Page 121 - QDG Year of 2022 CREST

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 119
Obituaries
Lieutenant Colonel A G Gordon-Hall
Toby Gordon-Hall died on Tuesday 21st June 2022 aged 90. On leaving Sherborne he joined the 12th Royal Lancers in 1950 as a National Serviceman, during training he decided to become a regular and went to Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the King’s Dragoon Guards in 1952. The Regiment were then stationed in Neumun- ster, North Germany.
From the start Toby was well regarded and played his full part in Regimental activities. Besides his four years as troop leader, he rode horses, played hockey, tennis and athletics for Regimental teams. His troop sergeant assessed him as “the fairest and fastest of them all”!
On the Regiment’s move to Malaya in 1956, Toby was 2 i/c C Squadron and then MTO. After amalgamation in 1959 he was 2 i/c A Squadron and then PRI before posting to Bovington as a D & M Instructor.
Over the next 25 years he served several stints of Regimental Duty: 2i/c C Squadron, HQ Squadron Leader and 2 tours as Second-in-Command in Catterick and BAOR, including time in Northern Ireland during the
troubles. He also carried out staff jobs in England and Singapore.
On leaving the Regiment he took on several senior instructing and adminis- trative jobs at Bovington and Lulworth. His final job was Camp Commandant at Shrivenham in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
On retiring in 1983 he continued at Bovington as a Retired Officer in adminis- trative jobs. He also ran the centres rough shoot. He finally retired in 1996 to enjoy a very active life. Living in Askerswell in Dorset he was very involved in village and church affairs. His sporting interests
continued with golf, rough shooting and walking in the Lake District. He continued to be closely in touch with his Regimental contemporaries.
His wife Pat, died in 2018 and his increasing ailments made his life more difficult. A spell in a care home didn’t suit him and he was happy to be back home in Pound- bury. We pass on our heartfelt sympathy to Amanda and Jeremy and their families.
Major Oliver Larminie, Ollie, left us early.
But... as Abraham Lincoln said: ‘...it is not
the number of years by which a man’s life
is measured but the life in those years...’
and in that context, Ollie’s was a long
life, lived to the maximum. Ollie followed
his father, John , into the QDG in 1971 but
spent the following three years completing
what started as an engineering degree, but
became a law degree at Cambridge, where,
as well as working hard, he maximised the
financial benefits of a university cadetship
enabling him to enjoy racing, play polo,
become Master of the Trinity Foot Beagles
and relish a wide and enduring social life.
He made many close friends, who remained so all his life. One of Ollie’s enduring characteristics was his ability to make friends from all generations and keep them,
always remembering small details, staying utterly loyal and ever ready to give help and support. After finishing his degree at Cambridge, he returned to the Regiment as a young officer when the QDG were based in Hohne, Germany. During this period of the ‘Cold War’ he became a highly effec- tive and professional Troop Leader. Even while fulfilling his professional duties with considerable skill, he still savoured the extra-curricular activities that the peculiar seasonal rhythms of life of those days in an armoured regiment brought, as we waited for the Russian Hordes to come storming over the border. He continued to play polo
and, as well as for the Regiment itself, he played for an Army team that toured Kenya. During the Regiment’s tour in Hohne, Ollie did a stint as a staff officer at Brecon
Major ORC Larminie
R.W.W./J.A.V de C