Colonel Malcolm Frank Douglas-Pennant
Colonel Malcolm Frank Douglas-Pennant, 6th Baron Penrhyn DSO MBE (11
July 1908 – 8 November 2003) was a Welsh peer, soldier, rifleman,
and farmer, and the second son of Frank Douglas-Pennant, 5th Baron Penrhyn.
Colonel the 6th Lord Penrhyn, who has died aged 95,
was awarded an MBE as brigade major of the 38th Irish Brigade in
North Africa in 1943, and a DSO as commander of the 5th
Reconnaissance Regiment during the advance to the Elbe in 1945.
In November 1942, Major Frank Douglas-Pennant (as he then was)
took part in the invasion of Algeria, with the 38th Irish Brigade.
For the next five months, until the final surrender of Axis forces
in Tunisia, this was in constant contact with the enemy, in a
succession of hard-fought battles.
Douglas-Pennant, a pre-war regular officer from the King's Royal
Rifle Corps, soon showed himself to be "a cool and competent Staff
Officer, quite unperturbed by enemy actions", according to the
citation for the MBE. Attributing the smooth running of the
headquarters to his efficiency, Douglas-Pennant's brigade commander
regretted the fact that he had "not had the opportunity of
performing any outstanding and gallant act"; that opportunity soon
came.
After taking part in the invasion of Sicily, Douglas-Pennant was
posted to his own regiment's 1st battalion, and then to 5th Recce as
commanding officer. The Reconnaissance Corps was founded in 1941 "to
gather vital tactical information in battle for the Infantry
Divisions". Equipped with the Humber armoured car, and later the
Daimler "wheeled tank", the recce regiments were in the forefront of
any advance.
After a period protecting communications between Naples and
Foggia, the 5th were sent to the Anzio beachhead. Three months of
fighting followed which ended for the regiment at Ostia, at the
mouth of the Tiber. In the spring of 1945, it was sent to
Marseilles, and then by train to Holland and on into Germany; and
within weeks, the regiment was spearheading 5th Infantry Division's
push to the Elbe.
On April 21/22, after an approach march of 120
miles, 5th Recce went straight into action clearing the enemy from
woods and villages north-east of Uelzen. On both days,
Douglas-Pennant could be found wherever the opposition was stiffest,
encouraging his troops and exercising his considerable tactical
skills.
"His complete disregard for his own safety was an inspiration to
his officers and men," the citation for his DSO declared. "This
action was the culminating example of this officer's outstanding
leadership of his regiment, which he has already shown in action in
the Anzio beachhead."
Malcolm Frank Douglas-Pennant, second son of the 5th Baron
Penrhyn, was born on July 11 1908, only a few months after his
father's horse Rubio, who had been found between the shafts of an
omnibus in Towcester, had won the Grand National at odds of 66-1.
Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Douglas-Pennant was commissioned
into the 60th Regiment, the King's Royal Rifle Corps - in which his
father had served before him. Joining the 1st Battalion at Lucknow
in India, he moved with it to Calcutta and Burma, where he became
adjutant. In August 1938, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion at
Tidworth, and was training recruits at Winchester when war was
declared.
In July 1940 he attended the Staff College at Camberley
before returning to the 2nd Battalion, and being posted on to the
38th Irish Brigade as Brigade Major. After his service in North
Africa, Douglas-Pennant was a logical choice to command 5th Recce.
The regiment had started life as the 3rd Tower Hamlets Rifles. The
men soon found they had an inspirational leader, courteous, modest
to the point of shyness, and inclined to take a lenient view of
minor transgressions.
Having commanded his regiment from Anzio to the Elbe,
Douglas-Pennant found himself driving on to the Baltic. At Neustadt,
5th Recce came upon a group of concentration camp survivors who had
been brought there to be disposed of by being sent to sea in ships
and sunk. Douglas-Pennant found a well-equipped German hospital
nearby awaiting Wehrmacht casualties; the authorities were reluctant
to tend to the camp victims until Douglas-Pennant drew his pistol.
After 5th Recce disbanded when war ended, Douglas-Pennant served
on the Staff in Brunswick and Hanover. In 1948, reverting to his
substantive rank of Major, he returned to England as
second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion of the 60th at Barton Stacey.
Three years later he was involved in the preparations for the merger
of the KRRC and the Rifle Brigade to form the Royal Green Jackets.
After taking a year's leave, he took command of the 2nd
Battalion Royal Green Jackets in Winchester, moving with it to
Tidworth, and in 1953 to Munster, in Germany. The following spring
he returned to Winchester to command the regimental depot until his
retirement from the Army as a full colonel in 1958.
Douglas-Pennant then took up farming near Bishops Waltham in
Hampshire. In 1967 his father, who had made his maiden speech in the
House of Lords at the age of 100 only two years earlier, died. Since
his elder brother had predeceased him without a male heir,
Douglas-Pennant succeeded to the title as 6th Baron Penrhyn.
Since the family home,
Penrhyn Castle in Gwynedd, had passed to the National Trust in
1951, the new Lord Penrhyn continued to live at Dean Farm until
1980, when he moved to Littleton Manor, near Winchester. He hosted a
number of reunions of the 5th Reconnaissance Regiment at his home.
A keen birdwatcher, conservationist and fisherman, Penrhyn was
also a first-class shot, captaining the Army team for three years
and shooting for the House of Lords. A church warden and a member of
the parochial church council, he was also involved in children's
charities.
Lord Penrhyn, who died on November 8, 2003 at his home at Martyr
Worthy, married, in 1954,
Elizabeth Rosemary Laurie. She died last year (2002), and he is
survived by their two daughters.
His older brother
predeceased both him and his father without male issue. His father
was 101 years and 74 days when he died on 3 February 1967 and was
then the oldest ever hereditary peer, a record was not surpassed
until the death of the seventh Viscount St Vincent in September
2006.
After Malcolm too died without male issue (he had two
daughters, Gillian and Rosemary), the title of Lord Penrhyn passed to his nephew,
Simon.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
Notes:
• I am advised that he served as commander of the 5th Recce Regiment
in Damascus in May 1943.
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