9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2006 - Page 0121
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2006 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 119 War of 1914-1918. The casualty roll listed 5 officers and 143 men out of a total strength of less than 500. The 12th Lancers had served throughout in the Madras Presidency in Central India, where the Sepoys had remained loyal to the Raj. They were constantly deployed in support ofthe operations to the north. On the 19th April 1858 Major Oakes led two charges which broke the insurgents at Banda, and Trooper Ellis saved the life of Brigadier Miller, the Artillery Commander, running through his assailant with his lance. DNC Some Memories Of Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden Cb Dso MC Herbert Lumsden was my father’s brother-in-law’s brother, but at the age of l 5, I knew him as Uncle. We first met when he came to stay with his brother at Aviemore, and my cousin Iain and I quickly realised that we were expected to do what we were told. He was born on the same day as myself but in 1897, and was old enough to be commissioned into the Royal Horse Artillery in the First Warwhen he won an MC. In 1925 he transferred to the 12th Royal Lancers and was soon promoted Captain. By the time that Iain and I knew him, he had been the Brigade Major of lst Cavalry Brigade for three years, becoming a Brevet Lt Colonel in 1936 and a Substantive Lt Colonel in 1938, when he followed Dick McCreery in command of the Regiment. In peacetime he made the most of the Turf, riding in the Grand National several times and in 1926 he won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown on his own horse Foxtrot. He was proba- bly the best soldier rider under National Hunt Rules between the wars. On one occasion when Iain and I were walking up grouse on the lowland moor at Dalfabour, we failed to remove the cartridges from our broken guns while stepping over a bank, and were for- bidden to carry loaded shotguns for the rest of our holidays. I did not mind as I was going to another estate but Iain was stuck with it for a further fortnight. I did not escape entirely, as my mother had sent Herbert to find me when I had swum out to the island on Loch an Eilein, without telling anybody. The rocket I received led me to be determined to become a Troop Leader in the Twelfth during the war that looked increasingly likely, and hoped I had made it clear to him. When the war came, Lt Colonel Lumsden went with his Regiment to France on 15th October, having had their Humber Armoured Cars serviced by Sir William Rootes, whose son was Technical Adjutant. They embarked at Southampton for Cherbourg and settled into their billets in Houdain for the win- ter. Lumsden concentrated on training with Belgium in mind, where his wireless schemes strangely coincided with several days racing at Auteuil. Not being allowed to reconnoitre Belgium, he trained with the French Division Legeres Mechanique and the Royal Monmouthshire Engineers. In spite of a stand-to in January, the Regiment spent a cold February at Hebuterne, and Lumsden went on leave, leaving Major Clifton- Brown in command. On 10th May ‘it’ came, and the Regiment moved from Hebuterne and became the first British Troops into Belgium, with A Squadron commanded by Major Horsborough-I’orter, B Squadron under Major Clayton-Browne and C Squadron under Captain ‘Dozy’ Willis. By the 14th they had skirted Brussels and were on the River Demer down to Tirlemont. Lumsden had returned to take command. There was no effective liaison between the Belgians and the French, who were on A Squadron’s right. After getting most of the bridges blown, the Twelfth retreated about 20 miles under pressure, to reach the River Dendre on the 19th May, having gone through Waterloo and Enghien surrounded by dispirited Belgian soldiers and refugees, and being continually shelled. Colonel Lumsden was ordered to cover the withdrawal of 2nd Division, and lined the Dendre from Ath to Les Deux Acren, with a squadron of 13/18H under command. On the 23rd they were involved in the Battle of Arras, losing a number of officers and men. They were forced back from the confusion around Courtrai to the Yser Canal, where Lumsden kept the regiment on the east bank so that Major Smith and his Monmouthshire Sappers could work north blowing the bridges. C Squadron was on the left of the newly arrived 3rd Division at Diximude, where Ned Mann with four cars held the town for several hours. At the age of 21 he was awarded the DS0. After his service in the Low Countries, Lumsden was awarded a DSO and promoted to Colonel. He took command of an Armoured Brigade and went to the Middle East where he added to his already high reputation. In 1941 he was given command of lst Armoured Division and was awarded a bar to his DSO for ‘courage and devotion to duty’ at the Battle of Knightsbridge. After the retreat to El Alamein he was given command of XXX Corps in succession to General Gott, who was himself shot down and killed before Churchill had appointed him to command 8th Army, with Montgomery taking his place. After the Battle of El Alamein where Lumsden was wounded and his Corps had behaved as expected, there was a difference of opinion with Montgomery, as a result ofwhich he was posted back to the UK. At this point I was on my way to Sandhurst, if not already there, and I wrote to General Lumsden while a cadet, to see ifI could put my name forward to join the Twelfth. I was surprised to get a letter back in his own hand, and the correspondence was to continue until I was posted to Egypt to join the Regiment. While at Sandhurst I was more surprised to get a telephone call from HQ 8 Corps ordering me to have lunch with him at the Cavalry Club. I made so bold as to ask him why he had left the Desert, and without hesitation he replied “you may think the Desert is a huge place but there wasn’t room for two s....s in it and, as I was junior, I had to go.” I duly joined the 12th Lancers and in 1943 Churchill got Lumsden awarded a CB, and appointed him as his Special Representative to General MacArthur in the Far East. He was to be tragically killed in a Kamikaze attack on an American war- ship at the end of 1944 or the beginning of 1945. MacArthur wrote “it is superfluous for me to speak of the com- plete courage that this officer so frequently displayed in this the- atre over the last year.” He married Alice May, daughter of George Roddick and had two sons, both of whom served with his Regiment, the 12th Royal Lancers. john Robson |
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