Lieutenant Colonel W D Griffiths DSO MC

Lieutenant Colonel W D GriffithsCommanded 1/7th Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment from July 1944 to December 1944.

William Dilsmore Griffiths was born on 21st March 1915 and enlisted in The East Surrey Regiment in 1933 and after attending the Infantry OCTU at Sandhurst in 1940 was granted a Regular Army Emergency Commission in The Queen's Royal Regiment and thereafter served in the l/7th Battalion until December 1944. He was awarded the Military Cross in April 1943 and a bar to it in January 1944 for gallantry in North Africa and Italy respectively.

In November 1943 he became 2 i/c of the Battalion and in July 1944 was appointed to command it. He led the Battalion in N W Europe until December 1944 when the Battalion was posted back to England. For his distinguished Leadership he was awarded the DSO in December 1944 and a bar to it in March 1945.

In December 1944 he attended the Staff College and later held various Staff appointments, including being a member of the Directing Staff at the Staff College, Camberley, from November 1949 to December 1952.

In 194G he had been granted a Regular Army Commission in the Regiment. From 1953 to 1954 he was 2 i/c of 3rd Bn The Parachute Regiment.

In September 1954 he was appointed to command the 7th Regiment of The Arab Legion but was recalled in March 1956 and after further service in the UK retired from the Army in December 1957. See J M A Tamplin's The Lambeth and Southwark Volunteers page 299.

Died 23rd April 1993 aged 78.

Obituary of Lt Col W D Griffiths The Queen's Royal Regiment. QRSRNL May 1993 p 41 and Nov 1993

 

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