Glyn Gilbert

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Glyn Gilbert
Born15 August 1920
Died26 September 2003(2003-09-26) (aged 83)
Allegiance 
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Military Cross

Major General Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert CB MC (15 August 1920 – 26 September 2003) was a 20th-century British military officer who saw active service during the Second World War. In 1970 he became the highest ranking Bermudian military officer when he was promoted to the rank of major general in the British Army.

Early life

Gilbert was born into a family with its roots in the 17th century settlement of

Royal West Kent Regiment, before serving on the Western Front in the Machine Gun Corps.[4][6][7] Other Bermudian students in Britain similarly left their studies to serve in the British Army, including another Bermudian Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Lennock de Graaf Godet, killed in action while serving in the Royal Flying Corps.[8]
During the Second World War, Gilbert was also in charge of cable censorship in Bermuda.

Glyn Gilbert was born in England, where his father worked briefly after leaving the Army following the end of the Great War. Raised in Bermuda, he was sent to

Lincolnshire Regiment.[1] Two contingents from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps had served with the Lincolnshire Regiment on the Western Front, during the Great War
. Since the 1920s, the affiliation between the two units had been given official sanction, with the Lincolns taking a paternal relationship towards the BVRC, akin to that it had with its own Territorial battalions. The BVRC would send drafts to the Lincolns again, in 1940 and 1944.

Service in Second World War

In 1944, Major Gilbert, as

Bremen.[1] He was one of four Bermudians who served in the Lincolns during the War and who attained the rank of major while serving in the regiment (the others were Anthony Frith Smith, John Brownlow-Tucker, and Patrick Purcell). Another volunteer from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, who transferred to the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1940, Lieutenant Bernard John Abbott, a school teacher who had originally been commissioned into the Bermuda Cadet Corps
, would end the war as an honorary lieutenant-colonel.

Post-war service

After the War, Gilbert was attached to the Third Battalion of the

.

Gilbert also played a pivotal role in the development of the Royal Bermuda Regiment, the Bermudian territorial unit formed in 1965 by amalgamating the BVRC (which had been renamed the Bermuda Rifles) with the Bermuda Militia Artillery. The original mandated strength of the Bermuda Regiment (which became a Royal regiment in 2015) was about 400, all ranks. Following discipline problems during an exercise in the West Indies, a report on the unit was commissioned from Major-General Gilbert, who also took into account the difficulties the regiment subsequently experienced in meeting its obligations when embodied during the civil unrest of 1977, when it had proven under-strength and had required regular army reinforcement. He made a number of recommendations, including the increase of the regiment's strength to a full battalion of about 750, with three rifle companies and a support company.

Private life

In 1943, Gilbert married Heather Mary Jackson, and they had three sons, including Major Graham Gilbert, and one daughter.[11]

In retirement, Gilbert continued to live at Heytesbury. A member of the Army and Navy Club, in Who's Who he stated his recreation as "following the sun".[11] His wife died in 2000, and he himself died in 2003, at the age of 83.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Obituary: Major-General Glyn Gilbert The Telegraph, 24 October 2003
  2. ^ "An Overview of Our History". Christ Church. Retrieved 3 July 2021. Christ Church was built in 1719 on land given by Thomas Gilbert of the Warwick Tribe
  3. .
  4. ^ a b The Rhodes Trust Register of Bermuda Rhodes Scholars: 1913: GILBERT, Charles Gray Gosling
  5. ^ "Bermuda Ministry of Education; Gilbert Institute". Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  6. ^ The Royal Gazette, 6 April 1915: MR. C. G. G. GILBERT GRANTED A COMMISSION.
  7. ^ Extract: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES GRAY GOSLING GILBERT, O.B.E., M.C.. 27 November 1839 9 September 1981. Published by his sons Glyn, John and David.
  8. ^ POTSI (archived): 2/LT Lennock de Graaf Godet
  9. ^ "Red Devils: History". Archived from the original on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  10. ^ a b c Army Commands Archived 5 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ )

External links

Military offices
Preceded by
3rd Division

1970–1972
Succeeded by