Lieutenant-Colonel Richard R Arthur MBE

Lieutenant Colonel Richard (Dick) Robert Arthur MBE was born in Jersey on 14 July 1951. His father was an officer in the Loyals. Dick was educated at Victoria College on the island and was a member of the Cadet Corps. Already adventurous by nature, he decided to join the British Army in 1968 as a member of 289 Battery RHA.

After completing his parachute training he was lured away to join the Royal Marines and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1970. He spent 5 years with them, serving in Northern Ireland, the Far East and in Malta. During his final year he attended the air adjutant’s course at RAF Brize Norton and made the acquaintance of Major H Jones. The inevitable high jinks arose and Dick was banished from the Officers’ Mess for the duration of the course.

His father, by now in the RAOC, was serving at Bicester and was able to have him accommodated there until the end of his course. Alas, Dick’s name had been tarnished and the Royal Marines decided not to extend his short-service commission. However, they agreed to sending him on Loan Service to Oman in 1975.

Dick was a standout success in Oman, commanding a battalion of the Sultan’s Forces and working closely with the SAS during his time there. He decided that he would join the SAS and applied for selection when his Oman tour ended. Unfortunately, he was now a civilian. This was no problem for Hereford and Dick successfully completed selection as an unpaid civilian – the first ever. His father came to the rescue after this and Dick was commissioned into the RAOC but he never wore their uniform or visited their Depot. It was a real paper posting.

His most noteworthy adventure with 22 SAS was the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980 when he was the Troop Commander of the assault team. He never spoke about this incident except to point out how good his men had been. In fact, he only spoke about this to a few other officers.
By this time he had decided that he needed to belong to an infantry regiment and applied to join the Parachute Regiment. His application was waved through and he turned up at Redford Barracks, Edinburgh in May 1981 to join 1 PARA. He was appointed 2IC C Coy and then became Ops Officer. Within a few months the battalion moved as Spearhead to Northern Ireland and Dick accompanied many patrols during this tour. Three months after the end of this emergency tour the battalion returned to Ulster and Dick demonstrated his great soldiering skills again. It has to be said that he had a vigorous relationship with the CO which was regularly calmed by his company commander.

Staff College was next for him, a bit of an ordeal as he detested cocktail commando soldiering. But he applied himself to the task and went back to 22 SAS as a squadron commander for two years. In 1989 he was appointed 2IC 22 SAS and got to work with his trademark determination. The First Gulf War broke out and Dick worked on the ground in Iraq for several months. He received an MBE for his efforts. After his spell with 22 SAS he ended up as CO 23 SAS. He was selected for RCDS and was delighted that he could now obtain a degree but he died of a brain tumour on 3 April 1996.