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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 1984 - Page 0082

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 1984
Transcription THE ant/urn novAL LANCERS REGIMENTAI JOURNAL
Obituaries
Colonel Sir Douglas Scott Bt
Douglas Winchester Scott was
educated at Harrow and Sandhurst
and succeeded his father Admiral Sir
Percy Scott Bt In 1924.
He was gazetted into the 3rd
Hussars in 1927 and in 1940found
himself as Staff Captain to 2nd
Armoured Brigade, then composed of
the Bays, 9L and 10H and
Commanded by Dick McCreery,
After Commanding the 3rd Hussars
in Italy and Syria in 1944, Douglas
Scott returned to UK the following
year as Cliiel lnstructor at the Senior
Olticers’ School, DeVizes and was
promoted to full Colonel.
It was In February 1948 that Douglas
was apponited to Command the
‘Ninth’ who, at that tlme, had Inst
returned from Palestine after 6 years
abroad He could not have taken over
at a more difficult time nor In a worse
place, The Regiment had been
reduced to a cadre strength of 200
Regular Soldiers and were quartered in
abiect squalor, sharing a nissen hutted
Camp in Lanarkshire With German
POW's who were being repatriated.
Eventually the Regiment moved to
Glencorse Camp near Edinburgh,
where for the next two years they
were Involved in activities as far apart
as provtding training assistance to 33rd
Lowland Armoured Brigade by
running their annual Gunnery Camps
at Kircudbright to taking part in the
Edinburgh Tattoo as the lXth
MCHahder’s Highlanders, the 1948
London Dock Strlke working as
stevedores, proVIding the Butt party at
Bisley and guarding the US Army
Guards who were In turn guarding the
Atomic War heads at an aerodrome In
Norfolk
That life in the Regiment did
Improve and that the strength of his
Regiment gradually Increased was due
entirely to the untiring ellorts made by
the Commanding Officer» no
respecter of persons set In authority
unless they were prepared to help7
and who used all his influence and
drive lor the betterment of the
Regiment, their living and working
conditions under peacetime
conditions and accounting.
Very few members of the Regiment
realised just how much Douglas did
for his adopted Regiment and how
well they were looked after under his
command, in spite of the most trying
times and conditions.
| Will remember him for his gruff
good humour, his sound advice, his
kindly help and generosity, his
cigarette-holder and his servtce cap
always tilted over one eye.
Mle
L utonant Colonel G B Clifton-
Brown
Geoffrey Benedict Cliftoanrown died
in November 1983, aged 84 years He
ruined the Twelfth in December 1918,
after Eton and Sandhurst, and in 1923
he was in the Subaltems polo team,
Wlth the McCreery brothers, when
they Won the Subalterns Gold Cup at
Ranelagh. In 1926, when the Regiment
moved to Egypt, he was made
Adjutant, and he held this
appointment during the transition from
horsed cavalry to armoured cars He
served as Adiutant of the Ayrshire
Yeomanry for three years from 1930
and afterwards returned to Regimental
duty
in September 1939, on the outbreak
of War, he was Second in Command
to Lieutenant Colonel Herbert
Lumsden when the Twelfth lOllTed the
B,E.F, in France Oii tDth May, 1940,
during Herbert Lumsden's brief
absence, Geoff led the Regiment
rapidly forward to positions on the
River Dyle. immediately after me
Germans had crossed the Belgian
lrnritier He continued as coiid in
Command ilirotiglioiii the Battle Lit
France, and the evacuation trmn
Dunkirk For his part in iliese
momentous operations he was
awarded a Mention In Despatclies
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