Maj Richard O’Brien joined the 2/5th Leicestershire Battalion, part of 46 Infantry Division, in late September 1944, at the height of the prolonged battle of the Gothic Line in northern Italy, the last line of defence of the German army in Italy. The 2/5th Battalion had lost four of its company commanders, and Richard was one of four officers from the 14th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters who were sent to replace them, together with replacements of other ranks from the Sherwood Foresters. Their own battalion had been broken up, along with the whole of 1st Armoured Division, following a failed attempt by that division, with heavy losses, to break through the Gothic Line.

The Sherwood Forester replacements were of a very high quality. Richard arrived with a MC and Bar, which had been awarded for bravery at El Alamein and, later, at Anzio. Richard served with the 2/5th Battalion, in command of C Company, from the end of September 1944 to mid April 1945, a period of seven months.

In November 1944 he was awarded the DSO for conspicuous gallantry in leading C Company in a successful attack against a German mountain strongpoint in the approaches to the Po Valley. By mid November 1944 slow progress in the mountains had been replaced by slow progress in the flat, wet plain of the Po Valley, with its many crisscrossing water courses. Suddenly, on 28 November, the Battalion was withdrawn from the line, transported to Bari, and flown to Athens. For the next five months the Battalion was engaged in fighting the Communists in Greece, who were trying to take over the country by force. During this fighting, Richard was wounded by a sniper but he soon discharged himself from hospital and returned to command C Company. In April 1945 the Battalion was back in Italy. The war in Europe was nearly over. Richard was summoned to join the staff of Field Marshal Montgomery in Germany and he remained there until he was demobilised.

Richard was not only an exceptionally fine looking man, but he was a natural leader of exceptional quality. He had great charm but also great determination to serve the interests of people in his care. After the war he built a reputation as a superb negotiator in industry, leading to a distinguished career in the field of human resources in both private and government organisations, for which he was knighted in 1980. Among other appointments, he chaired the Manpower Services Commission for six years, the Crown Appointments Commission and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas.

He died on 11 December 2009 at the age of 89, leaving his wife Elizabeth, two sons and three daughters.