Page 112 - The KRH Year of 2023 (CREST Sharing)

112 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
devastating battle, we fought south to Condé-sur-Noireau and dug in on a hilltop. The Germans spotted us and started an artillery barrage. Fortunately the German shells fell short in the valley bellow hitting a herd of grazing cows. Two of the ani- mals were badly injured and were suffering from their wounds so I walked down the slope to put them out of their misery. I shot the poor cows with my pistol then turned and started back up the hill only to find all of my platoon pointing their weap- ons in my direction! My men shouted: “Look behind you, sir!” There stood two German soldiers who had apparently thought I was shooting at them - and were surrendering!”
From Normandy they were rapidly sent eastwards to cross the Seine at Vernon on the 25th August to stop the Germans from establishing a new front. ‘We were proud to be the first allied troops to cross the Seine, but it was at Vernon that my sergeant was shot and decapitated as I spoke to him. Every year at the commemoration of the liberation of Vernon, I lay flowers for Sergeant Langly. We went north up through Belgium into Holland to rescue the British 6th Airborne division at Arnhem, but we were stopped by the Germans at Elst a village just south of Arnhem. That is where I was wounded by a shell, marking the end of the war for me.’
After the war, David Mylchreest served with the Royal Sussex Regiment in Trieste, as well as in Malta, Egypt and the Dutch East Indies. Due to his love of horses, he was assigned to the 6th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, on security duty in Palestine. When they were due to leave he was put in charge of getting the mess’s horses and dogs home. The ship’s captain said there wouldn’t be enough space on board for all of them so David marched down to the dock leading several horses and a pack of dogs. When the Captain insisted he couldn’t take them all David handed the Captain his pistol and told him to shoot them himself. All of the animals made it back. In 1949 as they were to be mechanised he asked to transfer to the 14th/20th King’s Hussars where he spent time at Regimental Duty and the RAC Training Regiment.
A horseman and keen hunter since his childhood he could not resist the offer of a job at a thoroughbred breeding and stud farm and left the Army in 1953. He returned to settle in Normandy to work on France’s oldest thoroughbred breed- ing and stud farm, the Haras du Pin, where he rose to become director.
David settled in the small commune of Neaufles-Auvergny in northern France and bought a cottage within earshot of the hunt kennels where he continued to hunt into his eighties.
David met the Queen in Normandy on the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings in 2014 as well as at other memorial services over the years, when, he said, they shared their love of thoroughbreds and horse racing.
France’s current Defence Secretary, Sébastien Lecornu, while President of the Departmental Council of Eure, successfully campaigned for and presented David with France’s highest honour, the Knight of the Legion d’Honneur in 2015.
In later life, horrified by Britain’s decision to leave the EU, David refused to renew his British passport declaring himself to be Anglo-Norman. He said that he and his British comrades had fought and died “not just for the King, but for Europe and democracy”.
On 6 June 2021, the 77th anniversary of D-Day, he represented the UK at the inauguration of the British Normandy Memorial when no other veterans could travel to France due to COVID retrictions.
David died on the 8th March 2023 aged 99 in Normandy. He insisted on being buried in his 14th/20th Hussars tie and would have been delighted by the dozens of standard bearers and the hunting horns that played at his funeral.
RMH-H
Helen, set about turning their home, Thomond House, into an extremely smart and effective guest house. Here his guest (and he himself) could enjoy pheasant shooting, fishing, riding, eventing, hunter trials, clay pigeon shooting and archery.
He served as the Chairman Dromoland Development Company Limited and of a UK Development Company, Swift International Developments Limited. He also took a key role in forming the O’Brien Clan Association and the First Clan Gathering for 400 years in 1992. He formed The O’Brien Clan Foundation worldwide and this was launched in the USA on 17th March 1998. These enterprises were extremely successful, and he has been described by a local historian as “an enlight- ened and exemplary 21st century leader who had earned the love, honour and respect of the hundreds of thousands of local and international clan members.”
Conor was a man who concealed his determination to suc- ceed in an aura of quiet charm. As a young man he was more thoughtful and sophisticated than most of his fellow offic- ers, with a subtle, even wry sense of humour, and was more reserved and enigmatic than the average subaltern. Added to his friendliness and loyalty these qualities made him liked and respected by his soldiers and fellow officers.
Our sympathy goes out to his family.
Captain C M J O’Brien – Lord Inchiquin
navigating in the desert.
14th​20th​King’s​Hussars​1962​-​1975​
Conor O’Brien left Eton in 1959, and after Mons OCS joined the 14th/20th King’s Hussars in Libya in 1963. The Regiment was at that time an Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, equipped with Saladin armoured cars and Ferret scout cars. He was posted as a troop leader to A Squadron in Benghazi, and quickly took to regimental life, mastering the skills required, in particular those of operating and
In the next three years he served as a troop leader in Benghazi, Tripoli and in Cyprus, where A Squadron were part of the United Nations Forces. He subsequently served with the Regiment in Tidworth, Paderborn (where he was made Assistant Adjutant) and in Singapore. He returned to Regimental headquarters in Paderborn and subsequently became ADC to Commander British Forces in Bahrain.
In 1975 he left the Army and set up a trading company in Singapore and Hong Kong, and worked in financial services in Hong Kong. He returned to the family estate in Co Clare 1982, on inheriting the title of Baron Inchiquin, and, with his wife
JRS