When Dick Webster joined the VIII Kings Royal Irish Hussars a couple of years before its amalgamation with the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars he arrived with something of a sporting reputation.
As a local unpaid Lance Corporal at the Green Jackets Depot in Winchester, he had become its Light-Heavyweight boxing champion and he was also known to fence and ride a horse.
These activities he pursued when he joined his regiment from Sandhurst (the third generation of his family to do so) and he represented it best as a pentathlete – that now almost forgotten discipline involving fencing, shooting, riding, swimming and running.
After three years as a troop leader and now in the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, he was posted to the Malayan army where he saw active service as the emergency in that country was drawing to a close. This was followed by a stint as ADC to General John (Shan) Hackett, then GOC of Northern Ireland – a posting rather more demanding than jungle warfare in Malaya.
Having returned to the regiment when it too was deployed to Malaya (soon to become Malaysia) and Singapore he was able to relate at some length to a wide-eyed assembly of troop leaders how best to live and work in the jungle. Little did he know that within weeks his theories were to be put to the test as the Irish Hussars were sent on active service to Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei as the Indonesian government and internal rebels tried to take over these outposts of British colonialism – a conflict which became known as Confrontation.
It was during idle moments in Borneo and back at base in Ipoh that Dick developed a passion for backgammon (at which he was not very good) and poker (rather better). His success at the poker table was all the more surprising because Dick did not possess a poker face and his play was often accompanied by a running commentary designed to shake the confidence of the opposition.
On returning to the United Kingdom Dick now embarked on a series of postings away from his regiment: a tour as an instructor at the Royal Armoured Corps Centre at Bovington, Army Staff College at Shrivenham and Camberley, followed by a staff appointment. His return to the Irish Hussars at Paderborn as a squadron leader was something of a revelation. He led ‘B’ Squadron with a cavalier panache rarely seen in peacetime, the twin results being an exceptionally well-trained body of men and a heavy load for the technical quartermaster as he sought to make good without official enquiries, the damage done to the squadron’s tanks as Dick led them through almost impenetrable forests and the boggiest of marshland from where he judged, the potential enemy would be both surprised and beaten.
His command of the regiment a few years later was marked by a similar flavour of traditional cavalry dash including leading his immaculate tanks and their crews at the head of the 4th Armoured Division as it paraded in her presence to mark the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the Second. And on one of the frequent visits of the Colonel-in-Chief, he arranged that Prince Philip should dine with all ranks of the regiment a magnificent occasion without precedent at which over 400 sat down, the remainder producing and serving the food and drink.
After leaving the Irish Hussars for the last time he went on to command the British Army Training Unit at Suffield in Canada, the RAC Centre and finally 2nd Infantry Brigade which included being Deputy Constable of Dover Castle. His subsequent civilian employment was equally distinguished.
Dick Webster was a regimental character of the old school. He was widely known throughout the army and his bombastic approach was sometimes misunderstood. Beneath that garrulous and often loud – but always amusing – exterior lay the kindest and most generous of hearts. He endured family problems with a stoic determination as first his younger daughter fell seriously ill and then his wife Sue died far too early. To his daughters, Victoria and Charlotte, and Jill Griffith his caring companion for the last years of his life, go our deepest sympathy. A well-used cliché has it that ‘we shall never see his like again’. In Dick’s case, this is undoubtedly a fact.
