Colonel David Owen RIP

Kyt · Nov 30, 2007

Colonel David Owen - Telegraph

Colonel David Owen, who has died aged 91, was awarded a DSO in Italy in 1945 at the age of 28.

Owen served with 2nd Medium Regiment RA (2MR) for most of the Second World War. In 1944, as a major and 2nd-in-command of the regiment during the long slog up Italy, he had the task of reconnoitring under shell and mortar fire forward areas which were often heavily mined.

Because of the mines, the casualty rate amongst 2i/cs was very high, but Owen took no notice of the danger and always volunteered for the most dangerous operations. In the citation for the award, his CO stated: "Owen has carried out deployment duties with great gallantry, duties which are only too easy to shirk. He has commanded the Regiment for long periods with complete success. He well deserves a DSO."

David Ronald Moorsom Owen was born at Harleston, Norfolk, on September 15 1916. He was educated at Wellington before going to RMA Woolwich. The instructors quickly singled him out as a potential boxer for the Army, but David's father told the commandant in plain language that his job was to turn his son into a soldier, not a prize-fighter.

Owen was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1936; his commission was one of the few granted by King Edward VIII. He then attended a Young Officers' Course at Larkhill - it proved to be the last to use horses to deploy 18-pounders on the ranges - and was then posted to 2MR.

During the evacuation from Dunkirk he and some comrades waded into the sea after dark with their boots tied around their necks and grabbed a stray assault boat equipped with oars. Owen found that he was the only person who could row and they managed to get to a destroyer. On the way across the Channel the ship hit a sandbank, suddenly reducing their speed, while a torpedo passed just ahead of them and another just astern.

After Joint Services Staff College followed by command of Z (Independent) Light Battery in Dortmund, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel and appointed CO of Junior Leaders Regiment at Hereford. On one occasion, needing to consult his Guards RSM and having just come from a battery, he unthinkingly called out, "BSM!" This elicited the pained reply, "Sir, I have never before been called a bloody Sergeant-Major!"

After a spell as AA&QMG at HQ I British Corps he was promoted full colonel and appointed deputy commandant of the School of Artillery. The river Avon ran past the bottom of his garden, and he enjoyed many opportunities for fishing.

A tour as gunnery liaison officer at the British embassy in Washington led to a final Army appointment as assistant adjutant-general in the Manning Directorate of the MoD.

He retired from the Army in 1971 and was appointed OBE. As a younger man he had played rugby, cricket and hockey and he remained a keen sailor.

A spell in Norfolk was followed by a move to Devon, where he took up bell-ringing; on one memorable occasion he forgot to let go of the rope and was hoisted off his feet.

Owen celebrated his 80th birthday with a flight in a hot-air balloon and helped with hedging, ditching, fencing, harvesting Christmas trees and feeding the deer until he was 85.

David Owen died on October 10. He married, in 1949, Margaret Weakford, who at the time worked for MI5. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their daughter.
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morse1001 · Dec 1, 2007

Interesting life! i enjoyed the story about the RSM!

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Colonel David Owen RIP

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