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enjoyed. His thanksgiving service was held on 6th November 2014.
Eric Rothwell
We heard that Eric Rothwell died in January 2015 and we believe that he served in The North Staffordshire Regiment, but have no further details and have been unable to find out any more.
Major Geoffrey Simpson
Geoffrey George Simpson died in July 2014, although we did not hear this at the time. He was born on 30th August 1938 and attended Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He joined 5th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment in 1960 as an Officer Cadet, and was commissioned in 1962. He served in various appointments until he became a Company Commander in The Mercian Volunteers in 1971.
He was a bank manager by profession and a move to Leicester, resulted in a change of cap badge, where he was a founder member of 7th Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment. He retired from the Territorial Army in 1976 and was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Leicestershire in 1976. He is survived by his wife Hilary.
Colonel Robert Simpson
Robert Walston Simpson died in 2014, although we were not informed until several weeks afterwards. Bob was born on 7th January 1925 and attended Ratcliffe College Leicester. He enlisted as a Private soldier in 1942 and in 1944 was posted
to 164 OCTU on the Isle of Man. He was commissioned into The North Staffordshire Regiment in May 1944, but was posted to 5th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry in UK. Later he moved to 8th Battalion,
The Royal Fusiliers in Egypt. The Battalion moved to Iraq, then Palestine followed by Greece. He was demobbed in June 1947, but promptly joined the Territorial Army and served with 351 Medium Regiment RA for two years, before joining 6th North Staffords in October 1949.
He had a full career with this battalion
and its successor, the 5/6th North Staffords right through the 1950s, starting as Captain, and then rising to Major. In February 1965 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the battalion for two years.
After a career in the Simpson Potteries, he eventually settled in Beckenham, Kent. He presented the cobalt blue dinner service to the Officers’ Mess of the 1st Battalion, with free replacements for life. This arrangement was honoured while he was alive, but after the company was taken over, the arrangement fell by the wayside. His funeral took place on 8th October 2014. He is succeeded by his wife Margaret and their four children.
Dennis Saunders
Dennis Saunders died on 23rd December 2014, aged 82. Tingy was from Wednesfield, and was one of five children and was a keen bugler in the Boys Brigade
and went onto serve in 1st Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment. He joined them in 1950 in Trieste, but was later posted to The Cheshire Regiment. After completing his National Service, he joined the Territorial Army and served with 444 Company, Royal Engineers. Later he joined a local Police Band and went onto serve in 1st Battalion, the Mercian Volunteers and actually did 45 years in uniform.
Dennis was often seen performing the last post and Reveille throughout the County at many funerals and prestigious occasions
at The National Memorial Arboretum. He passed away after a long illness. Dennis was a member of Wolverhampton Branch and his funeral took place on 12th January at Bushbury Crematorium. There was a large turnout of members of both The Staffordshire Regiment Association and The Mercian Regiment volunteers, and there were nine Branch Standards on parade. He will be sadly missed for his kindness, wit and humour by his family and many friends.
Colonel Ralph S. Stewart-Wilson MC
Ralph Stewart-Wilson MC, died peacefully on 2nd February, aged 92. He came
from a distinguished Scottish family from Perthshire, and was educated at Eton.
Ralph enlisted into the Kings Royal Rifle Corps in Winchester in August 1941, and after attending 103 OCTU and 2 Motor Training Battalion in Tidworth, joined
10th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade (RB) in September 1942 in Scotland. He later served in the 7th Battalion, as part of 6 Armoured Division serving in Algeria, Tunisia and Italy. In Italy he was awarded the
MC and the citation is attached. He was promoted to Captain and we believe that he ended the war in Austria with 2RB. In the 1950s he served with 1RB and 7 Armoured Division in Germany, before attending the Staff College in 1954. He was promoted to Major and became a Coy Comd with 1RB, followed by Brigade Major of 7 Armoured Brigade. He re-joined 1RB in 1956 in Kenya and went with them to Malaya during the emergency.
After various other postings he was promoted to Lt. Col and appointed to command 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment and joined them in Kenya in April 1964. At the time, it might have seemed an odd choice for a Rifle Brigade officer
to command a county regiment like the Staffords; which as part of the Mercian Brigade would have expected an outside commanding officer from one of their sister regiments. The Rifle Brigade had six officers commanding other battalions at this time. Despite the cultural differences he was remembered rather fondly, as an able officer, who brought a modernising approach to soldiering. He laid greater emphasis on conventional warfare, as opposed to peace-keeping. He was also very relaxed in the Officers Mess and chatted informally to all the young officers, thereby often educating them in the process. One evening in Kenya he talked
about the value of the kilt in both summer and winter to some young officers. Not long afterwards, in a cabaret night to say goodbye to the wives, who were returning early from Kenya, two officers dedicated a fairly scurrilous song to their new CO and his kilt, which seemed to amuse him.
Under his command, the battalion was in Kenya and trained in Kenya and Swaziland and Aden and also provided a company on strategic reserve. On 10th December 1964, the Staffords hauled down the Union Flag for the last time as the final British unit to leave the country. The Prime Minister, Jomo Kenyatta, made a point of praising the troops for the immaculate condition of the barracks and quarters that they left behind. They returned to UK and took over the brand new Connaught Barracks in Dover. Any fears that soldiering in UK was going
to be a round of sports days, were quickly dispelled, because the battalion had to send a company group to British Honduras (now Belize).
When the company handovers took place, the battalion would find itself without two companies. They also had to provide the guard at Windsor Castle Guard and had a platoon detached to the Mons Officer Cadet School for four months. Despite
this the battalion trained hard, and also managed to pack in a great deal of sport and adventure training. He handed over
in September 1966 and retired from the Army in 1972 and returned to Pitlochry in Perthshire to become a farmer.
He remained in contact with the regiment and wrote to RHQ in 2011 to say how
glad he was that the Staffordshire name was retained in the Mercian Regiment. He married Rosalind and they were married
for 65 years and had three children;
Maria, Lorna and Aubyn. His service of Thanksgiving took place at Holy Trinity Church, Pitlochry on Monday 16th February 2015. Colonel Hugh Willmore represented the regiment.
Warrant Class 1 Robert
Meiklejohn Walker
Bob Walker died unexpectedly at home on 23rd April 2015. He was born on 14 November 1959, and enlisted into The Staffordshire Regiment on 17th June 1976. He joined his battalion and served with 2 Platoon in A Company, but will be remembered mainly for his long service in the Mortar Platoon.
He served in Colchester, Belize, the 18 month tour of Londonderry, Wheeton, Gibraltar, South Armagh, Fallingbostel and the former Republic of Yugoslavia. He also took part in the larger exercises such as Kenya and BATUS. One of his platoon commanders was Chris Klein, who commented that he was a first class MFC who could get accurate fire quickly on target, much to the chagrin
of the Royal Artillery during Bombard OP fire-power demos on Salisbury Plain, and the mortar platoon of a US Infantry battalion during joint shoots at Fort Lewis in 1985. In the Gulf War of 1990 - 1, he was an MFC
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