Lieutenant-colonel David Edwards
Rowing champion who served with the 10th Hussars in Germany, Aden and Northern Ireland
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DAVID EDWARDS, who has died aged 81, was a rowing blue and a Commonwealth Games medallist as well as having had an adventurous Army career.
Edwards won his first blue in 1958 as stroke and president of the Oxford University Boat Club. Oxford lost but Edwards was in the winning boat the following year. In 1958 he and his brother, John, won a bronze medal in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, and four years later in Perth, Australia, the pair represented Wales in the coxless fours and won a silver medal.
The younger of two sons, David Cecil Edwards was born on October 30 1937 in Kensington, London. His father, Group Captain Hugh “Jumbo” Edwards, AFC, DFC, was a well-known oarsman, double Olympic gold medallist, pilot and Oxford rowing coach.
Young David recalled long hours on airfields during the Second World War watching and waiting for sight of his father’s aircraft returning from missions over enemy-occupied Europe. When the family moved to a cottage high on the Berkshire Downs his father would fly his bomber low over the roof to let everyone know by the roar of engines that he was back safely and needed a lift home from the RAF station.
At Downside, David distilled a fierce, alcoholic brew in the chemistry laboratories; his housemaster referred to him as “the leader of the underworld”. He was awarded a state scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he took up rowing seriously. He was late handing in his thesis in the Chemistry finals because the date clashed with Regatta Week at Henley, and he was awarded an unclassified degree.
Edwards rowed in five finals at Henley. In 1961 he rowed for Leander in the Grand Challenge Cup, the premier event for VIIIS, against the Soviet Navy. He sought
assurances from the umpire that if the Russians followed form and set off before the gun, they would be called back to the start line again. In the event, they were not recalled and profited by the unfair advantage by going on to win.
Edwards was commissioned as a National Service officer in 1960 and joined the 10th Hussars (10H) as a troop leader, but signed on in the regular Army two years later. He served in Germany and then in Aden during the Emergency; while on patrol in the Radfan Mountains he was bracketed by a bazooka. Recalling the experience, he commented that there was nothing quite like being shot at to concentrate the mind.
He returned to Germany after qualifying as a helicopter pilot, and on promotion to major he commanded his Regiment’s Air Squadron. On one occasion, while piloting his CO, he crashed in a forest in the Moselle Valley. Fortunately they were unhurt and his CO went to get help while Edwards stayed with the smouldering helicopter amid pine trees reduced to matchwood. The first person to appear was a German policeman, who surveyed the scene and then exclaimed: “Do you not know that it is an offence to cut down trees in the Fatherland?”
After attending Staff College, Edwards returned to regimental duties in Germany and then Northern Ireland, where his squadron was deployed to guard the Maze Prison, which housed IRA prisoners.
In October 1974, long-standing tensions within the prison exploded into violence. The Royal Hussars (renamed following the amalgamation of 10H and 11H), heavily reinforced, took part in a major operation to restore order. Edwards, as second in command, claimed later that he had led the last dismounted cavalry charge undertaken by the British Army.
An unconventional and rather wild cavalry officer, he earned the nickname “Pissy” for his love of parties. One bibulous evening in the mess he challenged a brother office to race him to the other side of the building by way of the roof – and won. On exercises, he carried a .22 rifle to encourage dawdling tanks to keep up – and also to extinguish lights left burning at night and to supplement troop rations from the local wildlife. Soldiers tend to admire officers who bend the rules, and they were prepared to follow him anywhere.
He was attached to the 17th/21st Lancers as second in command in October 1976. Possessing considerable technical ability, after the Falklands conflict he was selected to assess the effects of a range of weapons. In 1988 he retired from the Army in the rank of lieutenant-colonel and took an external degree course at Reading University.
Having qualified as a surveyor, he joined an architectural firm in Dorset and practised for about 20 years. For the following 10 years he managed the South West office of a housing association which was helping to finance starter homes for young people in rural areas.
He had purchased a medieval manor house in a severely dilapidated state and he spent the next 25 years restoring it. Judy, his wife, got used to catering for the family while surrounded by building equipment and had to wait many years for a stair carpet. He had a passion for sailing, raced his Fireball dinghy and was chairman of Christchurch Boat Club.
David Edwards married, in 1966, Judith “Judy” Perdita (née Stokes), who survives him with their son and two daughters.
David Edwards, born October 30 1937, died June 7 2019