Douglas Rickerby
Officer who won an immediate MC at the Battle of Imphal
DOUGLAS RICKERBY, who has died aged 97, won an imwmediate Military Cross at the Battle of Imphal in 1944 and subsequently had a successful career in industry.
Rickerby was a captain serving with 2nd Bn The Border Regiment (2 BR) and, in June 1944, the Borderers were defending the Shenam Ridge, which dominated the approach to the Imphal plain. The battle to prevent the Japanese invading India lasted four months and involved some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
On the night of June 10, the Japanese launched a strong attack with grenades, rifles and automatics on the Ukhrul road, a vital position close to HQ 100 Indian Infantry Brigade where Rickerby was serving as staff captain. This caused some panic and, in the confusion, Rickerby rallied the men and helped to get the wounded to the advanced dressing station (ADS).
Having then moved to a position near the forward Japanese troops, he and three officers were rallying the men in a unit that had pulled back, when those officers were seriously wounded. Rickerby was badly shaken by his narrow escape, but managed to get them into cover and back to the ADS.
The next day, when a company of 152 Parachute Bn carried out a counterattack knowing exactly where the Japanese were deployed, he guided the paras to their forming-up position under heavy and accurate shell fire. The citation for the award of an immediate MC paid tribute to his outstanding courage and stated that he had saved what might have become a very dangerous situation.
Arthur Douglas Rickerby was born in Carlisle on September 22 1920 and educated at St Bees School, Cumbria. He played rugby and cricket for the North of England Public Schools and, in the 1938 season, rugby for Cumberland and Westmorland in the County Championship.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he was reading Law at Brasenose College, Oxford, but his studies were cut short and he attended Octu in September 1940 before being commissioned into the Border Regiment. He joined 2 BR at Poona, India, in May 1941.
In July he and Ian Urquhart, a brother officer, were ordered to report to Army HQ at Simla. There they were told that the Germans had broken the secret signal codes and they were given the task of delivering new code-books to every military HQ in the subcontinent. They decided to set off from Delhi and travel around India in a clockwise direction because it looked easier on the map. The journey of almost 8,000 miles by train took three weeks.
Later that year, Rickerby and his platoon were ordered to join ship at Bombay, sail to the port of Basra, Iraq, take on board 800 German fifth columnists and disembark them at Adelaide, Australia. Conditions below deck were dreadful and soldiers with Bren guns had to be stationed on the companionways in case the Germans tried to overpower their captors.
In March 1942 he embarked with 2 BR on a ship bound for Rangoon, but the city fell to the Japanese and the vessel was diverted just in time. After training for jungle warfare in Ceylon, he saw active service in Burma and was twice Mentioned in Despatches.
He was eventually evacuated to India suffering from tick typhus, but after four years in the Far East he was due for repatriation and, when recovered, he returned to England and was demobilised in 1945.
He joined the oldestablished firm of Rickerby Ltd, agricultural engineers, and subsequently became managing director and then chairman. Settled in a village near Carlisle, he was an enthusiastic golfer.
Douglas Rickerby married Patricia Semple in 1945. She predeceased him and he is survived by their three sons.