Page 231 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

overview of the Regiment led to the combining of the Regiment’s three Old Comrades’ Associations at the Vesting Day Parade at Bulford in May 1988.
A man of many interests, he was always a keen sailor and during his service he held the appointment of Commodore of the Army Sailing Association.
Colin Shortis was always purposeful – legs astride, arms crossed, his considerable eyebrows raised above the ever-inquisitive eyes. He made an art form of lateral thinking and delighted in suggesting contrarian solutions. He was married to Sylvia throughout his Army service and she proved an important leavening in uence on him. They had 2 sons and 2 daughters. He was widowed in 2006 but remarried in 2009.
Major General Colin Shortis died, aged 82, on 8th January 2017.
Major G B Blight MBE Major Gerald Blight was born in April 1931 at Totnes. He attended Blundell’s School and RMA Sandhurst before being commis- sioned into the Dorsets in August 1951.
He had a varied career, serving with the Dorsets, Devon and Dorsets, Glosters, Hampshires and the Royal Malay Regiment in the UK, Austria, W Germany and the Far East in addition to staff appointments in the War Of ce, MOD, HQ E Anglian District and HQ Rhine Area.
His nal appointment was as Training Major and CO of East Midland UOTC as a result of which he was awarded the MBE. He retired in May 1980 and joined the staff of Bn HQ 2 WESSEX before taking up a youth development appointment at Huntley & Palmers.
Gerald Blight died, aged 85, on 27th July 2016.
Major P W R F Falkner Major Peter Falkner was born in 1919 near Exmouth. He attended St Peter’s School in Exmouth, Cheltenham and St Edward’s Oxford. He was commissioned into the Devons in 1939 and spent the War seconded to the King’s African Ri es in East Africa, Abyssinia, Ceylon and Burma. Upon his return to the UK in May 1945 he served with 4th Devons (TA), The Wiltshire Regt, on the Staff in Greece, with 1st Devons and 1 D and D. He retired in 1958, becoming Admin Of cer for Devon TA from 1960-67. He spent the remainder of his working life in a wide variety of mainly Army charitable appointments in Devon.
Major Peter Falkner died, aged 97, on 30th July 2016.
Major R A F Reep Major Bob Reep was born in 1929 in Auckland, New Zealand. He attended Kelly College, Tavistock during the War before being commissioned into the Dorset Regiment in 1949. A ne sportsman, he helped train the 1956 British Olympic cross-country skiing team.
During a varied career he served in the Dorsets, Devon and Dorsets and Glosters in UK, Cyprus, W Germany and Swaziland. During the 70s and 80s he became well known as leader of numerous ski touring expeditions in the Alps. He retired in 1984 and went on to join Wessex Water Authority, based in Bristol, as Emergency and Civil Defence Planning Of cer.
Major Bob Reep died on 20th December 2016 aged 87.
Mr C Hall RBA RCA Christopher Hall served with 1 Devons in Malaya in the late 1940s and then with the TA. After National Service he trained at the Slade School of Art and become a full-time artist. Elected Mayor of Newbury in 1967 at the age of 36, he was the youngest person ever to hold the 370-year-old appointment. Christopher had many one-man gallery shows and his work is represented in the collection of the Arts Council as well as numerous other prestigious institutions.
Christopher Hall died on 4th August 2016, aged 85
Mr G V Eavis Geoff Eavis served with 1st Dorsets in Hong Kong and Korea in the early 1950s, but it was as a loyal and long-standing Standard Bearer for the Gillingham Branch of the Regimental Association that he was best known, attending every parade in Dorset for almost two decades.
Geoff Eavis died on 23rd September aged 82
THE RIFLES
REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS 229
Lieutenant Colonel M S Russell Mike Russell was born in Plymouth in January 1954, and was commissioned into the Devon and Dorsets in 1975. He served with 1 D and D in the UK, Cyprus, and Osnabruck which included the 4-month operational tour of North Belfast in early 1977. Later that year he attended the Long Armour Infantry Course at Bovington before returning to 1st Battalion for just 4 months to take part in the next Northern Ireland tour as 2IC C Company in Flax Street Mill.
Posted to the Depot at Crickhowell, he took up the dual role of OC Training Support Cell and 2IC Training Company. He was short-toured and sent to Southern Rhodesia to take part in the peacekeeping operations being conducted prior to independence and the establishment of Zimbabwe. He spent 4 months as OIC of the border crossing point with Zambia at Chirundu.
Upon his return to the UK in 1980, he was appointed OIC of the Infantry Display Team based in Warminster before attending an Intel- ligence Course and transferring to the Intelli- gence Corps in July 1982.
Steady advancement in the Corps led to a number of years in the Ministry of Defence, mainly in the Balkans Secretariat & Directorate. Retiring from the Army in 2006, he moved to Topsham near Exeter and continued working in the Intelligence and Security Sector.
Mike was a popular man wherever he went and he made friends easily, with his tremendous sense of humour quickly breaking down barriers.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Russell died, aged 63, on 21st February 2017.
MIKE WAS
A POPULAR
MAN
WHEREVER
HE WENT
AND HE
MADE
FRIENDS
EASILY, WITH
HIS SENSE
OF HUMOUR
QUICKLY
BREAKING
DOWN
BARRIERS