Page 74 - QDG Year of 2020

72 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Obituaries
Major General Sir Desmond Rice, KCVO, CBE
Desmond Rice died on 14th July 2020 aged 95. After Marlborough and Sand- hurst he was commissioned into The Queen’s Bays on Armistice Day 1944. He arrived in Naples in the last blacked out ship and joined his Regiment just prior to the end of hostilities in Italy. Life then became fun. The Bays had many captured horses; a race course was built at Aiello and polo started.
In 1947 he went with the Regiment to
the Canal Zone and then to Chester. After a
tour at AG17 in the War Office he rejoined
the Regiment in Fallingbostel where he
was responsible for training intakes of 50
National Servicemen who arrived every two months. In 1957 he commanded C Squadron in Libya and, contin- uing after the amalgamation and on conversion from tanks to armoured cars, in Wolfenbuttel. Subsequently he did a spell commanding HQ Squadron before being sent to the Joint Services Staff College at Latimer. He returned to the Regiment as Second-in-Command, his third tour in Wolfenbuttel. His final posting at RD came in 1967 when he was appointed to command The Royal Yeomanry, newly formed from 5 former Yeomanry Regiments; their squadrons widely dispersed - Westmin-
ster, Croydon, Wiltshire, Nottingham and
Northern Ireland. This was a challenging
command, requiring tact and firmness,
and for which he was awarded the OBE.
He received deserving praise from all the
Honorary Colonels. His citation recorded that
“he has worked unceasingly and travelled
continually to weld these diverse elements
together and to create an efficient and united
Armoured Car Regiment.” Throughout equip-
ment was a major problem, fortuitously on a
visit to the squadron in Nottingham he had
time to call on the local workshops where
they were awaiting Saladins, Saracens and
Ferrets returning from Aden. As the cargo
ship was sent round the Cape there was
spare capacity at the workshops. In no time
Desmond seized the moment and got every
vehicle of the Regiment re-built and up-to-
date radios fitted.
Probably 1954 was the pivotal moment in
his life and career. He had met his wife to Ravenscroft, whom he married after a successful year at the Staff College. Thereafter he did a series of exacting, high profile staff jobs where his analytical mind, quick grasp of the key problems and a stickler for detail made him ideally suited to these appointments. He always took a measured approach before he was convinced what the best way forward should be. Progressively he was GSO 2 in the Military Operations Directorate at the War Office, DAA and QMG in 11 Bde in Minden and MA to GOC Berlin, Major General Sir John Nelson, who was responsible for political as well as military matters
and who tasked Desmond to restart polo. Thus, in 1966, the Maifeld, where polo was last played at the 1936 Olympics, was back to pre war standards, and was the venue for an annual tournament involving many cavalry regiments from BAOR as well as German teams from Dusseldorf and Hamburg.
Later he became Col GS of the 4th Division in BAOR. In 1973 he returned to England and was appointed Brigadier General Staff in the Military Operations Directorate, responsible for the operational employment of the Army. When the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974 his General was
on holiday in France. Desmond at once deployed two Brigades as requested and told his General all was well and not to hurry back! He was awarded the CBE at the end of this tour. His citation recalled that he played a major part in the Defence Review and in its aftermath the re-structuring of the whole Army. “His concentrated hard work and detailed application have been invaluable and he has never spared himself in the common effort. Furthermore the resolution of many of the Army’s diffi- culties has been entirely due to his skill and dedication
His concentrated hard work
and detailed application have been invaluable and he has never spared himself in the common effort
be, Denise
without regard to the very heavy load he has borne in consequence”.
After a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies he was posted back to the Ministry of Defence as a Major General, firstly, as Director of Manning for the Army and, then, as Vice Adjutant General. This was an awkward and fraught period for the Armed Services as a whole with morale at a low ebb due to successive pay freezes leading to undermanning and poor retention rates. In 1979 he retired from the Army after 36 years service.
He then joined the Royal Household as Secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, a post for which he was tailor-made. Here he was respon- sible for all the investitures and the Chivalry services in St Paul’s Cathedral, Westmin- ster Abbey and St George’s, Windsor. Her Majesty The Queen invested him as Knight Commander in the Royal Victorian Order.
When he retired in 1989 he became an Extra Gentleman Usher to Her Majesty The Queen.
From 1980-1986 he was the Colonel of the Regiment and, he oversaw some memorable events – The Regiment celebrated its tercentenary in the presence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the granting of the Freedom of the City of Cardiff to the Regiment and the establishment of the museum in Cardiff Castle.
Desmond’s wife died in 2016 and he is survived by his daughter, Juliette, who married William Crosbie Dawson whose father, Bing, was Desmond’s first Squadron Leader.
RWW