Roly died at his home on December 1st at the age of 84. He had a long and distinguished career with the ‘Intelligence’ branches of the Services both during and after the last war.
He was originally commissioned in June 1918 in the Royal Horse Artillery with whom he saw active service during the last months of the First World War. In July 1920 he transferred to the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars, with which his brother had been serving when killed in action in September 1914. Roly then served with the Regiment both at Home and in India, but after 1930 much of his time was spent away in Staff appointments and on other duties.
Languages came easily to him for he became a qualified interpreter in French, Russian and German, which must have greatly influenced his future. Always cheerful, he had great charm, making friends easily with all whom he met, whatever their nationality or interests might be — by these he will be sadly missed.
He never spoke much about his work and was very modest about all he did. But, he must have had an exceptionally interesting career, his work taking him to the most interesting places at some of the most interesting times.
In 1931 he was sent on duty to Riga for nine months, before taking the examination for the Staff College, to which he went as a student from 1933 to 1934. After passing out of the Staff College and a short spell of Regimental Duty, he was sent on a six-week attachment with the German Army, under an exchange scheme. This was at the time when the Germans were beginning to build up their forces, and he found the experience extremely interesting as well as very enjoyable.
1936 saw him a GSO III in the Military Intelligence Directorate of the War Office and 1938 as Military Attache in Warsaw, the post he was in when war broke out.
After the outbreak of hostilities and the departure of our Embassy, he took up his mobilisation appointment of GSO II to our Military Mission to Poland. This was formed under General Carton De Wiart and stayed on in that country until all resistance had ceased.
The Mission eventually broke up, and after many adventures to avoid being interned, Roly and his General arrived in Paris via Romania and Yugoslavia, as Mr Sword, a statistician, and Mr Carton, an author — from there they were flown back to England.
For his services in Poland, Roly was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Polish Cross of Valour.
Thereafter followed postings as GSO II (Intelligence) IV Corps, another short spell at the War Office, and GSO I (Intelligence) Southern Command.
From 1941 to 1946 he was GSO I (Intelligence) in the Inter-Services Topographical Department, later becoming Deputy-Superintendent and Chairman. Roly describes this as rather a pioneering venture, and as he was the first GI in charge of the Army side, he had to study ‘Intelligence Operations’ in various parts of the world.
His duties took him to places as far afield as Washington, Ottawa, Paris, Brussels, Caserta, Delhi, Kandy, Calcutta and Cairo.
He retired from the Army in 1946 and joined the Joint Intelligence Bureau (later Defence Intelligence Staff) at the Ministry of Defence, and was awarded the OBE in 1959.
In 1960 he retired from the Joint Intelligence Bureau and joined another branch of the Ministry of Defence where he remained until 1977 when he finally retired at the age of 78 after 60 years of service to his country.
