Lieutenant-general Sir Richard Swinburn
Stylish and popular commander of the UK Field Army who insisted on the highest standards
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR RICHARD SWINBURN, who has died aged 79, was one of those rare soldiers who combined the charm and stylish, easy-going manner of the stereotypical cavalry officer with the drive and determination to accept nothing less than 100 per cent effort from his subordinates and the very highest operational standards.
Richard Hull Swinburn was born at Aldershot on October 30 1937. His father, Major General Henry Swinburn, served with the 51st Highland Division and, having been taken prisoner at St Valéry-en-caux in June 1940, spent the rest of the Second World War in a German POW camp.
Young Richard was educated at Wellington where he was a good cross-country runner. He attended RMA Sandhurst, where he was huntsman of the Sandhurst Beagles, and was commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers (17/21L) in 1957. Postings to BAOR, Hong Kong, Aden and Cyprus followed, and a tour in Northern Ireland included a spell as adjutant of the 17/21L and the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.
Swinburn progressed swiftly from one top posting to the next. In 1971 he became military assistant (MA) to the vice chief of the general staff, Lieutenant-general Sir Cecil “Monkey” Blacker. After instructing at Staff College followed by an appointment as MA to the chief of staff Allied Forces Central Europe, in 1979 he assumed command of 17/21L.
In the Falklands campaign he was colonel Army staff duties 2, a key post during a most exacting period. This led to command of 7th Armoured Brigade in Germany. Soldiering under Swinburn was never dull. He could usually be relied upon to do the unexpected.
Units would be turned out with five minutes’ warning into the pitch darkness for a night exercise. To the consternation of his brother officers, he would call for maps of Lower Saxony and give every appearance of being on the point of driving his tanks, closed down and fully “bombed up,” along public roads to punch a hole in the Iron Curtain. Wiser counsels would usually prevail and the demurrer would get a resigned grin and a reproachful “My God! What a dull fellow you are!”
After the 1985 course at the Royal College of Defence Studies, Swinburn was appointed director of Army plans in the MOD. He commanded 1st Armoured Division in BAOR from 1987 to 1989 and then returned to the MOD as assistant chief of the general staff. He was knighted in 1991.
A man of unswerving principle, he never hesitated to speak his mind. In a war he would have been a first-rate front-line commander. His peacetime superiors sometimes found him difficult – and this may have cost him four-star rank. After the outbreak of the Gulf War, he wrote a sharp minute to civil servants who had been pressing for further cutbacks in Army manpower and equipment, reminding them that they had insisted that the conflict would never take place.
Promoted to lieutenant-general in 1990, he became GOC South East District and, subsequently Southern District. His final appointments before retiring in 1995 were those of deputy C-in-c UK Land Forces and commander UK Field Army.
Swinburn took the important things seriously but, above all, he believed that soldiering should be fun. His comrades remember him as the most exacting of taskmasters, but also as someone who cared for them unstintingly. One, a young subaltern in the 1960s, recalled the Swinburn household of those days as an “oasis”, a refuge where the lonely and forlorn could be sure of comfort, sustenance and encouragement. His loyalty to his Regiment, his soldiers and his friends was measureless. He was Colonel of the Queen’s Royal Lancers from 1995 to 2001.
After he retired from the Army, he settled down at his sheep farm on Exmoor. He decided that the grass had no nutritional value and set about improving it. His wife, Janey, could have been a vet – she had all the skills – and together they turned it into a successful venture. He had a passion for horses and lurchers and hunted regularly with the Exmoor Foxhounds. He and Janey were the most generous and entertaining of hosts and her death in 2001, after a very happy marriage, came as a great blow.
He farmed on his own for 10 years before selling up and returning to Hampshire. His marriage to Susan Ferguson, widow of Major Ronald Ferguson, was very happy for them both. He hunted with the Hampshire Hunt, of which he had been a member since 1975. Even in his final illness, he remained as upbeat and determined to see the funny side of things as ever.
Richard Swinburn married first, in 1964, Jane (Janey) Brodie, who predeceased him. He married, secondly, in 2012, Susan Ferguson, who survives him with a stepson and two stepdaughters.
Sir Richard Swinburn, born October 30 1937, died October 11 2017