Richard was educated at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire and always intended to join the Army.

After Sandhurst in 1952, he was commissioned into his local Regiment, The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment. Richard often commented that it was the finest Regiment in the Army.

There are many tales of Richard’s early service. Apparently on the long hot route to the Suez Canal Zone to join the 1st Battalion, Richard diverted himself to the Officers’ Club in Port Said for a cool leisurely swim – the Brigade Major who was kept waiting for Richard, was more than a bit miffed, but his fellow subalterns were delighted.

His brother recorded that in 1957, he was posted for his last 6 months of National Service to join Richard in Goslar on the border of West and East Germany and there he learned more about Richard and his antics. Seeing Richard in recent years all dignified and gentlemanly seemed a long way from a wild night, saddling a horse, riding into the mess and stabbing with a lance at a painting of a general.

Richard had been on an equitation course, and as horses were available, Richard was keen to teach his brother officers to ride. He became a really excellent horseman. At the same time, he was training hard, and one evening he had gone off walking over the Hartz Mountains with a pack full of scrap iron. A number of junior officers were riding horses round a hunter trial course they had built.

The Colonel and other more senior officers were having great difficulty with getting a particularly troublesome horse round the course, when Richard appeared in the distance with his pack of iron looking totally shattered after having marched 20 odd miles over mountainous terrain. “Ah” said the colonel, who never really approved of Richard, “You are good with horses, Richard, get her to go round this course would you”. Red in the face and extremely grubby Richard ditched his pack, mounted the horse and calmly took her round without any faults – twice.

Then he joined the King’s African Rifles in Kenya, which he loved. He was captivated by Kenya. There are photographs of Richard standing proudly with his men at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. His idea of a holiday was to go off into the desert with a camel and a team of soldiers and disappear for weeks. He had a profound respect for the soldiers for whom he was responsible. This was true whether they were British National service or African volunteers.

After a short while back with 3 E Anglian, Richard was off again, this time to join the Trucial Oman Scouts, which he also loved.
Rejoining the Regiment, this time 2 R ANGLIAN in Felixstowe, gave Richard other opportunites, in 1967 he met and married Jenny, and they made their home in Suffolk.

After leaving the Army in 1969, Richard had a full and varied civilian career in large Companies, mainly serving overseas including: Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Cyprus.

On retiring to Suffolk, Richard increasingly enjoyed time with his children Jocelyn and Harriet and with his grandchildren. He served on the local Town Council and was an enthusiastic and committed Trustee of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment Museum. He wrote their short history, published in 1999. The history includes one of Richard’s many paintings, and military history became one of his favourite subjects for his paintings.

Richard lived by a strict code of honour, truth, loyalty and courtesy – all old fashioned words but words that describe the man.