Mick Wainhouse
I wrote this a few years ago with Terry Aspinall, an ex-mercenary who wrote the book Soldiers of Fortune.
It is about Mick Wainhouse who started at Mirfield in 1963 before being expelled in 5th year. Many of you will know him.
He joined the Paras who took part in the Bloody Sunday killings and was booted out and jailed for robbing a sub-post office in Northern ireland.
He then became a mercenary in Angola with his close Para friend ‘Colonel Callan’, Costas Georgiou.
Here is his story – From Missionary to Mercenary.
Comboni Missionaries 
Para / Bloody Sunday/Soldier for hire. Sums up a perfect piece of crap. I think this guy should be ashamed of himself , Just hope he does not try and blame his odious behaviour on his time at Mirfield. Oh yes I am an old Mirfield lad.
From Jim Kirby.
Interesting to read this again…One small correction is that it wasn’t Tavano who recruited us, it was Sean Russell from Dublin. Tavano did the north of England and Scotland while Russell did the south. Prior to him John Troy had done some recruiting but he was a newly ordained priest at the time and was moved on somewhere else…He’s around today though in Scotland I believe.
On another note…Michael Wainhouse came from Sanderstead which is a posh suburb of Croydon, not a million miles from here. His father was well connected with the Diocese of Southwark. I can’t remember exactly what it was …I think he was an accountant and did work for the Diocese. I say this because my parents had a great priest-friend, John Elliott. Elliott was secretary to the Archbishop of Southwark, Cyril Cowderoy (not to be confused with the cricketer Colin Cowdray who married one of the Duke of Norfolk’s daughters.
Norfolk was the premier English catholic, as is his son today). John Elliott was, like Archbishop Cowderoy, a convert and also ex British Army. He became a Monseigneur later and died two years ago as parish priest of Petts Wood in Kent, one of the richest parishes in the UK where he went on the death of the Archbishop and remained for over 20 years. If you went to visit him he always produced a bottle of Champagne for drinks and smoked Havana cigars.
He loved to play Mantovani. I remember these things about him because I knew him well and he was responsible for getting me into Aer Lingus as the personnel manager at the time in ‘69 after my ‘A’ Levels, a man called Tommy Dunne (Papal Knight), was a close friend of his. I say all this because if Elliott were around he would probably be able to shed some light on Wainhouse. However it is possible that Wianhouse might have family still living in Sanderstead as he certainly had a sister.
I’m afraid Monsignor John Elliot died 4 years ago. See http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk/news_archive_december_2011.html
†
Please pray for the repose of the soul of
Monsignor John Elliott KCHS
who died on 25th December 2011
His body will be received at St James Church, Petts Wood,
on Thursday, 19th January 2012 at 5:30 pm.
His Funeral Mass will be held there
on Friday, 20th January at 12 noon.
May he rest in peace
Mick’s sister, Cathy, lives in Scotland with her second husband.
hi i believe i am a relative of sean russell, i don’t know anything about him and would like to know about my family history as their are too many pieces missing. , i am looking for information on my uncle joseph russell, their is no information on . i believe he was 19 at the age of his death . can someone please help me with my search.
I remember Mick well. He was a bit of a gentle giant, had time for us younger kids & never appeared to get into any trouble. I’m sure he was the guy who supervised the building of the canoe down in the seniors domain. I think the project was part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Life is so full of irony. One can only feel sorrow for the innocents he left in his wake.
I remember Mick ou on the football pitch practising for th Duke of Edinburgh award. He was practising throwing a cricket ball. He was wearing a dark green knitted jumper. Always friendly and willing to give us young ones a kind word and help.