ON THIS DAY IN 1976, CORBYN'S MATES...

The Provisional IRA shot a British soldier in Londonderry.  A four-man army unit was preparing to open a pedestrian checkpoint at 08:00 when Gunner William Miller was struck by a sniper's bullet.  The sniper had taken up position in a house on Waterloo Street and fired a single round, striking Gnr Miller in the head.  The Butcher's Gate checkpoint was situated at the city walls and formed an interface between the republican Bogside area and the city centre.

The critically injured soldier was flown to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.  His father was flown in from Scotland to be at his son's bedside, but the young man passed away.

Gunner Miller was a member of the Royal Artillery, 16th Light Air Defence Regiment (as it was then known).  He was 19 and came from Larkhall in Lanarkshire.  His killer was also 19, a local man who later received a life sentence for this and the murder of another soldier later the same year.

Butcher's Gate. Londonderry