Colonel Terence Holloway (1928-2021) suffered a stroke on February 5th having been bed bound for the last couple of years. He had been living with dementia for some time, an affliction he bore with his customary cheerfulness and good humour.

Educated at Henry Mellish School (Nottingham), where he became Head Boy and at RMA Sandhurst, he spoke with great pleasure of his time there, where he proved to be an excellent linguist and won the Russian Prize. He would occasionally regale his family with verses of Russian poetry and always retained his love of language, in later years learning Serbo-Croat for a diplomatic posting in Belgrade.

Terry was commissioned into The Royal Leicestershire Regiment in July 1949, and posted to 1st Battalion in Hong Kong. He was in the Battalion in the Korean War, during which he was OC 8 Platoon C Company and then Intelligence Officer. After serving in Korea his first overseas posting with his new wife Bronwen, whom he married in 1954, was to Khartoum in the Sudan, after which the Battalion was posted to Cyprus where two of his children were born.

After Staff College in 1960 he was Brigade Major of HQ 160 (SW) Inf Bde (TA), then had a stint as a Training Officer in Cardiff, before he re-joined the battalion in Watchet to command A Company. A year’s unaccompanied tour in Hong Kong and Borneo followed, where he was Mentioned in Dispatches. He then had a six month tour in Aden as Battalion 2IC, wearing the then new Royal Anglian cap badge, before moving with the battalion to Malta. His family recall this as a wonderful posting for his four children, one which they remember with great affection. Remarkably, during his career at regimental duty in the 1st Battalion Terry served as a Platoon Commander, Company 2IC, IO, Signals Officer, Assistant Adjutant, Adjutant, Company Commander, Bn 2IC and CO. He is the only officer to have served in all four of the operational tours of The Tigers’ Regular Battalion (1st R Leicesters/4th R Anglian) in the years following the Second World War.

In 1968 he became the last Commanding Officer of the Regular battalion of The Tigers, 4th R Anglian, in Gillingham. He spent an enjoyable nine months on the unaccompanied tour of Bahrain, where he was occasionally able to indulge his passion for horse riding in the desert. One of his son’s proudest memories of this time is of watching his father lead the Freedom parade through the City of Leicester and which made a lasting impression on his twelve year old mind.

Among subsequent staff roles he was AMS in MS5 MOD, GSO1 (DS) National Defence College and Defence Attaché Belgrade from 1975-78. Subsequently he was Chief Org & Trg HQ LANDSOUTHEAST (Turkey) and his last role before retirement was as Defence Adviser Caribbean from 1980-83. These were postings which he and Bronwen thoroughly enjoyed.

He then served as RO2 (Int & Sy) HQ North West District in Preston until 1993. He and Bronwen bought a smallholding and spent a happy ten years surrounded by an improbable collection of almost human sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks, who would occasionally wander in and out of the house. They bought a 1947 Ferguson TE20 tractor, which the family still own, and built pig sties, sheds and a productive vegetable and fruit garden. Terry was completely in his element.

It seemed that Terry and Bronwen were unable to give up the habit of a lifetime, having moved house thirty two times and they moved to Hook Norton and finally to Henfield in West Sussex, to be nearer to children and grandchildren.

He is survived by Bronwen and their children Elizabeth, Matthew and Catherine, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Terence and Bronwen’s third-born child Rosemary died of cancer in 1973, a time of great sadness for the family. He was a devoted family man, full of fun and cheerfulness and immensely proud of his association with the Tigers. Emphasising the family nature of the Regiment, he was the son-in-law of Lt Col T B Jones, brother-in-law of Lt A T B Jones, and a cousin-in-law of Colonel R G Wilkes CBE TD DL and Lt Col J R A Wilkes, all of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.