Nick Sibley did his National Service with the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars in Germany.
His fellow subalterns much liked this cherubic newcomer, not least perhaps because he arrived with a car which enabled some of them to join him in trips to the naughtier parts of Hamburg and which he generously lent to his friends when he was not using it.
The early months of National Service were taken up by basic training and officer cadet school so that Sibley served barely eighteen months with the regiment – the highlight of which, as a troop leader in ‘B’ Squadron, was an exercise in Denmark – before he was released to Trinity College Oxford from which he was rusticated, never to return.
Although brief, his time with the 8th was enough for him to appreciate the advantages of life in a cavalry regiment – the fun, the camaraderie, the sense of belonging to a team doing a worthwhile job and the opportunities for travel and adventure. This persuaded him to become a reserve officer which, at that time committed him to spending at least a fortnight a year with the regiment – now the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars – wherever it might be.
This he did for thirty years, earning a Territorial Decoration and becoming a valuable and much valued member of the Officers’ Mess and the Regimental Association.
Nick’s civilian career began as he trained in accountancy which led him to a spectacularly successful series of increasingly influential financial appointments in Hong Kong and London.
So admired was he by his colleagues and business rivals in the Far East that an aphorism known as Sibley’s law became quoted all over the world: ‘Giving capital to a banker is like giving a gallon of beer to a drunk. You know what will come out but you can’t know which wall he will choose.’
Nick’s annual visits to the regiment were anticipated with pleasure by his contemporaries and, as time went by, by those much younger. Sometimes he stayed with a married brother-officer but he was perhaps happiest living in the officers’ mess with endless opportunities for Bridge and Backgammon his two gaming passions.
He very rarely concluded a fortnight in financial deficit. He was, of course always up for a party, once organising in Paderborn a fancy-dress tea-party at which everyone was asked to come as a baby – to be refreshed by alcoholic jellies and milk-bottles filled by Sibley (wearing nappies and a romper suit) with a concoction of vodka laced milk.
To his regimental friends he was unfailingly generous. Irish Hussar officers posted to Hong Kong before the Colony’s hand-over to China were looked after generously and his houses in Hong Kong and the south of France (and later in New Zealand and the Caribbean) were always welcoming to friends. Two significant birthdays in France were celebrated in the company, successively, of the regimental Band and the Pipes and Drums.
His collection of vintage Rolls-Royces, scattered variously in Hong Kong, France and Japan were put to good use ferrying his friends to lunch, dinner or the races for hours of fun. Each table at regimental officers’ dinners in London was adorned by a bottle of Hine brandy delivered by wine-merchants Corney and Barrow (of which he was a director) at Nick’s expense whether he was able to be present or not.
In short Nick’s Sibley’s death will leave a large hole in the lives of his regimental friends. His lovely wife, Sally, of well over fifty years, died in 2021 and it is to Damian, their son, and Alice their daughter, and their families that we send our profound sympathy. Nick and Sally will be hugely missed.
