Lieutenant General Sir Richard Vickers
Army officer who successfully united two proud regiments as the new Blues and Royals
LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR RICHARD VICKERS, who has died aged 95, saw active service in Korea and Borneo in the course of a distinguished career but, arguably, his most challenging appointment lay closer to home.
In March 1969, at Detmold, BAOR, Vickers, then a lieutenant colonel, assumed command of the Blues and Royals following the amalgamation of the Royal Horse Guards and the 1st Royal Dragoons.
This was the first amalgamation in the Army to take place between regiments of different corps. It involved welding two proud and famous regiments, each with over 300 years of history, with different traditions, customs and experience into a new armoured regiment equipped with Chieftain tanks.
The Royal Horse Guards, however, had little technical or tactical experience of tanks before the amalgamation and Vickers had a very short timeframe in which to train officers and men in new and highly sophisticated equipment and bring them up to peak efficiency.
With a combination of charm, enthusiasm, professional skill, inspiring leadership and sheer hard work, he accomplished this and built the new regiment into a happy, united team capable of filling a full operational role in the defence of Western Europe. The citation for the recommendation of an award of an OBE concluded: “It is extremely improbable that any other officer in the Army could have achieved what he has achieved in this period.” A remarkable tribute.
Richard Maurice Hilton Vickers was born at Jubblepore, Central Provinces, India, on August 21 1928. His father, Lieutenant General Wilmot Vickers, became the Quartermaster-general of the Army in India. Young Richard was 10 when his mother, Mary, aged 40, died saving him from drowning. It was established later that she had a weak heart. It was a tragedy that he felt keenly throughout his life.
He was educated at Haileybury, where he was head boy, before joining the Army in the ranks in 1947. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he was awarded the King’s Medal and the Sword of Honour – a first for a cadet at the Academy at the time.
In 1948, he was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment and posted to 1 RTR in BAOR. He excelled at sports and was part of the regimental team at rugby, tennis and cricket. He also represented the UK Combined Services at squash.
The regiment deployed to Korea and landed in December 1952. Vickers commanded a troop of Centurion tanks in what was a war of the hills with squadrons supporting raids by destroying enemy defence works and preventing all forms of movement by daylight.
At night, they fired on pre-arranged tasks in support of fighting patrols. In addition to coping with regular shelling from Chinese artillery and mortar units, he and his men had to acclimatise to the harsh Korean winter. During quiet periods, he sometimes went butterfly-hunting in the hills. A few pot shots were fired at him but he was never hit.
After serving as adjutant of 2 RTR in BAOR, in 1956 he was appointed equerry-inwaiting to the Queen. He was a great fan of the glamorous Princess Grace of Monaco and when she visited Buckingham Palace, he was delighted at the prospect of escorting her to the drawing room and having a few moments alone with her. It all went wrong, he said afterwards. Many of the staff of the Royal Household rushed in from different rooms in an attempt to talk to her and he never got a look in.
After Staff College, followed by an appointment as brigade major with 7th Armoured Brigade Group, in 1965 he commanded a squadron of 4 RTR in Borneo during the undeclared war with Indonesia known as the Confrontation. On his leave, he went butterfly-hunting in Malaya and brought a good collection back to England.
His success in command of the 1st Royal Dragoons and the subsequent amalgamation with The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) was rewarded by early promotion to colonel on the Defence Policy Staff and then command of 11th Armoured Brigade.
In 1977, he was selected to command 4th Armoured Division. His ADC recalls arriving at the general officer commanding’s house to introduce himself and finding Vickers high above the ground and lopping a big branch while sitting on the wrong side of the cut. In the course of his career, Vickers and his family moved house more than 24 times but expertise in DIY may not have been one of his many talents.
He was Commandant of RMA Sandhurst from 1979 to 1982 and then Director-general of Army Training. It was his last appointment before retiring from the Army in 1983 in the rank of lieutenant general.
For the next 10 years, he was Directorgeneral of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Operating as the Churchill Fellowship, it funded adult citizens in the United Kingdom from all areas of society with the aim of developing new solutions for UK issues based on successful innovations overseas.
His enthusiasm and dedication in processing many thousands of applications and in supporting the Fellows and the causes that they cared about made a great contribution to the work of the Fellowship.
Vickers was always true to himself, always concerned for others and always fun. He was adept at conjuring in the style of Tommy Cooper. His friends were never quite sure whether these tricks were going to work or not and were sometimes reluctant to hand over their watches to be bashed by his hammer. He enjoyed all the country pursuits except hunting and was an expert fly fisherman.
He was appointed MBE in 1964, advanced to OBE in 1970, knighted in 1983 and appointed CVO in 1998, the year that he completed 12 years’ service as a Gentleman Usher to the Queen.
He married, in 1957, Gaie Roberts, the daughter of Major General “Pip” Roberts, CB, DSO (two Bars), MC, an outstanding British armoured commander in the Second World War. She survives him with their three daughters.
Lieutenant General Sir Richard Vickers, born August 21 1928, died February 6 2024