Frank Douglas-Pennant, 6th Lord Penrhyn
Colonel the 6th Lord Penrhyn, who has died, 8 Nov 2003, aged
95, was awarded an MBE as brigade major of the 38th Irish Brigade in
North Africa in 1943, and a DSO as commander of the 5th
Reconnaissance Regiment during the advance to the Elbe in 1945.
In November 1942, Major Frank Douglas-Pennant (as he then was)
took part in the invasion of Algeria, with the 38th Irish Brigade.
For the next five months, until the final surrender of Axis forces
in Tunisia, this was in constant contact with the enemy, in a
succession of hard-fought battles.
Douglas-Pennant, a pre-war
regular officer from the King's Royal Rifle Corps, soon showed
himself to be "a cool and competent Staff Officer, quite unperturbed
by enemy actions", according to the citation for the MBE.
Attributing the smooth running of the headquarters to his
efficiency, Douglas-Pennant's brigade commander regretted the fact
that he had "not had the opportunity of performing any outstanding
and gallant act"; that opportunity soon came.
After taking part in the invasion of Sicily, Douglas-Pennant was
posted to his own regiment's 1st battalion, and then to 5th Recce as
commanding officer. The Reconnaissance Corps was founded in 1941 "to
gather vital tactical information in battle for the Infantry
Divisions". Equipped with the Humber armoured car, and later the
Daimler "wheeled tank", the recce regiments were in the forefront of
any advance.
After a period protecting communications between
Naples and Foggia, the 5th were sent to the Anzio beachhead. Three
months of fighting followed which ended for the regiment at Ostia,
at the mouth of the Tiber. In the spring of 1945, it was sent to
Marseilles, and then by train to Holland and on into Germany; and
within weeks, the regiment was spearheading 5th Infantry Division's
push to the Elbe.
On April 21/22, after an approach march of
120 miles, 5th Recce went straight into action clearing the enemy
from woods and villages north-east of Uelzen. On both days,
Douglas-Pennant could be found wherever the opposition was stiffest,
encouraging his troops and exercising his considerable tactical
skills.
"His complete disregard for his own safety was an
inspiration to his officers and men," the citation for his DSO
declared. "This action was the culminating example of this officer's
outstanding leadership of his regiment, which he has already shown
in action in the Anzio beachhead."
Malcolm Frank
Douglas-Pennant, second son of the 5th Baron Penrhyn, was born on
July 11 1908, only a few months after his father's horse Rubio, who
had been found between the shafts of an omnibus in Towcester, had
won the Grand National at odds of 66-1.
Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Douglas-Pennant was commissioned
into the 60th Regiment, the King's Royal Rifle Corps - in which his
father had served before him. Joining the 1st Battalion at Lucknow
in India, he moved with it to Calcutta and Burma, where he became
adjutant. In August 1938, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion at
Tidworth, and was training recruits at Winchester when war was
declared.
In July 1940 he attended the Staff College at
Camberley before returning to the 2nd Battalion, and being posted on
to the 38th Irish Brigade as Brigade Major. After his service in
North Africa, Douglas-Pennant was a logical choice to command 5th
Recce. The regiment had started life as the 3rd Tower Hamlets
Rifles. The men soon found they had an inspirational leader,
courteous, modest to the point of shyness, and inclined to take a
lenient view of minor transgressions.
Having commanded his
regiment from Anzio to the Elbe, Douglas-Pennant found himself
driving on to the Baltic. At Neustadt, 5th Recce came upon a group
of concentration camp survivors who had been brought there to be
disposed of by being sent to sea in ships and sunk. Douglas-Pennant
found a well-equipped German hospital nearby awaiting Wehrmacht
casualties; the authorities were reluctant to tend to the camp
victims until Douglas-Pennant drew his pistol.
After 5th Recce disbanded when war ended, Douglas-Pennant served
on the Staff in Brunswick and Hanover. In 1948, reverting to his
substantive rank of Major, he returned to England as
second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion of the 60th at Barton Stacey.
Three years later he was involved in the preparations for the merger
of the KRRC and the Rifle Brigade to form the Royal Green Jackets.
After taking a year's leave, he took command of the 2nd
Battalion Royal Green Jackets in Winchester, moving with it to
Tidworth, and in 1953 to Munster, in Germany. The following spring
he returned to Winchester to command the regimental depot until his
retirement from the Army as a full colonel in 1958.
Douglas-Pennant then took up farming near Bishops Waltham in
Hampshire. In 1967 his father, who had made his maiden speech in the
House of Lords at the age of 100 only two years earlier, died. Since
his elder brother had predeceased him without a male heir,
Douglas-Pennant succeeded to the title as 6th Baron Penrhyn.
Since the family home, Penrhyn Castle in Gwynedd, had passed to the
National Trust in 1951, the new Lord Penrhyn continued to live at
Dean Farm until 1980, when he moved to Littleton Manor, near
Winchester. He hosted a number of reunions of the 5th Reconnaissance
Regiment at his home.
A keen birdwatcher, conservationist and
fisherman, Penrhyn was also a first-class shot, captaining the Army
team for three years and shooting for the House of Lords. A church
warden and a member of the parochial church council, he was also
involved in children's charities.
Lord Penrhyn, who died on
November 8, married, in 1954, Elizabeth Rosemary Laurie. She died
last year, and he is survived by their two daughters.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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