After three years at Junior Leaders, where his talents were already apparent in him being made a squad leader, Pete Birch joined the 7th Hussars in Hong Kong in 1955. They moved to Tidworth in 1957 for the Amalgamation with 3H to form The Queen’s Own Hussars, an armoured regiment which then moved to
Munster.
He served in Aden from January 1959 to July 1961 probably with the Aden Protectorate Levies, the first of his adventurous postings. He returned to the Regiment, first in Detmold, then as Training Regiment in Catterick from 1965 to 1967, after which we converted to armoured cars in Maresfield, Sussex, as base for a tour in the final stages of the Aden Campaign, with Pete in Sharjah with the detached ‘B’ Sqn.
He had specialised in Gunnery and became a Schools Instructor at Lulworth in 1969-70, including teaching one of the co-authors of this Obituary, and ‘B’ Sqn officers on conversion to Chieftain. Then back to tanks in Hohne as SQMS ‘B’ Sqn, rising to SSM of ‘C’ Sqn including Northern Ireland 1973 and training at Suffield in Canada.
In 1974 he was promoted to WO1, as RSM of Camp HQ of the United Nations Force in Nicosia, Cyprus (UNFICYP). He was awarded the MBE Military for his conduct over the period July – August 1974- in essence under fire carrying out his duties plus negotiating with the Greeks occupying the airport. The story goes that when a fully armed column of the invading Turks entered the perimeter of the camp, in a classic British RSM action, armed only with his pace stick, he marched out of the Guardroom, summoned the officer, and enquired their intentions. On being told it was to take over the camp, Pete told them firmly and successfully to push off – probably tactfully, as he later helped the UN negotiators greatly by using his fluency in German, which the Turks were better at than English. The GOC wrote ‘your personality being of greater effect than weapons’.
His final two years’ service to 1977 were as a popular and successful RSM of the Wessex Yeomanry.
On retirement he studied to qualify for a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work, and become the local authority Chief Education Welfare Officer for Wakefield Area and district where he is said certainly to have made some changes! He was family man, with two daughters, Erika and Alison, married to Margarete for 62 yrs, a leading member of the community, keen gardener and supporter of many charities. His daughter Erika, who kindly supplied much of our information, is married to ex Cpl Paul Chambers, son of the late WO1 Frank Chambers – both QOH.
Peter passed away on the 7th of December 2024.
