Malcolm, or Tiny, as he was affectionally known throughout the Regiment, began his Army service in 1953 as a member of Boys Squadron RAC and was badged to the 4th Hussars in 1955 where he served until amalgamation in 1958 created the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars.
His service continued in the Irish Hussars serving in BAOR (Hohne), Aden, Malaya, Borneo, Wolfenbuttel, Tidworth and back to Paderborn until 1973 when he was posted as WO1 to RMCS Shrivenham finally moving to the Army reserve in 1977, his reserve service finished in 1992.
A memorable period was his time as SSM A Squadron; in Paderborn, when the Big ‘A’ were on entertainments they transformed the Mess on two special occasions namely the St Patrick’s and Balaclava Balls into an Irish Village and a Medieval Castle respectively.
Malcolm was a keen sportsman with strong interests in boxing, judo and skiing, he was a good boxer, and also a great judo man reaching the brown belt category, a man of many talents, another of these being his Punch and Judy shows enjoyed by many children and indeed their parents at parties and Christmas time.
Another involvement that he enjoyed as did many others was the skiffle group Tiny Tom and the Tomcats, Malcolm married Lilian in 1961 and they had two children Sarah and David. They continued with the Irish Hussars until Malcolm was posted to RMCS Shrivenham in 1973 where he became an active member of the Army Bird Watching Society.
The family eventually settled down in Swindon were on leaving the Army Malcolm became employed as a BSA in that area.
Malcolm was awarded the GSM 1962 with Borneo clasp in September 1965 and in June 1971 was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
It was with great sadness that we heard of Malcolm’s untimely death in October 2006 at the young age of 69, on our return from the Balaclava Troop weekend, in that same October where he and Lily had been the subject of many conversations, as they used to enjoy attending these functions.
