Page 242 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

ONCE WITHIN EAR-SHOT OF OUR LINES HE BEGAN WHISTLING “IT’S A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY” AS A PRECAUTION AGAINST BEING SHOT
BLYTH - Phillip Henry
Blyth MC, A/Lieut Born
in St Albans Henry was
educated at Shrewsbury
School where he discovered
a love of rowing and Ancient
Greek translation which he
described as like doing an
amazing cross-word puzzle.
For his National Service he
was commissioned into the
Oxfordshire & Buckingham-
shire Light Infantry on 26th
August 1950 the regiment in which his father had served during both World Wars.
Attached to the 1st Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry we won his MC during the Korean War (gazetted 18th January 1952). During the campaign he was wounded in the leg when their position was overrun but managed to crawl back from behind enemy lines during the general confusion. Once within ear-shot of our lines he began whistling “It’s a long way to Tipperary” as a precaution against being shot. He was made an Acting Lieutenant on 1st May 1952.
After his service nished he studied Classics and Theology at Queens College, Oxford before teaching at Uppingham, Cheltenham and Lord William’s in Thame where he set up a canoeing club. In 1971 he did a PhD at Reading University researching the way ancient armour was made and demonstrating that around the time of the Battle of Marathon the Greeks had worked out how to make armour thinner and lighter, allowing armies to march quickly over long distances, changing battle tactics permanently. After that he taught Classical studies at St Mary’s teacher training college in Twickenham until retirement in 1989.
A staunch member of the Labour party from the age of 18 he enjoyed making as much of a scene about socialism as possible in what he called “hopelessly Tory” Thame and he bedecked the front of their large house, which looked down the High St, with Labour posters at every electoral opportunity.
He continued to research and write until forced to stop by ill health but never lost his love for life. His enthusiasm and deep principles were an inspiration to all who knew him. Henry died peacefully at home on 8 June 2017 aged 86.
IN THE 1987 ELECTION, GOODHART WAS ONE OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS WHO ENGINEERED THE MERGER WITH THE LIBERAL PARTY
GOODHART - Lord
William Howard, QC
Lord William Goodhart
was an eminent barrister
practising for many years at
the Chancery Bar who then
became a well-known gure
in the Liberal Democratic
Party. He was educated at
Eton College and did his
National Service as a 2/Lt in
the Oxfordshire & Bucking-
hamshire Light Infantyry
from 1951 to 1953, after which he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduation he attended Harvard Law School.
The Regiment, now reduced to one battalion, was stationed in Cyprus in Wayne’s Keep, Nicosia in 1951 to safeguard the British strategic position in the Middle East; most importantly the Suez Canal waterway, the route to India and beyond. The Canal Zone had been created by an Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 which Egypt saw t to abrogate and threatened to take over the Canal and harass the 10.000 British troops in the Zone. In Oct 1951, the Battalion with a strength of 485 embarked on HM Troopship Empress of Australia for Port Said. Companies were based in various camps across the Zone to carry out internal security duties included guards, escorts, patrols, road blocks with a mobile reserve on standby. Terrorist bombs were thrown. It was in this situation that Goodhart, now in ‘A’ Company, found himself and he was fortunate to have two outstanding Commanding Of cers during his service; Lt-Col Mark Darell-Brown DSO and Lt Col Peter Young OBE. It is little wonder that on returning to England in April 1953 with the Battalion that Goodhart, on completing his service, joined the 4th Battalion in Oxford (Sp Company) until 1957
when he joined the TA Reserve on decrease of establishment.
In 1957, Goodhart was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn becoming a bencher of the Inn in 1986 and he took Silk in 1979. He was a founding member of the SDP in 1981, drafting the party constitution, and from then on politics became a predominant interest; in 1983 he was the party’s candidate for Kensington. In the 1987 election, Goodhart was one of the Social Democrats who engineered the merger with the Liberal Party. He stood twice more for Parliament, for Kensington again and in 1992 for Oxford West and Abingdon.
Knighted in 1989, Goodhart, was created a life peer in 1997, becoming the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Lord Chancellor, a position he held until 2006. He served on several bodies with the law; in 1997 he became a member and subsequently chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. In Parliament he served on the House of Lords Committee of the EU, the Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform, and the Joint Committee on the Reform of the House of Lords. He retired from the House of Lords in 2015.
In 1966 he married Celia Herbert, a daughter of the 2nd Lord Hemingford, with whom he had a son and two daughters. Together they built Youlbury House on Boar’s Hill outside Oxford; the house is now listed by English Heritage.
William Goodhart was loyal to the Regiment to the very end despite his limited service and busy life which followed. He sponsored and encouraged the Regiment to have their annual lunch in the House of Lords. The Regiment enjoyed the occasion over many years until the ‘years’ told and the numbers able to attend declined. The annual lunch was then moved to Abingdon closer to home.
Lord Goodhart, born 18 January 1933, died aged 83 on 10 January 2017
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