Lieut.-Colonel Alwyne Maudsley GABB (14439772)
Commanded the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from June 1966 to May 1969.
Alwyne Maudsley Gabb was born on the 29th March 1925 at Worcester. Son of Lieut.-Colonel S. A. Gabb, who commanded the 1st Battalion from 1935 to 1939, Alwyne Maudsley Gabb (known as Michael) joined the Army as a Private soldier on 21st October, 1943, at Glasgow, from where he was soon posted to Northern Ireland. He was commissioned into The Worcestershire Regiment, as 2nd Lieutenant, on 28th October, 1944, and posted to 23 I.T.C., Worcester, and then to the 8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, under Lieut.-Colonel A. R. Harrison, at Crickhowell. In 1946 he was posted, for the first of many tours of duty with the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, to ‘C’ Company, then commanded by Major Keith James, later to become his brother-in-law, at Gandesheim, Germany. He served with the 1st Battalion, first under Lieut.-Colonel C. P. G. Wills and then under Lieut.-Colonel R. E. L. Tuckey, from 1946 to 1949—at Trieste and Pola, in Austria, and at Luneberg and Berlin in Germany. He was promoted Captain on 23rd June 1949, and posted, as an Instructor, to the Army M.T. School, Bordon, of which Colonel Tuckey was now Commandant, towards the end of 1949. From 1951 to 1953 he commanded Training Company at The Depot, under Major, now Lieut.-Colonel, J. B. Brierley. |
Lieut.-Colonel A. M. Gabb |
On the 14th February 1952 Michael Gabb married Suzanne Mary Huxham, daughter of Mrs. Churcher and step-daughter of Major Churcher, at St. George's Garrison Church, Aldershot.
In December 1953, he rejoined the 1st Battalion, under Lieut.-Colonel C. P. Vaughan, at Bulford Camp, moved with the Battalion to Iserlohn, B.A.O.R., in February 1955, and was appointed Adjutant in April 1956—in which year the Battalion Trooped The Colour, at which the salute was taken by General Sir Richard Gale, then Commander-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine.
He remained with the 1st Battalion throughout its tour of duty in the West Indies in 1957 and 1958, under Lieut.-Colonel T. F. Hughes, and either served in, or visited, Jamaica, British Guiana, British Honduras and the Bahamas.
In May 1958, he was promoted Major, and in December 1958, he was appointed an Instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
In October 1961, he again rejoined the 1st Battalion, now under Lieut.-Colonel P. G. B. Hall, as a Company Commander, first at Norton Barracks, and later at Minden, B.A.O.R.
He was appointed Second-in-Command of the 1st Battalion, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel E. L. Trotter, in January 1964.
In January 1965, he was posted to Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, first as Company Commander of a Cadet Company, and for his last nine months there, as Chief Instructor.
He again rejoined the 1st Battalion, on his appointment of Commanding Officer, on 9th June, 1966, in Gibraltar, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel E. L. Trotter.
On a more personal note, he regularly represented the 1st Battalion, and often The Regiment, at Cricket, Rugby, Athletics, Hockey and Squash, and 2nd Infantry Division at Cricket, and he is, we believe, the only serving officer to have scored a century at Regimental Cricket Week since the war.
He accompanied his then Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel C. P. Vaughan, in an unsuccessful attempt to win the 2nd Infantry Division Car Rally in Germany in 1956—but lost due to someone’s bad map reading!!
At shooting he holds the somewhat non-meritorious distinction of having killed big game—by shooting a crocodile, in Jamaica!
But, under Michael Gabb’s command, the 1st Battalion won The Worcestershire Cup, at Bisley, for the first time ever (in 1967) while in 1968, also under his command, the 1st Battalion not only won the K.R.R.C. Cup at Bisley (Major Unit Championship), but did so by the convincing margin of no less than 31 points.
Under his command the 1st Battalion were also the first Infantry Battalion in the Army to take up the new sport of para-gliding.
Lieut.-Colonel Michael Gabb, concluded his successful tenure of command of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment on the 20th May 1969.
His next appointment, was as a T.R.O. 1 (Technical Research Officer) at the Army Personnel and Research Establishment at Farnborough, Hampshire. This was followed by being Commandant of the M.C.T.C. Colchester and lastly Commandant of Devon and Cornwall Training Area.
Lieut.-Colonel Michael Gabb retired voluntarily on the 9th July 1978 to take up an appointment as a R.O. (Retired Officer) as Commandant W.E.T.C. Okehampton.