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138 EAGLE AND CARBINE
one of the cadets in his platoon; their paths were to
cross again 20 years later.
He transferred to the 3rd Carabiniers in late 1962 and left Sandhurst for Detmold in 1963 where he was appointed Second-in-Command of A Squadron. During that time he spent a period commanding the Squadron because his Squadron Leader, David Ford, was quite ill. This period included a 6 week autumn exercise, quite a challenge that Michael excelled at. As the rest of Michael’s life showed, he rather loved slightly off the beaten track challenges and to combine travel with it. He had been going to Quetta for Staff College, but India and Pakistan had gone to war in 1962 and in 1963 no student attended Quetta.
So Staff College in UK followed, and then an unusual posting in Canada. On return to Regimental Duty, from 1967 to 1970, he commanded B Squadron moving through Chester, Libya, Cyprus, Chester, and Munster. On promotion, he returned to Staff College as an Instructor until 1974 when he got his first posting to the Gulf as Commanding Officer of the relatively new Dubai Defence Regiment. He loved it so much that by 1978 he was back as Commander of the Dubai Defence
Captain Richard Hilder
(as published in the Daily Telegraph on 12 October 2022)
Officer who had a close shave when a bullet hit his water bottle during Chindit operations in Burma
Captain Richard Hilder, who has died aged 101, took part in Operation THURSDAY, the second Chindit expedition, in Burma in 1944.
He was in command of a platoon that had been seconded to the 26th Hussars and based near Poona in India, but when the regiment was disbanded he joined l4th Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Tom Brodie, on the Ken River near Jhansi in the north of the country. His men had to forget about tanks and retrain as infantrymen.
They were to be Chindits, as the force became known - long-range penetration troops whose objective was to support the American-Chinese advance from the north. Fortified bases, given the code names of cities or streets, were to be established behind the Japanese lines, and raiding columns would strike against road, rail and river systems serving the Japanese.
Force, and a Defence Adviser. He left the Army in April 1980 shortly after promotion to Brigadier.
Michael had formed a close and trusted relationship with senior members of the Dubai Ruling Family and the Government of Dubai. He stayed on to be an advisor in a private capacity and, although a prominent figure and held in high regard, Michael was always very discreet and resisted publicity of any kind. He delivered some key projects but despite this he always said he had no official title, just that the Government of Dubai gave him things to do, or to look over, or to supervise. He was described as endlessly profes- sional, intelligent, hardworking, pragmatic and a great raconteur, and he was much admired and loved by all those he worked with. He died a true friend of Dubai working for the nation right up to the end of his life.
Michael married Kate and they had a son Peter who, in 1994, was dreadfully disabled in a terrible non-blame- worthy motor accident in Aberdeen. He was closely cared for by both Kate and Michael until he died in 2005, 2 years before his mother Kate. Michael died on 28 September 2022.
Hilder led two platoons through a course of rigorous training in marching, river-crossing and jungle fighting. Those who could not swim had to learn. Since he had served with the Life Guards, the Brigadier thoughtHildertobe“justtheboyfortrainingmules”. He was duly issued with 100 of the animals, which had come from Argentina and were completely unbroken.
The platoons were transferred to l6th Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Bernard Fergusson, and travelled from Jhansi by train and then by river steamer on the Brahmaputra, to Assam. On April2 1944,, Hilder and his troop loaded the mules in makeshift bamboo stalls behind the pilot and the crew at the front of a Dakota. The soldiers, sitting in the rear, had orders to shoot the mules if they endangered the safety of the aircraft.
The landing strip at Manhton in Burma, code-named Aberdeen, was just a clearing in the jungle. On landing, Hilder jumped from the door and dived for cover as a Japanese Zero strafed the strip.
They set off on an approach march to Indaw, a major communications hub, slogging their way through