Nicholas Wide RIP

Kyt · Aug 25, 2008

Nicholas Wide - Telegraph

Nicholas Wide , who has died aged 85, won an immediate MC in action at La Rivière, Gold Beach, Normandy, on D-Day+1.

Aged just 21, Wide was a lieutenant and troop leader with C Squadron of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards. His troop had been sent on ahead of the squadron, and near Audrieu railway station his Sherman tank was hit twice by 88mm anti-tank gun fire. His driver and co-driver were killed, but the tank careered on, out of control.

Despite all this, and the fact that the tank was now approaching a railway cutting, Wide engaged the enemy gun with high- explosive shells. Just before the cutting, he and his gunner and wireless operator baled out. They then crossed a field under Spandau fire, making their way to a wood, which was surrounded by German infantry.

According to the citation for his MC, Wide "piloted his men through enemy lines and returned to his squadron on foot some four hours later". His own account of his return to his squadron focused less on the enemy fire than on the field's stinking mayweed, to which he was allergic. He also ruefully recalled his colonel's enthusiastic reassurance that he was not to worry as they would have a new tank for him by morning.

Shortly afterwards Wide demonstrated great courage when a brave medical officer (though warned of the presence of Germans) went down a farm track to look for wounded, and was shot.

Wide left his tank and, in full view of the source of the firing, recovered the doctor's body. A wartime colleague and friend, now General Sir Robert Ford, called him "an outstanding troop leader".

The 4th/7th was in the thick of fighting from D-Day to the end of the war. In the process 141 of the regiment's tanks were destroyed or damaged beyond "local repair". Three of those tanks had been commanded by Wide, whose experience at Audrieu had been an early lesson in the too often fatal inadequacy of the Sherman's armour.

Later all tanks had plates welded to the hulls and turrets. Wide's tanks could scarcely be seen beneath this improvised refinement, though he thought the benefit was more in terms of morale than actual protection.

Nicholas Scott Wide was born on May 7 1923 at Nottingham, the younger son the Reverend Leonard Wide, a minister in the Congregational Church, and his wife Kathleen. After a time in Burnley, the family moved to Kettering, Northamptonshire. Nick was educated at Silcoates School, Wakefield, and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was an enthusiastic – if, at rather less than 5ft 5in tall, diminutive – stroke in one of the numerous Lady Margaret boats.

Before taking his degree, he left Cambridge and went to Sandhurst, where his qualities were noticed by a staff member who had been in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, and he was commissioned into the regiment.

In 1946 he saw service in Palestine. He then went to Bovington as an instructor, before returning to Cambridge to complete his degree. By this time, he had married Ruth Bird, known as Bunty, whom he had met playing cricket, aged nine. She was a daughter of Thomas N Bird, a shoe manufacturer, later chairman of Dolcis.

Initially, Wide worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at Guildford, and then went into the shoe trade, in time setting up his own successful business at Wollaston, Northants. He referred to himself as a "small shoe manufacturer": he was not very tall, his factory was modest in size and he made children's shoes.

In his early fifties he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a condition he bore with characteristic fortitude. A handsome and dapper man, always stylishly turned out, he went straight from the doctor's consulting room to Asprey's, where he bought a silver-topped, cherrywood walking stick inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

His illness did, however, prompt him to sell his business and retire early to the south coast, where he was looked after devotedly by his wife.

He developed a deep knowledge of 20th-century British art, and also painted until his illness made this too difficult. He kept up with former comrades from the 4th/7th and returned to Normandy on several occasions.

A man of great charm, he was distinguished by his unfailing courtesy, interest in other people, and his modesty about his wartime achievements.

Nick Wide, who died on August 10, is survived by his wife and their three sons.
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Antipodean Andy · Aug 25, 2008

A survivor in more ways than one who certainly made the most of life. RIP.

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Nicholas Wide RIP

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