Page 147 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 145
Major Sir Nigel Broomfield KCMG
Nigel Broomfield joined the 17/21L in Paderborn in 1959. He came straight from Trinity College, Cam- bridge with a formidable sporting reputation behind him. He had ex- celled at all games, but most particu- larly at squash. He was British schoolboy champion, winning the Drysdale Cup, three years in succes- sion. Then in 1958 at Cambridge, aged twenty, he became British Am- ateur Champion, a feat he repeated the next year. With typical modesty
he never mentioned these triumphs.
He was a Troop Leader in Germany and in Hong Kong. He was an enormously professional officer, much admired by his troop both for his prowess on any games field and for the care and trouble he took over their welfare and that of their families. Militarily Hong Kong was not really a suitable posting for an ar- moured regiment. The training areas and the ranges were wholly inadequate and there were severe restrictions on exercising else- where: there were no 443 rights in Hong Kong!
As a result, a great deal of sport was played and this suited Nigel well. All regimental teams benefited from his enthusiasm and coaching, none more so than the squash team of Broomfield, Strang-Steel and ffrench-Blake, which won the BAOR Champi- onship on our return to Germany.
Nigel was not perhaps a typical young officer: while in Hong Kong, while others settled down after dinner to whisky and soda, bridge or poker, he would slip quietly away to his room to teach himself Russian. So successful was he at this that in 1962 he was accepted by the Army Language School for an eighteen months course in the language. He returned to the regiment in 1964, in Sennelager, by this time married to Valerie, who fitted happily into regimental life and who supported him in every- thing he did. From there he went off for two years on attach- ment to Brixmis, based in Berlin. This was really legalised spy- ing on the Soviet forces in East Germany, travelling the country, reporting on Soviet equipment, tactics, capabilities and deploy- ment. There was also a diplomatic edge to all this, keeping open channels of communication with senior soviet personnel at the height of the Cold War. Nigel revelled in it and a chance remark by Christopher Mallaby, ex 9L, then on the British Military Government, that Nigel should consider transferring to the Dip- lomatic Service planted a seed that later took root.
Back with the regiment again he commanded a squadron with notable efficiency, on one major exercise causing chaos to both the enemy and to the directing staff, by taking his entire squad- ron through an allegedly impenetrable wood to take the opposi- tion in the rear. He passed the Staff College exam effortlessly and then decided to leave the army. The seed had taken root and off he went to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Here he filled a succession of important roles with increasing distinc- tion. He served in Moscow and Berlin, was Deputy High Com- missioner in Delhi, a posting he particularly enjoyed, was Am- bassador to East Germany in 1988 and was there when the wall came down and Germany was once more unified. From there he became Deputy Under Secretary of State (Defence) followed by his final role as Ambassador to Germany for five years from 1993 to 1997, when he retired.
In retirement he became Director of the Ditchley Foundation and gathered many directorships, including TI Group, Smiths Group and Leonard Cheshire Disability. He and Valerie finally retired to Jersey.
Nigel Broomfield has left behind him a host of friends and ad- mirers. Whatever he did he did well. His powers of concentra- tion were formidable, his sense of duty second to none and his mastery of detail was total. He never raised his voice, except in laughter which was always lurking somewhere near the surface, and under stress he became quiet, calm and patient. The only time I ever saw him remotely ruffled was when the brakes on his car failed on a mountain road in the New Territories. Nigel leapt out just before it crashed through the barrier and careered down the mountain side.
On the games field he was superb, endlessly patient in coach- ing those less gifted than himself. Playing squash against him was farcical: he never seemed to move, hitting the ball hard and tight along the walls, producing lobs that died on the back wall and drop shots that faded to nothing on the tin. Meanwhile his opponent would be tearing round the court desperately trying to score just one point. He was equally formidable on the tennis court, although Richard Swinburn did manage to take a set off him on one occasion. He talked of nothing else for weeks. One area where Nigel did not shine was horses. At early morning rid- ing school, he spent most of his time dismounted and all efforts to harness his great ability with a ball to polo were frustrated. On one occasion only he was persuaded to get on a broad, safe, slow pony nicknamed the Sofa. A ball was rolled towards them: Nigel hit it hard and straight. It vanished out of sight, but neither Ni- gel nor the Sofa could be persuaded into further action.
Above all, he was a superb role model and mentor of young of- ficers. He expected and got the very highest standards, but was understanding and kind and generous with praise. One of his troop leaders wrote that nobody could have had a better person on whom to model himself and that his example had stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Nigel died of cancer late last year. Our sympathies go to Valerie
and to his family.
Captain P Jones-Davies
PJAM
Peter was born in Jubblepore, Brit- ish India in 3rd December 1943 and at the age of three his mother took him on a 15hour train journey to Bombay, then a four-week passage to the UK by boat. There – at best – he tolerated schooldays but was intro- duced to two of his passions, the military and the horse. With the horse came the opium like passion for hunting and he was advised to join the cavalry which he did after Sandhurst. He became a 17th lancer
(as his grandfather had been) and his seven years of service was an extremely happy time, resulting in a lifelong love of all things Regimental.
In 1969 he married Gentian Mounsey-Heysham whom he met when sent to Hadrian’s Camp in Cumberland, although he was inconsolable at having to sell Frongay Llewellyn, his adored welsh cob, for the honeymoon in Corfu. They had three sons, Oliver, Robert, and Alexander (an Investment Manager, a Rural property advisor, and a Consultant).
They moved to Northumberland and in 1980 started a cater- ing company called Romfords after the Surtees’ character, Mr Facey Romford who managed to run a pack of hounds at a profit, clearly a hero. This went from strength to strength eventually catering at four northern racecourses as well as for many private and corporate functions. The fact that Peter was compared spas- modically with Basil Fawlty didn’t seem to put clients off.