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Dead Pool 2019

Mrs Steve Buscemi, Jo Andre. Married for over 30 years with one son.

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Viscount Slim: Viscount Slim obituary
Viscount Slim obituary

Forthright SAS commander and president of the Burma Star Association who endeavoured to step out of the long shadow of his father
January 15 2019, 12:01am, The Times
Viscount Slim in 1945 in Japan

As a teenager John Slim spent his school holidays with his father. This might not seem so unusual, until it is noted that his father was the wartime commander of the 14th Army and that the “holidays” were taken near the front lines in India and Burma. There the 16-year-old witnessed the gruelling fighting endured by what became known as the “forgotten army”, as well as its ultimate victory over the Japanese.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as he was old enough, the gung-ho young Slim joined his father’s regiment, the 6th Gurkha Rifles. Cutting a swashbuckling figure, square of jaw and bushy of eyebrow, he served as a supernumerary aide-de-camp to his father’s friend Major-General “Punch” Cowan in the final months of the war in the Far East — months in which his father came to be regarded as a national hero.


Just as unsurprisingly, this made a deep impression on him. As a 19-year-old subaltern in what was by then an army of occupation, Slim toured the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by motorbike. This could be attributed to youthful curiosity, but it also indicated the restlessness of a man on a quest to make a name for himself, and, perhaps, escape from the shadow of his father.


As the 2nd Viscount Slim, a title he inherited in 1970, he nevertheless kept alive the memory of the 14th Army as president of the Burma Star Association. He also adopted his father’s custom of forthright speech. Yet, while he faithfully discharged the first viscount’s legacy, some observers — perhaps influenced by his hubristic style — became averse to an assumption of the aura of his father’s fame and reputation.


John Douglas Slim was born in Quetta, now in Pakistan, in 1927. He was the only son of the then Captain William “Bill” Slim and his wife, Aileen (née Robertson), the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister. He enjoyed his childhood in India, describing himself as a “cantonment brat” and remembering a life of vast landscapes, personal freedom and the warmth and privilege of an affectionate household with cooks and servants, picnics and polo. He attended the Rashtriya Indian Military College at Dehradun, where he became fluent in Urdu.


His exuberant personality meant he revelled in the camaraderie of a sporty military culture and close friendships with his Indian fellow students.

After the war, on return to Burma from Japan, he commanded a platoon of the 6th Gurkhas for 18 months during the tense period of political manoeuvrings that led to the country’s independence outside the Commonwealth in 1948. In that year he was treated in hospital for dysentery and advised against continued service in Asia. He moved to Scotland to secure a regular commission with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Slim went to Korea with the 1st Argylls in 1950 and was regularly engaged in action over the ensuing months, including the advance on Songju in late September after the breakout from the Pusan bridgehead. During pursuit of the enemy northwards, by this time adjutant of the battalion, he acted swiftly in the absence of his commanding officer to pull the battalion into a defensive perimeter around Sariwon as marauding bands of retreating Koreans threatened the their security.


On his return to Scotland he commanded the Queen’s Guard provided by the Argylls at Balmoral, and it was in Edinburgh that he met Elisabeth Spinney (obituary, November 5, 2018), who would become his wife. Known as “Buffy”, she was an accomplished cordon bleu chef and the daughter of the founder of the Spinneys supermarket chain. As a prank, Slim’s brother officers made a hoax phone call to the press announcing their engagement. It became true in due course and they were married in 1958. When she was with her husband in Aden and Cyprus in the 1960s she kept a pistol in her bag and was renowned as the fastest draw from a handbag. They had three children: Mark, who dealt in commercial property in the City and is now the chairman of trustees of the Burma Star Association; Hugo, who works for the International Red Cross in Geneva; and Mary Ann, a member of the Clothworkers Company.

Viscount Slim with members of the Burma Star Association at a ceremony in London in September 2011GEORGE RAMSEY

The Far East continued to beckon and Slim applied to join the Malayan Scouts, who were to be reorganised as the 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment. He was selected and became involved in the pioneering of techniques for parachuting into dense jungle. Almost anything Slim did that was out of the ordinary tended to be reported in the papers because of his father. On one occasion, for example, while training with the SAS on Dartmoor, he disappeared for 24 hours. He was taking part in an escape-and-evasion exercise when his leg cramped up. He sent out an aircraft recognition panel, which was spotted, but when a helicopter arrived he was gone. When he failed to make his 10am rendezvous, a full search party, with four helicopters, was launched. Later that afternoon he arrived at another rendezvous, Newbridge, ten miles from where he was last seen. He nonchalantly declared that he had “recovered and decided to press on”.

After this he commanded an SAS squadron and was in East Malaysia in 1965 during Indonesia’s ill-judged confrontation with Malaysia. He then moved to South Arabia, where elements of the regiment were deployed until the end of the British presence there in 1967. Appointed to command 22 SAS that year, he turned his attention to worldwide counter-insurgency operations.


After completing his command of 22 SAS, he was appointed OBE and appeared to be the sole contender for the recently established post of commander of the SAS Group. Having succeeded his father in 1970, his name gave him entrée to Whitehall unmatched by others of his rank, and access to fellow peers in the Lords, useful assets for keeping the SAS prominent in political perception. However, being a man untroubled by self-doubt, he could rub people up the wrong way, and when an outsider without SAS experience was appointed instead, he drew the conclusion that his moment had passed and left the army as a colonel to start a new career in business.


His working life became divided between associations and charities with which his father’s name was inevitably linked, and quite unrelated business concerns. Thanks to his ebullient manner, he soon found his form as one of London’s pre-eminent commercial headhunters, using his SAS leadership skills to pick future chief executives.

After the initial reform of the House of Lords, he became an elected hereditary member and attended the House regularly. He spoke well without notes and his views on defence, security and veterans were respected.

His most enduring memorial, however, will be his work as president of the Burma Star Association. He put his heart into the interests of the steadily dwindling number of survivors of the gruelling Burma campaigns and the widows of those who died in the conflict. No one wearing the coveted campaign star ever failed to win his attention.

In his work for the SAS Regimental Association, as president from 2000 to 2011 and patron until his death, he was equally assiduous for the welfare of veterans and their families. He also represented the interests and achievements of the regiment in the Lords and in any debate on its history or future.

In the end he may not have entirely avoided the long shadow of his father, but his military achievements could be judged on their own merit. He was always, to everyone, good company, and though he boomed like a foghorn, he was ironically aware of his own theatre.
Colonel John Slim, 2nd Viscount Slim, OBE, DL, was born on July 20, 1927. He died on January 12, 2019, aged 91
 

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