9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2004 - Page 0090
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
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| Year | 2004 |
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88 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) very successfully. So successful in fact, that Joe decided to leave the teaching profession and partner Norma in running the shop for many years until their retirement in 1983. Although retired, Joe still had the regiment at heart, serving on the Old Comrades Committee for many years. Finally, in the words of his grandson, despite his undoubted attributes as a patriot, workman, sportsman and wit, his finest quality surpasses those, and all others: that ofa family man - his family were quite simply his world. We extend our sympathy to Norma his wife, and all the family at such a sad loss. SPH Major Sir David Steel DSO MC TD David Steel was a much-respect- ed Chairman of BP, and a fine and highly decorated soldier who served in every action of the 1939-45 war in which the 9th Lancers took part. He was born in 1916 during a Zeppelin raid, and was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford. An exceptional sportsman he scored a century in each innings for Rugby against Marlborough at Lords in 1933, a unique achievement. He read Jurisprudence at Oxford before becoming an articled clerk in London, where he also joined the Inns of Court Regiment. On the outbreak of war he was commissioned into the 9th Queens Royal Lancers. With the 9th he was to see fierce fighting in the Battle of France, with the 1st Armoured Division which was sent to France after the Blitzkrieg opened on May 10th 1940. Together with the 10th Hussars as part of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, they advanced towards the Somme where the Germans had already established bridgeheads. The battle for the Somme crossings was a confused affair , with the Germans seemingly at every crossing point. Steel’s brother was killed on May 24th in the chaotic fighting. In early June, with the rest of the BEF having been evacuated through Dunkirk, the 9th fell back to try and regroup on the Seine. The aim was to stem the enemy advance on Rouen. Steel had positioned his troop, by now down to his A13 Cruiser and a light tank, to guard a crossroads. The squadron leader Major Prior- Palmer was reconnoitering on his motorcycle when following a burst ofmachine gun fire, he was seen moving at pace, followed first by three French lorries and then a man on a white horse galloping as though the devil was after him. Then the cause of the furore appeared: three “snarlers” as the enemy heavy tanks had been christened. Steel opened fire with his 2-pounder at a range of 1200 yards. His second shot hit the leading tank, which toppled over into a ditch. As more German tanks appeared, the fifth shot caused a sudden flash on the second tank, which start- ed to burn. Now under fire Steel gradually withdrew while engaging the enemy all the while. The light tank commanded by SSM Blandford was also in action. Suddenly the cruiser leapt in the air and stopped dead in its tracks, on taking a direct hit. The driver was concussed and had to be replaced by the gunner under fire and somehow the engine restarted and the tank crawled over a ridge. Back in action with the ex-driver having received somewhat basic instruction on loading, they engaged two further tanks, hitting one of them. Rejoining the squadron across the Seine the troop had success- fully held off superior enemy armour, and the cruiser had fired 42 rounds. Steel was subsequently awarded the DS0 as a second lieutenant. Having been evacuated through Brest, the 9th Lancers was re- equipped in England prior to being sent to Egypt. Steel went on serve throughout the North African campaign where though he had six tanks destroyed under him he was never wounded. He was to be awarded the MC in northern Italy and by the end of the war had also been mentioned three times in dispatches. In the words of the regimental history Major Steel was an offi- cer “without whom the Regiment had never once gone into action throughout the war “. After the war he worked for two years as a solicitor prior to join- ing the legal department of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1950, the company that was to become BP in 1955. He was made President of BP America in 1959 and Managing Director of the Kuwait Oil Company from 1962 to 1965, when he joined the Board of BP. He became Chairman in 1975. His coolness under fire was to be replicated by his calmness in difficult negotiations with the successive problems of operating in Nigeria, Iran with the fall of the Shah, and the OPEC embargo in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war. He was knighted in 1977. Retiring from BP in 1981 he became Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, taking it public in 1986. He was a Director ofthe Bank of England 1978 785, Kleinwort Benson 1985-92, President of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry 1982-85 and a Trustee of the Economist 1979-95. Married in 1956, his wife Ann died in 1997, and he is survived by a son and two daughters. CJN Stephenson Christopher entered Sandhurst in 1957 and was commissioned into the 12th Lancers in 1959. He joined the regiment in Cyprus the following year where he served in A Squadron in Nicosia, before they returned to Tidworth to prepare for the amalgamation in 1960. The 9th/12th Royal Lancers moved to Ulster and Lisanelly Camp in Omagh where Christopher was 1 Troop Leader in B Squadron. He man- aged to escape to play polo in the Argentine, working his passage on a cattle boat. He returned in more colourful style on an Italian cruise liner. In late 1962 the regiment was deployed to Arabia where RHQ and two squadrons were based in Aden, with the third squadron in Sharjah. During this period the Republican revolt broke out in the Yemen and the tour became operational. As troop leader Christopher saw his share of operations but his mind was already turning to the future. Believing that officers were well paid when serving abroad, Christopher’s father would cut off his allowance whenever he was stationed overseas. However, Christopher reckoned that he was far better off in England with his father’s allowance! So finding himselfwith the Regiment in Aden, he determined how to achieve the longest possible postings in England, and con- cluded that a three year degree course at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham was ideal; but he needed A levels. By correspondence from Aden, he acquired them and arrived at Shrivenham in 1965. With his allowance restored, he could afford to have two horses in training with Jack Barrett, |
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