Page 126 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2017

124 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
endon, Governors General of South Africa, where Bill spent his early years.
He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where his Law studies were interrupted by war. After winning the Belt of Honour at Sandhurst he was posted to Algiers to join the 9th Lancers. In June 1944 his regiment was posted to Italy, where he was involved in fierce action at the Battle of Coriano Ridge.
In October he was hit by mortar fire and ended up having three fingers amputated in a Rimini hospital, where he shared a room with Winston Churchill’s son Randolph and Evelyn Waugh: “They never stopped talking (seldom to me) and con- stantly drank whisky day and night. I was glad to move on.”
During the war, Birch Reynardson was ‘walking out’ with Lorna Bailie (who later married Sir Gordon Palmer of Huntley and Palmers). For five years, between 1943 and 1948, Lorna wrote to her boyfriend almost every week (all her letters to him at the Front were burnt in Birch Reynardson’s tank) and she received 242 letters in return. These formed the basis of a book Birch Reynardson wrote in 2008 called Letters to Lorna which pro- vided a fascinating insight into the destructiveness of war.
After returning to Oxford to finish his degree, he was called to the Bar in 1952, practising briefly before joining the Chamber of Shipping and then Thomas Miller in 1960. He was senior part- ner from 1981 to 1988. In 1950, he married Nik Humphries, the daughter of General Sir Thomas Humphreys, with whom he had three children, moving into Adwell in 1959. He was appointed High Sherriff of Oxfordshire in 1974.
Birch Reynardson was involved in many aspects of life in Ox- fordshire and in 1997, when the government threatened to close down the local hospital in Watlington, he and a group of friends formed a trust which bought the hospital from the NHS and rebuilt it to modern standards. It is now a thriving care home. He retired from Thomas Miller in 1992 and was appointed CBE. His wife, who supported him devotedly, died in 1997. William Birch Reynardson, born 7th December, 1923, died 4th July, 2017.
Daily Telegraph (part)
Sergeant D Kerr
Sergeant David William Kerr for- mer 9/12L sadly passed away on 25th July 2017 aged 68. Born in Ashbourne Derbyshire, known to some in the Regiment as ‘Basil’ but more commonly ‘Dave’ he joined the Army on 17th March 1966. Af- ter his basic training at Catterick he was posted to the Regiment in Os- nabruck. He served in Catterick as part of the training Regiment and then onto Detmold where he spent
his early Regimental life in B Squadron.
In 1976 Dave went with the Regiment to Northern Ireland where he served most of his time in the intelligence cell. When the Regiment went back to England Dave stayed in Northern Ire- land, firstly, attached to the then 13/18H and later transferring to the Ulster Defence Regiment. Dave was a very keen sportsman who represented the Regiment at many sports, his favourites be- ing football and cricket. He will be sadly missed by his family, friends and comrades he had from being in the Regiment.
PK
Sir Christopher Royden Bt
Christopher, always known as “Pud”, served in the 16th/5th Lancers for his two years of National Service. He made sev- eral lifelong friends during that time and subsequently devoted many years to the Regiment’s affairs as a Trustee and Treasurer of its funds.
Born in 1937, Christopher spent his early years in Chile before the family came back to England in time for him to be educated at Horris Hill and Winchester. His two years with 16/5L, 1956- 57, were divided between Germany and Catterick. Germany was not Pud’s favourite, not least because the confines of a tank did not suit a man of his stature. He found Catterick far more con- genial as it allowed him both to enjoy his soldiering and to pur- sue the sports he loved, shooting, fishing and hunting, though a strong heavyweight hunter was an essential, even in his younger days.
Christopher loved his food and it was in the Officers’ Mess that his considerable appetite earned him the nickname, Pud, a han- dle that stuck with him for the rest of his life.
The Catterick locals were very hospitable so there was much socialising to be done and Pud, being very good company, was a popular guest in many houses. There must have been some- thing in the Yorkshire air as the Regimental Magazine records the weddings of no less than seven officers in 1957. Pud must also have caught the bug; he met Diana Goodhart at that time, a meeting that led to marriage four years later and a partnership lasting almost sixty years.
National Service was followed by Christ Church, Oxford, mar- riage, and a return to Chile and Peru with a branch of the fam- ily firm. On returning to England he joined the stock broker, Spencer Thornton. This led to many years of service as Treas- urer of 16/5L’s Regimental Funds, Pud holding office through the tenure of three Colonels of the Regiment. Those were the days of City lunches and, thanks to Spencer Thornton’s generos- ity, the Trustee’s meetings were both financially productive and thoroughly enjoyable. His service to the Regiment finally came to an end in 1993 on its amalgamation with 17/21L. No doubt he would have continued in post for much longer had amalgama- tion not happened.
Christopher’s death on 11th September 2017 means that we have lost a devoted servant of the Regiment and a very good friend of
his many comrades in it.
AWD
Captain LWF Grant
Captain Laurence Grant tragically died at the age of 30 on 17th October 2017, whilst on holiday in Laos.
Laurence commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst into The Queen’s Royal Lancers in April 2011. During his time with the QRL, he proved himself to be a capable and popular Troop Leader both at home and on operations. The overriding memories of Laurence,
by the people who served alongside him, are that of a young of- ficer, cigarette in hand, who was extremely competent, huge fun and respected by everyone, regardless of rank. This lasting im- age was, however, in stark contrast to his first day at Regimental Duty when, as a fresh-faced second lieutenant, he was given a good gripping by a Staff Sergeant who had mistakenly assumed