The Daily Telegraph

Lt-col Andrew Houstoun

Troop commander who won an MC in the European campaign

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LIEUTENANT­COLONEL ANDREW HOUSTOUN, who has died aged 95, was awarded a Military Cross at the end of the campaign in north-west Europe.

He commanded a troop of the Royal Dragoons from Normandy in July 1944 to the River Elbe 10 months later. On one occasion when his troop was helping to keep open the Nijmegen to Eindhoven road, he delayed several German tanks advancing on the town of Veghel, Holland, long enough to let US anti-tank gunners get into position and break up the attack. He was wounded but remained in command of his troop until the emergency had ended and he was ordered back by an MO.

In Germany, during fighting near Uelzen, he was leading a dismounted party from his troop against an enemy outpost in a wood. Although shot in the leg by a German at close range with a revolver, he remained in control and the outpost was wiped out. The citation for the award of an MC paid tribute to the outstandin­g leadership and courage that he had shown throughout the European campaign.

Andrew Beatty Houstoun was born at Alfold, West Sussex, on October 15 1922. His father, William, had worked for the first Lord Inchcape at Mckinnon Mackenzie in Calcutta. Young Andrew was educated at Harrow. He contracted polio but recovered quickly enough to start playing rugby again.

On leaving school, it was suggested that he try for Oxford but the night before his interview there was an air raid and he was so busy clearing fire bombs from the roof of a neighbour’s property that he forgot about the appointmen­t.

He was commission­ed into the Royal Dragoons from Sandhurst and, having joined the Regiment in Libya in 1943, took part in the invasion of Sicily and the Italian Campaign (briefly) before landing in Normandy.

On VE-DAY, his squadron was deployed to Denmark to assist in the liberation of the country. At the seaport of Kolding, southern Denmark, they had an encounter with the captain of a German U-boat who had not heard that the war was over. It required a show of force in the form of two armoured cars to persuade him to surrender.

After the war, he was second-in-command of “C” Squadron until he became adjutant of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in autumn 1949. He was also involved in work for the War Crimes Commission but found time to form a regimental ski team as well as a crew to sail one of the German navy’s sail training ships around the Baltic.

In 1952 he rejoined the Royal Dragoons in the Canal Zone and accompanie­d them to BAOR. Having taken early retirement from the Regular Army in 1956, he farmed at Lintrathen, Angus. The same year, he rejoined the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry which had recently been amalgamate­d with the Scottish Horse and took command in 1963.

He handed over command two years later and became an Angus County Councillor until 1975. He was president of the Forfar branch of the NFU from 1970 to 1972 and was the European representa­tive of the Scottish Landowners Federation for several years before becoming convenor, which led to his OBE in 1983. He was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 2017.

Houstoun was a JP as well as being on the Court of Dundee University, a Deputy Lieutenant for Angus from 1971 and Vice Lord Lieutenant for the county in 1986. After farming for 35 years, he and his wife moved to a smaller house where they created a splendid garden.

He had a remarkable memory for poetry, an encyclopae­dic knowledge of military and local history, and a large stock of anecdotes about his experience­s.

Andrew Houstoun married, in 1953, Mary Spencer-nairn, who survives him with their four sons.

Andrew Houston, born October 15 1922, died December 16 2017

 ??  ?? Houstoun: though wounded he remained in the field
Houstoun: though wounded he remained in the field

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