Page 109 - KRH Regimental Journal 2022

Captain Zoë Thompson
Captain Zoë Thompson commis- sioned in August 2019, and was wel- comed to the King’s Royal Hussars, wearing the brown beret with aplomb and receiving the coveted miniature Jack Daniels bottle of glory as a prize for being the best student on the Gunnery phase of her Tp Ldrs course before joining the Mess and the re-established D Sqn as a Sabre Tp Ldr.
Having survived an epic first day
bollocking from HQ Sqn Ldr, Zoë began Tp leading at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and after a successful range package saw work be cancelled and replaced instead with the long, glorious summer of national lockdown at home. During this time Zoë endeavoured to enter- tain and interest her Troop while reminding them that, despite appearances, they were all still employed by Her Majesty. This dreamy time was interspersed with a little ceremonial duty at The Royal Hospital Chelsea... but it could never have lasted, and in the November of 2020 she deployed to Liverpool with D and B
Sqns to fight the great war on the virus.
Zoë decided that she did not fancy the rigorous diet of 0400 rev- eilles and the repeated invasions of Liverpudlian nostrils and instead chose to spend most of the period locked up in a COVID isolation room with no access to fresh food or WiFi. After a medi- tative solitude worthy of a Buddhist nun Zoë eventually emerged to take command of the testing centre for the remaining few weeks of the adventure.
As a Tank Commander, Zoë’s professional highlight was a stint as a member of D Sqn’s Task Force Hannibal (OPFOR) contingent for Ex CRIMSON THUNDER and IRON STORM. During this time Zoë conducted the full range of military activity required of a modern Cavalry Officer, including high-intensity tank fighting at the Berril Valley (D Sqn 1-0 KRH BG), a nighttime raid to capture and persecute Capt Nichol (A Sqn 2ic), shooting a propa- ganda film in CO KRH’s office, and dining in enemy uniform for a meal of champagne and takeaway pizzas served on silver platters.
Zoë has always been a stalwart of the Mess, with her evenings in there always beginning with Capt Cavendish asking her if she was wearing a new dress. Her dry humour and excellent aptitude for Mess games requiring dexterity and skill have always made her fellow officers laugh. The Mess is a less witty and welcoming place for her absence.
Zoë leaves a hole in the KRH as a hugely popular officer – and now her instagrammable travels to California, Portugal, Australia and wherever else the white sand beaches and sunshine may be have been the envy of all. She is enrolled onto a training scheme for pilots, and we wish her many happy landings and look for- ward to flying with Captain Thompson in the future!
GS
Captain Tom Maddison
Captain Tom arrived at Regimental Duty one balmy summer’s morning, in 2019. This period was famously recorded in the local military annals as the Summer of ROG. This was a time when Covid-19 was still something you avoided on the local takea- way menu and SNvEs went straight to your junk mail, without consequence. 2 Lt Maddison joined the mighty B Sqn and soon set about befriending all those that crossed his path. He became somewhat of a minor celebrity, offering out advice, spare VIRTUS and the latest SITREP on his turbulent relationship to anyone that had a spare five minutes or a subordinate rank slide. Fire side chats with Mr Maddison became an integral aspect of Sqn life and were pencilled into the FOE along with ‘areas’ and ‘weapon cleaning’ on a Friday.
The first 10 months of his career saw young Madders slide seam- lessly between SET tasks on the Wessex plain, range packages in CMR and a battlefield study to Israel – valiantly described to civilian audiences in SW London pubs as ‘a quick tour of the Sandpit.’ His insatiable lust for operations saw him deploy on OP CABRIT 5 as a DELTA C/S for 17 minutes with the KRH BG. The Art of War and BAMs were quickly learnt, and Tom soon found himself back in the UK forging the next generation of junior leaders. PNCO cadres famously lack uniformity, and Lt Tom certainly wasn’t interested in playing by the rules. In fact, he famously tossed the rule book, along with his TAM and MTP outer layers, out the window of his LR as he became a bizarre cross between Colonel Kurtz and Ant Middleton. This culmi- nated in a total re-writing of the delivery of orders, removing eve- rything of substance, retaining only ‘moon state’ and inserting ‘MURDER, DEATH, KILL’ at the start of every sentence. It’s rumoured that Mr Brown suffered a minor stroke as he witnessed the total iconoclasm of British dismounted doctrine unfold across the space of five days.
Like all well rounded cavalry officers, Tom’s passions went beyond SOC 5 and the Battle Box. His love of skiing and field sports were a breath of fresh air in the Mess, and he swiftly took a leading role in organising clay days for the POs and Regimental ski trips. His stamina was the stuff of legends. Three unbroken weeks of steins and singing ‘Come on Eileen’ with 17-year-olds at 3 am should have broken him. But not Captain Tom, he was of rugby club ilk and made of sterner stuff. ‘Apres’ is after all ‘a state of mind’ and ‘most need not apply.’ Whether these sage words meant anything to the young female Dutch students, as he suavely swirled his double vodka red bull and stared off into the distance, we shall never know.
Tom completed Troop Leading and Hinge after serving with the Senior Squadron on Ex IRON STORM 2. It was around this time that he decided to draw stumps on military life and seek his for- tune in the ruthless world of finance. His dedication to B Sqn will be his greatest legacy (along with some very questionable holes in the skiing budget) and his selfless commitment to his soldiers will forever be a model to junior officers. An ethos, which quite rightly named him ‘Best Officer’ in the Regimental climate assessment. We wish Tom all the best with his future endeavours and look forward to hearing tales of his Canary Warf conquests over a cold glass of Argento in the years to come.
AN
The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 107