Major ‘Monty’ Cairns was born in Leicester in 1927 and was educated at King’s School, Canterbury. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into The Royal Leicestershire Regiment in October 1948, and joined the 1st Battalion in Quorn before it moved to Hong Kong. There he led A Company’s all-conquering cross-country team, and he was picked as a reserve for the Army team. He was also a powerful sprinter and ran the first leg in the Battalion’s unbeaten medley relay team.

In Korea, he commanded the Assault Pioneer Platoon, working absolutely flat out, by day and by night, helping the rifle companies with improving their positions, laying wire defences and minefields, and checking those regularly. In addition, his platoon was regrouped repeatedly to act as reinforcements to the various casualty-inflicted rifle platoons. Korea was undoubtedly an extreme baptism of fire for young men and was an experience never to be forgotten.

When the Battalion moved to Iserlohn, he was the Assistant Adjutant, but was also chosen to carry the Queen’s Colour on the Coronation parade in London. His career then followed a fairly normal pattern of Regimental duty at the Depot, Sudan, Cyprus (where he was MTO and later GSO3 at HQ 51 Brigade at Famagusta), Plymouth, and Muenster.

He was selected for the 27-month Technical Staff course at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham to study science, engineering, maths and weapon design. He found this demanding work, but most rewarding. He also continued his sporting career, running the Athletics for the College. After Shrivenham, he had two technical staff appointments, which he much enjoyed.

He then decided that the time had come to provide more stability for his family, so he retired after 20 years’ Army service, and joined the Civil Service as a Principal in the Department of Transport. He became involved in a very active road programme and later became responsible for setting up and running public consultations. These are now routine but at that time they were new territory.

He was later transferred to the new Department of the Environment and was involved in regional planning, especially in the South East. He maintained close contact with local authorities and Housing Associations, with responsibilities including housing programme funding and the introduction of new Government initiatives. This work must have required all his natural diplomatic skills.

He ended his distinguished Civil Service career as an Assistant Secretary (a very high rank), but he was required to retire at 60. He was then offered a part-time job with the Royal Fine Arts Commission, an advisory body commenting on proposals affecting major buildings and structures in England and Wales. The Commission included prominent architects and artists. His responsibilities included writing the Commission’s Annual Report and arranging visits to architectural sites. He did this for ten years and was fascinated to see developments at an early stage and he felt that many of them were changed for the better.

For the last twenty years or so he also organised The Royal Leicestershire Regiment’s annual Officers’ Lunch in London. All his fellow officers are extremely grateful to him for undertaking this charming little service, and keeping this very joyous occasion running so long and so smoothly. During his retirement he also continued his love of watercolour painting, and many of his friends looked forward to receiving one of his delightful Christmas cards.

He loved his Regiment and, with his strong sense of duty, he was proud to have been a Tiger. He was an intelligent, wiry, tough and determined officer, who liked things to be well ordered and he liked everyone around him to know what was going on. He was a wise leader, always most conscientious, thoughtful and caring, charming, and infinitely polite and courteous. All ranks appreciated his warm friendship, and remember him with affection and enormous respect. The horridly tough experiences he had as a young officer in Korea provided the foundations for his very successful military and civilian careers.

He enjoyed 62 years of very happy marriage to Kaye, the daughter of a Leicester doctor, and they had a daughter and two sons.

FAHS