9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2005 - Page 0079
Image details
| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2005 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 77 Council, and latterly a Trustee of the Pension Fund for the Rugby Football Union from 1998. He was also Chairman of the Oxford University Rugby Football Club from 1997. Married to Tessa, he had a son and a daughter. DNC Victor Rudd (World War One Veteran) The death in New Zealand of cente- narian, Victor (Bob) Rudd, 104, ends another direct link with World War One. Mr Rudd served in British Army during the war and he was the ' last remaining serviceman from that particular conflict in New Zealand. Born in East Dulwich, London, in April 1901, Mr Rudd served with the 9th Lancers, a cavalry regiment, dur- ing the later months of the war. Having put his age up, Trooper Rudd ~ was en-route from training at Curragh Camp in Kildare, Ireland, to the front when the armistice was announced on November 11, 1918. His regiment, nevertheless, carried on to France and Belgium where he served some 15 months as part of the occupational forces. This includ- ed a period in Germany itself, particularly in Cologne. He emi- grated to New Zealand in the early 1920s and settled in Greymouth in the South Island where he was found employ- ment for many years as a waterfront worker. For several years Mr Rudd also operated a boot repair shop with his son and in later life until retirement, was employed as a labourerby the Railways Department. Mr Rudd kept good health throughout his life and lived independently at home until a few days short of his 100th birthday when he moved into residential care. A noted draughts and chess player Mr Rudd was runner-up in the New Zealand national draughts championships on two occasions. He also enjoyed cards and was a keen indoor bowler. Pre-deceased by his wife and son, Mr Rudd passed away peace- fully at Greymouth’s retirement home Granger House on Sunday November 22. He is survived by a daughter, Valda Webb. Press Release David Wentworth-Stanley Esq Geoffrey David Wentworth-Stanley was born in 1924 in Karachi, India where his father was a merchant banker, and then educated at Eton. After OCTU he was commissioned into the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers, following in the footsteps of a Great Uncle who had died of wounds in the Boer War whilst a captain in the Ninth. He joined the regiment at Bari in Italy and served initially as l Troop Leader in A Squadron and then as 5 Troop Leader in B Squadron until 1947. He also went as part of the unarmed International Force to observe the Greek Elections in 1946. David Laurie was his Squadron Leader in B Squadron and he remained a lifelong friend. He was in the Regimental Ski Team from 1945 to 1946 and the CMF Army Team in 1946. On leaving the Army he went into the City, becoming a member of the Stock Exchange in 1948 and a Partner in Cazenoves from 1956 to 1988. He was High Sheriff ofHertfordshire in 1972 and President of the Stevenage Conservative Association from 1990 to 1997. Living at Great Munden he built up an extensive farming business. He married Bridget, eldest sister of Nigel Pease, also a Ninth Lancer, and they had four sons. DNC W01 Gordon Woodward Gordon Woodward was a junior NCO in 9th Lancers to 1940 serving in Northern France in the first year of the war. Early in the war, he transferred to 24th Lancers where before being demobilised at the end, he had attained the rank RSM. He survived the torpedoing of the troopship Lancastria with 6500 on board. He gave an account ‘We had got the Bay of Biscay, when the Italians came in with their aerial torpedoes, and the second one went down the Lancastria’s funnel’. At the time that the torpedo made contact Gordon was in the bowels of the ship having received a 10/- note from a comrade who was ill and needed something from the NAAFI. He never saw his friend again and later read his name on a war memorial. During many hours in the water he felt ‘something clamped on to my ankles and a voice said ‘Grab this. You are in greater need than me’. ‘He just left me clinging to this plank of wood’. He never saw that man again either but was able to pass on the plank of wood to someone else later. After the war, he joined the Southern Electricity Board, the suc- cessor of his pre-war employers and worked for them until he retired in 1983. He served as an Oxford City Councillor from 1960 to 1983 and was Lord Mayor of Oxford in 1980-81. He considered one of his greatest achievements to be his support for the twinning movement especially 7 as a result of his wartime experiences 7 the twinning of Oxford and Bonn. In the same context, he was also awarded the Gold Pin of Leiden, the Dutch City’s highest honour for a non-citizen. He was a Freeman of Oxford. It is evidence of the public esteem in which he was held that he was elected for so long as a Conservative Councillor in what is essentially a Labour Ward. There is now a street called Gordon Woodward Way in the south of the city. He is survived by his widow, Dorothy, two daughters, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. TSRM |
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