by Richard Mead
On 14 October Lettice arrived on the Queen Mary, with Sarah, Charles and Giggums. It was always intended that she should come, indeed this was the major attraction of the posting, and she remained in America for the duration. Dick had taken for the rest of his term a house called Waveland, owned by Walbridge Taft, a nephew of the US president of that name. Taft was ill with a heart problem and Dick was offered a competitive rent, largely because Mrs Taft was an ardent Anglophile. It was at Glen Head, some three miles from Piping Rock Country Club, provided excellent accommodation and had good sized grounds, largely lawns but with small flower and vegetable gardens.
Lettice enjoyed her stay in America. The social life was excellent, the children had plenty to keep them occupied and New York City offered culture and entertainment. There was even some hunting in the winter months. It was also possible to see more of Selby, something which appealed particularly to Dick, who remained very close to his brother. Selby had by now lived in California for nearly twenty years. In 1936 he and his wife Jo had bought the McCreery Ranch from the McCreery Estate Company and lived much of the time there. The two of them visited Europe regularly before the War, but since Selby’s aborted second career in the 12th Lancers he and Dick had only seen each other infrequently, the last time in the summer of 1946. Selby had not been able to come over for their mother’s funeral, but he had been quite upset at a provision in her will whereby Minnie had left to Pert, her faithful general factotum, a cottage at Stowell, her car, a tractor and the then substantial sum of £13,000. It was Dick who managed to take the heat out of the situation without offence to Pert, who remained at Stowell and went on to be very helpful in the years to come.
Selby and Jo came to stay at Waveland for the Christmas of 1948 and Bob also arrived from England, having recently left Eton.3 The following April Dick and Lettice, leaving the younger children in the care of Giggums, went to California for the first time since their trip in the winter of 1932/33. They spent some days in San Francisco before going down to the McCreery Ranch, which they had failed to visit on the previous occasion because of floods. Dick was much taken with the ranch, particularly as it provided some excellent riding, and they were there for nearly two weeks. They came back through Western Canada, travelling via Vancouver to Banff for a few days skiing in the Rockies before taking the train to Montreal and on to New York.
Their next visit to Canada, in August 1949, included Michael, who had completed his National Service, and Jon, who had come out for the summer holidays, as well as the two younger children. This time they all piled into the Buick for a long circular trip, taking in Quebec before going up to the Laurentians for a few days of canoeing and boating. They stayed with Alexander and his wife Maggie in Ottawa, before continuing around Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls and then back to New York.
Three months earlier Dick had been back to England for the only time during his tour, leaving Lettice and the children behind. The primary reason for the visit was to attend the week-long CIGS Conference at Camberley, but Dick stayed nearly two more weeks, which neatly fitted in with meetings of the Hurlingham Polo Association and the RAC Memorial Benevolent Fund, which Dick chaired, and the annual dinners of both the 12th Lancers and the 14th/20th Hussars. Dick was also able to report personally to Slim on what little had been happening in the MSC. He had written to the CIGS at the beginning of the year confirming his intention to retire in October, and although it was pointed out to him that he would be sacrificing a great deal of his possible pension by going at such an early age, his application was formally approved during his visit. His hope that he might continue on full pay for some months to improve his pension was rejected, although it was some compensation that his membership of the Order of the Bath was upgraded to Knight Grand Cross in the Birthday Honours on 9 June.
Dick, Lettice and the family left New York on 29 October after two weeks of farewell parties. His tour of duty came to an end officially on 4 November, the day they disembarked at Southampton, and his retirement took effect on 9 December. At the time, other than Slim and the Duke of Gloucester, he was the fourth most senior serving officer on the Army List.
Chapter 28
Indian Summer
Although many said that Dick’s talents would have been put to better use by remaining in the Army, they were not entirely wasted. In a letter to Lettice in September 1946 on the question of early retirement, Dick said, ‘There would always be enough for me to do at Stowell. In fact I think one difficulty would be to avoid taking on too many activities in the neighbourhood.’ As it turned out, he was right, but his activities were far from limited to those pursued locally. They were widespread and fell broadly into three categories – military, equestrian and youth.
The appointments in the third category were by no means the least important, as Dick took a great interest in the development of young people. In the summer of 1946 he had become a member of the Council of St John’s School, Leatherhead,1 where he was to find that one of his fellow members, and in due course the chairman of the Council, was Montgomery. In 1951 he took on another school governorship, this time much closer to home at King’s School, Bruton, with which he was to be involved for the rest of his life. A year earlier he had accepted an invitation to become the president of the Somerset Association of Boys Clubs. He threw himself into this with great energy, attending camps and sporting events, giving talks himself, arranging other notable speakers and allowing Stowell Hill to be used for fêtes and garden parties to raise money. Even after he stepped down as president in 1959, he remained closely associated as patron.
The equestrian-related appointments were more prolific. He was already on the Hurlingham Polo Association Committee, the Grand Military Race Committee and the National Hunt Committee and to these he now added the committee of the British Horse Society, of which he became the president for 1951. He had been a steward of his local racecourse at Wincanton, albeit not an active one, for some years. He now took up his duties there on a regular basis and also accepted the offer of a similar position at Newbury.
Perhaps inevitably, given that he had ridden with it since he was a child, he was deeply involved with the Blackmore Vale Hunt, both as a long-serving chairman and as the hunt’s master or joint master from 1950 to 1954, combining this with the role of district commissioner of the related Blackmore Vale Pony Club. The hunt gave him a great deal of pleasure as, apart from an occasional game of polo, it was now his only direct participation in an equestrian sport. Renowned for his fearlessness on the field, often taking a line others thought too difficult, he rode a series of fine hunters, including Jumbo, brought back from Germany. However, the BVH involved him in one local controversy. The northern part of its country was also hunted by the Sparkford Vale Harriers, a farmer’s hunt which was supposed to pursue hares but frequently ended up drawing the covers for foxes. Like many other members of the BVH, Dick wanted to stop a practice regarded as poaching and he even threatened to prevent the Sparkford Vale members from holding their annual point-to-point. A number of acrimonious meetings were held during the 1951/52 and 1952/53 seasons, after which a measure of agreement was achieved, although some bad feeling remained between the parties even after Dick had stepped down as master.2 A more successful negotiation brought back into BVH country its former eastern part, which had been hunted for some years by the private pack of a Miss Guest. This was merged with the BVH in 1954, Miss Guest taking over from Dick as joint master.
Perhaps the most time consuming of Dick’s activities were those associated with the Army. By the time of his retirement he had already been for some years on the committee of the RAC War Memorial Benefit Fund and he was later to join that of the Cavalry Benefits Association.3 He also became a trustee of the Tank Museum at Bovington and vice-president of the Combined Cavalry Old Comrades, often leading the annual parade of the latter in Hyde Park, and he was speedily drafted into his local branch of the British Legion. The largest commitment, however, was to his various colonelcies.
/> The least demanding of these was the honorary colonelcy of the Sharpshooters. As it was a yeomanry regiment, the only occasions on which Dick could see it as a whole was at the annual camp, but he attended the regimental dinners and other functions. The 14th/20th Hussars took up more time. The regiment had been in BAOR during the first year of his appointment, then returned to the UK. In October 1952, however, it was posted to Libya, where he visited it in both 1953 and 54. Just before he saw it off from Liverpool, he received a significant honour in the shape of its Regimental Medal, unique in the British Army and only given on rare occasions. Basil Woodd, the CO while the regiment was in Libya, later described Dick’s involvement: ‘Despite reaching the highest rank himself, we always felt he was at heart a regimental soldier, and was never above concerning himself with the impact of events on the regiment and on the individual officer or soldier. He never interfered unless he felt that it was his duty or was asked to do so, but was always ready to help with wise advice and effective influence.’ Dick continued to take a great interest in and to attend the annual dinners of both the Sharpshooters and the 14th/20th Hussars, even after his appointments came to an end respectively in 1956 and 1957.
In May 1951 Lord Birdwood died and Dick was appointed colonel of the 12th Lancers. Important and rewarding though his other colonelcies may have been, that of his own regiment had been for a long time his heart’s desire. In England at first, within months of his appointment the regiment was off to Malaya to take part in the guerrilla war against the communist terrorists and it was not until April 1953 that Dick was able to pay it a visit, his one experience of the Far East. He spent nearly a week with the regiment on what he described as ‘a wonderful trip’. The RHQ was in Ipoh, but the squadrons and troops were dispersed in seven locations from Kuala Lumpur in the south to Taiping in the north and he went travelling once again by ‘whizzer’ to inspect them all. The regiment had arrived in the country shortly before the assassination of the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, one of its troops being first on the scene after the event, but the arrival of Gerald Templer to replace Gurney had taken the campaign in a new and positive direction and Dick found the regiment in good heart. He was able to stay one night with Templer, who professed himself pleased with its performance. Less than six months after their return to England in mid-1954 the 12th Lancers joined BAOR, where at least Dick could see them more frequently. He was also able to visit them when they spent two years in Cyprus from 1958 to 1960.
His many interests provided variety to Dick’s life, but its core was to be found at Stowell, as Lettice had intended. This was the first time he had had a real opportunity to settle there and he made the most of it, devoting much time to perfecting the garden, which was opened to visitors for several days each summer, and to developing the farm. Dick was never happier than when walking round his 60 acres, which were mostly pasture, although some fields were set aside for oats and forage crops such as kale. He gradually built up a fine herd of Ayrshires and nothing pleased him more than improving their milk yields. He had a good understanding of blood lines and the quality of the herd was developed so that some of the cows were good enough to show locally, although he won no great prizes. The arrival of Gretan Skan as farm manager in the mid-1950s brought the experience needed to complement Dick’s enthusiasm, demonstrated by his involvement in hay making and generally keeping the farm tidy. Never particularly good with machinery, Dick was confronted with a problem one day when his little Ferguson tractor, pulling a load of hay, began to spin its wheels and refused to move any further ‘Let me see,’ he said to Skan, ‘what would we have done if we had been in the desert?’! In 1951 he extended his holding, acquiring the adjacent 135-acre Wilkinthroop Farm, which was let to a tenant, Dudley Williams.
The children were going their separate ways. At the time of his retirement, only Sarah and Charles were living full time at home, under the watchful eye of Giggums, but not long afterwards Charles followed his brothers to Cothill and thence to Eton in 1955, where he excelled academically and at music, whilst Sarah went to board at St Mary’s, Wantage in 1952. Michael had joined the 12th Lancers from his OCTU in 1948 and was much liked by his brother officers, but he never intended to become a Regular officer and left having completed National Service. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford and after graduating was recruited into MI5, but was not happy there. In 1954 he became assistant secretary at the National Trust, but in 1956 resigned and opened a bookshop, later devoted mostly to records, at the Earls Court end of the Brompton Road. Michael also invested in Mary Quant’s restaurant, Alexander’s, which she opened with her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Greene, in the basement of her fashion boutique, Bazaar; he was bought out by the other partners some years later.
Michael and Dick, alike in many respects and particularly in the integrity of their characters, were beginning to find that their political, social and economic views were rapidly diverging, as Michael began to espouse left-wing ideals, spurred on by his shock at the appalling poverty he had witnessed during a trip to India. There were a number of flare-ups when they were together, some provoked by Lettice, who was even less tolerant of her eldest son’s beliefs, and Michael came much less frequently to Stowell. After a visit to Moscow in 1957 he became a communist. Dick, who had first-hand experience of the Russians and loathed communism, was appalled.
Bob, who had had a kidney removed as a child, failed the medical for the Army and instead followed his older brother to Oxford, in his case to Lincoln College. Whilst his parents were still in America he had worked in the stables of Dick’s friend, John Schreiber, to whom Jumbo had been sent for training. Bob rode the horse in a point-to-point and won, becoming in the process thoroughly bitten by the racing bug. Instead of pursuing his studies, he went off on his motorbike every day to ride and at the end of his first term was advised by his tutor to leave before he was sent down. He was then invited by Selby to come to California, attend Stanford University and, if he liked the life there, stay on and probably take over the McCreery Ranch. Bob’s heart, however, was still in racing and he eventually decided to return to England, where he soon became an outstanding steeplechase jockey, a career which lasted twelve years and saw him crowned as amateur champion in 1957/8 and 1958/9.
Jon decided initially to follow Dick into the Army and entered Sandhurst in 1953. In his intermediate term he realized it was not his preferred choice of career and it was decided mutually that he would leave before the end of the course. He moved to digs in London, where he embarked on a business career, initially in property and then in retail. Michael’s increasing political commitments meant that he was unable to devote time to his shop, so Jon took on the managership in 1959.
With the children largely off their hands, Dick and Lettice were able to travel quite extensively, making several driving tours of Europe and two long trips to California, the first while Bob was still there in 1952 and the second, which included an excursion to western Canada, in 1959. Selby and Jo also came frequently to Europe, so Dick was able to see more of his brother than he had done for many years. For Lettice there was much sadness when her beloved younger sister Lucia died after a short illness in 1954.
Lettice’s elder sister, Helen, had by then been married for some years to John Combe, Dick’s old friend, who was now one of his fellow cavalry colonels, in his case of the 11th Hussars. Dick was still colonel commandant of the Cavalry Wing of the RAC, his tenure having been extended to ten years. This required him to chair meetings of the cavalry colonels and to represent their views to the War Office, as he did when a reorganization of the armoured divisions was proposed which was widely unpopular. A much more difficult matter emerged in 1957. At their meeting on 4 May Dick informed his fellow colonels that he had been asked by the CIGS, now Templer, to be chairman of a small committee to make recommendations on the reductions required of the RAC under a more general reorganization. There were two issues: the split in the reduction between the cavalry regiments and the RTR, and the
method of reduction, by either disbandment or amalgamation.
Templer himself had opened the debate on the first issue, writing to Dick that he would be recommending the disbandment of six regiments, of which four would be from the cavalry and two from the RTR, on the grounds that there were far fewer of the latter. Dick, deeply concerned, replied that ‘the long traditions and distinguished history of the Cavalry regiments, extending over about 250 years, should receive priority over a comparatively new Corps which has been in existence for only 40 years.’4 His counterproposal was that there should be a reduction of two cavalry regiments by the amalgamation of four of them and the disbandment of the 7th and 8th RTR, which had only been formed just before the War. The ball was then passed to John Crocker, standing in for Montgomery as colonel commandant of the RTR Wing of the RAC, who made the point that the impact on the RTR, with only eight regiments in total, would be far greater than on the cavalry, with twenty regiments not including the Household Cavalry.
Templer and the Army Council exercised the judgement of Solomon, that the split should be a reduction of three regiments by each wing. Two days later Dick met Charles Keightley and Dick Hull, the other two members of his committee and both still senior serving officers, to debate how the cavalry’s side should be implemented, Dick taking their conclusions to Templer. The committee proposed amalgamation rather than disbandment, and that the regiments concerned, taking into account not their seniority but their current efficiency and recruiting figures, should be the King’s Dragoon Guards with the Bays, the 3rd Hussars with the 7th Hussars, and the 4th Hussars with the 8th Hussars. The CIGS agreed and the colonels of the regiments concerned were called to a very difficult meeting at the War Office on 10 July.