
Obituary for Captain GA Havilland MC
Geoffrey Havilland won a Military Cross in Korea and later had a very successful career in the shipping industry.
In October 1951, he was serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Leicestershire Regiment (1 R LEICESTERS). On 13 October, the Battalion disembarked at Pusan, Korea. A few days later, as part of 29 British Infantry Brigade, 1 Commonwealth Division, the Battalion relieved 1st Battalion The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and took up their position about five miles behind the front line.
On the afternoon of 4 November, the Communists mounted a large-scale attack against 1st Battalion The King’s Own Scottish Borderers (1 KOSB) which was holding a ridge-line running west of a dominating feature at Maryang-San and looking over the Imjin River. A half-Battalion group from 1 R LEICESTERS was ordered to move to support them and arrived in the Brigade area at midnight.
At first light the following morning, 1 KOSB had been forced back from the ridge and the CO of 1 R LEICESTERS was ordered to recapture it. Havilland commanded a leading platoon in the attack on a hill feature called “United”. During the approach march, he and his men came under heavy and accurate shell fire.
In the actual assault, he positioned himself with the leading section and in the words of the citation, his men “wrought havoc among the enemy immediately opposed to them and killed 18.” Despite being severely wounded in the leg, he led his platoon on to the objective and, personally, “accounted for six of the enemy.”
When his platoon, greatly outnumbered, was forced to withdraw, Havilland was the last to leave the hill and covered his men all the way down. He delayed reporting his own wounds until all his comrades had been attended to. “It was then seen that his injuries made immediate evacuation essential.” His courage and selflessness were recognized by the award of an Immediate MC. The Royal Leicestershire Regiment was granted the action at Maryang-San as a Battle Honour.
Geoffrey Arthur Havilland was born at a hill station at Kasauli, India, on 10 May 1930. His father, later Lieutenant-Colonel, Horace “Happy” Havilland, was serving in India with 1 LEICESTERS.
Young Geoffrey was educated at Trent College, Nottingham. While he was there, he showed an early proficiency in weapons by climbing on to the roof during the wartime blackout to snipe at any lights that were showing. On one occasion, he fell through a skylight and landed in the middle of the masters’ table where they were having supper.
He went on to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where his father was Quartermaster at the time. He became an Under Officer, was on one of the Academy’s first parachute courses and played rugby for the first XV. In 1950, he was commissioned into The Royal Leicestershire Regiment. During a large exercise on Bodmin Moor, in which the objective was to “capture” Jamaica Inn, he commandeered a fire engine and his platoon dressed up as crew. This initiative was not well received by the senior officers.
After he was wounded in Korea, his fiancée had the anguish of being informed that he had been reported “Missing, believed killed in action”. When he had recovered, he served on secondment to 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment as a company commander and then motor transport officer. This tour included a spell in Cyprus during the EOKA Emergency.
In the latter appointment, he had to demonstrate a parachute drop of a fully-laden jeep to a group of high ranking officers. The vehicle should have floated gently to earth immediately in front of the grandstand, but there had been an error in calculating the weight and it hit the ground with such force that it exploded. This posting included a year-long secondment to the US 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where, since he lacked the standard US military crewcut, he was known as “the officer with the long hair”.
In 1959, he was posted to 4/5th LEICESTERS (TA) as Adjutant. After two years in Hong Kong and Germany with 1st Battalion The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he retired from the Army in 1963.
In 1967, he joined John Swire and Sons Ltd, an old family-owned China coast trading company. Based in Hong Kong, he was the marine personnel manager of China Navigation, the shipping company, and he was held in great respect and affection by his staff. In 1983, he moved to London on being appointed shipping manager of John Swire and Sons.
After retiring, he lived at Wimbledon and then Oxford. He was an avid reader and, besides having a lifelong interest in photography, he collected Japanese woodcuts. Classical music was another passion. He had a great preoccupation with, and knowledge of, small arms weapons. He was an excellent competitive shot. His pistol exploits were legendary, but did not always impress his senior officers.
He was also an expert at DIY, and this included things electrical, computers, plumbing, carpentry, bricklaying and repairing cars. Long distance walking and sailing were other hobbies. He had an immense talent for life, and was a very generous host, making many more friends than he ever had enemies. For more than a decade, he served on the board of the Missions to Seamen (now Seafarers) and he was a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
It was therefore the ultimate in cruelty that he suffered a devastating stroke in November 2012, which took all this away from him. He bore it all with his customary cheerfulness and good humour, maintaining his spirit undimmed to the last. He died on 19 July 2018. He married, in 1952, Mary McDonnell; they were a devoted couple and the marriage lasted 65 years. She predeceased him and he is survived by their son and two daughters.
(Much of the script of this obituary has been provided by the Daily Telegraph, to whose Editor we are most grateful.)