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Derek Horsford

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British Army general (1917–2007)

Derek Horsford
Major General Horsford and Pengiran Yusof in Brunei, 1970
Born(1917-02-07)7 February 1917
London, United Kingdom
Died5 October 2007(2007-10-05) (aged 90)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1938–1971
RankMajor-General
Service number380035
Commands4th Battalion, 1st Gurkha Rifles
1st Bn King's Regiment
24th Infantry Brigade
50th (Northumbrian) Division/District
Yorkshire District
17th Gurkha Division
Battles / wars
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order & bar

Major-General Derek Gordon Thomond Horsford CBE DSO & bar (7 February 1917 – 5 October 2007) was a British Army officer who commanded the 17th Gurkha Division.

Military career

Educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Horsford was commissioned into the 8th Gurkha Rifles in Quetta in 1938. He saw active service in the Second World War and became Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion the 1st Gurkha Rifles in 1944. He led his battalion at the Battle of Kohima securing Hunter's Hill in Burma under heavy fire.

After a tour on the staff of General Sir Claude Auchinleck in Delhi, he transferred to the Royal Artillery and became an Instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, in 1950. After service in Korea, he was appointed Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion the King's Regiment on its formation in 1958. After service as Assistant Adjutant-General at the War Office, in 1960 he was appointed Commander of 24th Infantry Brigade in which role he was rushed to Kuwait to respond to the threat from Abdul Kassem who had seized power in Iraq. He went on to be Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations) at the Ministry of Defence in 1964, General Officer Commanding 50th (Northumbrian) Division/District of the Territorial Army in 1966 and General Officer Commanding Yorkshire District in 1967. His last appointments were as General Officer Commanding 17th Gurkha Division and Malaya District in 1969 and Deputy Commander Land Forces, Hong Kong in 1970 before retiring in 1971.

From 1965 to 1970 he was Colonel of the King's Regiment.

Family

In 1948 he married Sheila Kitson (née Crawford); they had a son, a stepson and two stepdaughters. Following the death of his first wife, he married Gillian Moorhouse (née Horsford), who brought him two more stepsons, in 1996.

References

  1. "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p427: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
  2. ^ Obituary: Major-General Derek Horsford The Telegraph, 11 October 2007
  3. Army Commands Archived 5 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "The Kings Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
Military offices
Preceded byRichard Keith-Jones GOC 50th (Northumbrian) Division/District
1966–1967 		Succeeded byRex Whitworth
(as GOC North East District)
Preceded byArthur Patterson General Officer Commanding 17th Gurkha Division
1969–1970 		Succeeded byPost Disbanded
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