Many old 4th Hussars, 8th Hussars and a number of Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars will have heard with personal regret of the death of Bobby Kidd.
Colonel Bobby joined the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars as Second in Command from The Royals in June 1942, on the Race Course in Cairo. Appropriate enough, as fifteen years previous he was prominent as a jockey on that same Course when The Royals were stationed at Abbassia.
He immediately became a fervid, enthusiastic Fourth Hussar. Very few regular officers or men remained, the Regiment lacked equipment and the future looked bleak, but Bobby Kidd never lost his determination to get the Regiment back on its feet.
Colonel Bobby was a magnificent Commanding Officer both in battle and in training and administration. Though small in stature he had a lion size heart. Nothing was too much trouble; nothing was impossible.
He never asked a Troop to do what he would not have undertaken himself. He was shrewd and had a military cunning which many times was of great advantage to the Regiment.
He was a strict disciplinarian and intensely jealous of the good name of the Regiment. Even back “at rest” the turn out of every man and vehicle was outstanding in the whole of the 8th Army, and training continued intensively.
He had, however, a very human side to him, and a most sympathetic ear for those in trouble; and he had a strong sense of justice with compassion. He loved his horses and ponies, was a keen polo player and was a wonderful schooler of ponies. He was a first-class shot, and those who woke early will remember him on Sunday mornings going off after duck and snipe in the Nile Delta.
Colonel Bobby Kidd left the Regiment on 7th November 1944. The Regiment was resting in the Italian village of Monte San Vito, and the finest tribute one can pay is to recall that the whole Regiment turned out and lined the streets of that little hilltop town, and cheered him as he drove slowly away.
