College Prefect and Head of Tredgold. Although rather reserved, he had noticeable strength of character and his quiet determination commanded a lot of respect.
He played rugby for the 1st XV and cricket for the 2nd XI; he was a member of several societies, particularly those with a scientific or natural history bias.
As always, one is struck by a sense of waste in the tragic death of so talented and versatile a young man. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family.
From The Falcon – If anyone has additional suitable pictures (e.g. from house / sports photos etc) please get in touch
Trooper Anthony Millar, of 2 Commando, 1st Battalion of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, was killed in a contact in the Sinoia/Karoi area, Karoi Fire Force, Op Hurricane. Died 3 days before his final bush trip was to end. He was about to attend university on a scholarship. Source: Mario Tassios
Text Credit: derived from Rhodesian Combined Forces Roll of Honour, kindly provided by Gerry van Tonder, one of its co-authors
Ant was an intake behind me, in 157, but luckily, he ended up in 2 Commando and in the same troop as I was. We weren’t great mates at Falcon, as Ant was in Tredgold and I was in George Grey, but a very strong friendship developed between us in the RLI. It was so good to have another Falcon boy in the Commando as we were a fairly rare commodity in the Battalion. We were invariably in the same stick together, under the troop commander, a junior officer, where Ant being incredible strong, was our MAG gunner and I, a rifleman and stick medic. We fought many a contact together. Ant was greatly respected by our troop officers and they would frequently consult him when lost and not sure where we were on the map. He did his parachute course in Bloemfontein while I did mine at New Sarum. We had a very nerve wracking experience while doing a “fun” jump at Grand Reef near Umtali. I had already jumped and landed and Ant was in the next plane load. We watched from the ground as he, and others jumped but Ant’s parachute didn’t open properly. Being a gunner he would normally fall faster than the rest of his stick but this time he had a ” Roman Candle” where the rigging lines get crossed over an almost closed parachute. He didn’t seem to notice and was plummeting towards the earth. We had our hearts in our mouths watching him fall very fast towards Terra Firma. Luckily at the last minute he realised he had a problem and deployed his reserve parachute , making a safe landing. A close call that day! Ant was a very good soldier and his machine gun and equipment were always in perfect condition. He was fairly quiet in the Commando but if he felt something wasn’t fair, would certainly let us all know. Our last contact together took place in Karoi, just a few days before he was due to finish and head off for University. We were flown into a kraal on a bit of high ground. We jumped out of the helicopter, Ant taking the right flank of the kraal and I took the left flank. The troop officer and the other rifleman assaulted the huts from where we had been dropped off. There were several terrorists in the huts and under grain bins. One ran in Ants direction and he sorted him out. When we had finished the contact, we swept towards Ant’s position and found him dead, we were absolutely shocked.I still believe to this day that he was accidentally shot by the helicopter gunship overhead. It was a very sombre evening in our bush camp as we all started to come to terms of losing a fantastic soldier, good friend and wonderful character. He was one of those very unusual people who had brains and brawn. It was all so tragic as his Dad had died some years before and he was looking after his Mum and siblings. Ant will always be remembered with huge pride and respect.