Maj. Gen Sir Francis Brian WYLDBORE-SMITH C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E, R.A.

  General Notes:

CB, DSO, OBE

Maj-Gen Sir Brian Wyldbore-Smith
Last Updated: 1:23am GMT 13/12/2005
Major-General Sir Brian Wyldbore-Smith, who has died aged 92, won the DSO in Italy in 1943 and, after retiring from the Army, raised funds for the Conservative Party and worked closely with Margaret Thatcher. His battery of the 5th Regiment RHA was attached to 1st Royal Tank Regiment (1 RTR) commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel (later Field Marshal Lord) Mike Carver and provided covering fire for 1 RTR during the forced crossing of the Garigliano river. Wyldbore-Smith was shot out of his first observation post, a church steeple, so he climbed up a telegraph pole on the bank of the river. He was spotted by an 88 mm gunner and hit in the head and the arm. But for being strapped to the pole, he would have had a nasty fall. He was awarded the DSO for his part in the battle. After a week at an American hospital in Bizerta, a nurse told him that General Patton was coming to hand out Purple Hearts. Wyldbore-Smith was not happy about receiving the award and slipped out of the hospital, made his way to the aerodrome and hitched a lift back to Italy. Francis Brian Wyldbore-Smith was born on July 10 1913 in County Durham. His father was vicar of Grindon, Northumberland, and chaplain to the 7th Marquess of Londonderry. Brian was educated at Wellington, where he attended the Army class before going to Woolwich. While there he used to go to dances in Mayfair - those who were caught were punished by having to get up at 6 am for days and run a mile around the campus before breakfast. Wyldbore-Smith was commissioned in 1933 and joined 18th Field Regiment. After a spell with Coastal Artillery in Northern Ireland, he was posted to 3rd Regiment RHA in Egypt and then Palestine. He saw action against the Italians at Mersa Matruh and in the pursuit of their forces from Bardia to Benghazi. Wyldbore-Smith then became adjutant to General Jock Campbell VC, and took part in night attacks on Italian camps with mobile columns. In 1941 he went to Staff College, Haifa. He and his fellow students thought little of their instructors who had no battle experience, and one evening, when they found them in a study correcting papers, they locked the door and turned a hose on them. Before the end of the course Wyldbore-Smith's cousin, who was serving on the cruiser Ajax, invited him to watch a shoot at the Vichy French forces in Syria. Wyldbore-Smith accepted, but while he was on board the cruiser was ordered to Malta on urgent convoy duty. It was four days before he could get back to Haifa. He was thrown off the course and sent to Tobruk, where he was attached to 9th Australian Division as a staff captain before moving to 1st Armoured Division as brigade major to the commander RA. His HQ was responsible for the fireplan for the Battle of Alamein. Wyldbore-Smith subsequently became a staff officer to Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, the commander of 10th Corps. Travelling in the general's tank, he was responsible for keeping him in contact with Montgomery's tactical HQ. He was a frequent visitor to the HQ, and Monty became a friend and took an interest in his career thereafter. After the Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942, Horrocks took command of 9th Corps in the 1st Army and Wyldbore-Smith moved with him. Horrocks nicknamed him "Rogue Elephant Jones", and the name stuck until the end of the war. He returned to regimental duties as a battery commander in 5th Regiment RHA and took part in the landings at Salerno in southern Italy. The day was uneventful, Wyldbore-Smith said afterwards. The only excitement was provided by Helen, his dalmatian, who had had a romance with an Arab dog some weeks earlier and gave birth to three puppies. After a spell in England, Wyldbore-Smith served at HQ 11th Armoured Division in the Normandy campaign before being posted to 179 Field Regiment (Worcestershire Yeomanry). Chester Wilmot, the Australian war correspondent, travelled with him in his armoured car. He took part in Operation "Market Garden", but missed the campaign in the Ardennes; Montgomery had asked him to write a military paper, and he was living in one of Monty's caravans at 8th Army Tactical HQ. He returned to his regiment in the Reichswald and acquired a Mercedes, two horses and a dog. At the end of the war in Europe Wyldbore-Smith organised a camp for 20,000 displaced persons. He moved to the British military staff in Washington DC before going to the War Office as military assistant to the CIGS. Monty could not work with the other chiefs of staff, Wyldbore-Smith said afterwards. He got on well with younger officers but with older ones he was tense and reserved. Weekly meetings were a continual battleground. After an appointment on the directing staff at Staff College, Camberley, Wyldbore-Smith joined the Royal Dragoons as second-in-command, accompanying them to Egypt. Promoted lieutenant-colonel, he moved to 7th Armoured Division as GSO1 and then commanded 15/19th Hussars in Malaya. In 1962, after attending the Imperial Defence College and a further stint at the War Office, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the C-in-C Far East Command. Following his return to England and promotion to major-general, he was made GOC 54th Territorial Division and Deputy Constable of Dover Castle. He retired from the Army in 1968 and moved to Grantham. Lord Carrington asked Wyldbore-Smith to help raise money for the Conservatives, and together they persuaded companies in the City to contribute to party funds. Wyldbore-Smith became a member of the Conservative Board of Finance and subsequently a director. He regarded the 10 years after 1979 when Mrs Thatcher became prime minister as the most stimulating time of his career. In 1992 he became a fund-raiser for the Thatcher Foundation. He was colonel of the 15/19th Hussars from 1970 to 1977. He enjoyed hunting and shooting and the garden, for which his wife, Molly, provided much of the inspiration. Wyldbore-Smith was appointed OBE in 1944, CB in 1965 and knighted in 1980. He published March Past (2001), a volume of memoirs. Brian Wyldbore-Smith died on December 6. He married, in 1944, Molly Cayzer, daughter of the 1st Lord Rotherwick. She predeceased him, and he is survived by three daughters. A son and a daughter also predeceased him.

Francis married The Hon. Molly Angela CAYZER, daughter of Col. Herbert Robin CAYZER 1st Baron Rotherwick and Freda Penelope RATHBORNE, on 1 Apr 1944. (The Hon. Molly Angela CAYZER was born on 6 Sep 1917 and died in Sep 2001.)