Lieutenant Colonel Richard A. Flower, OBE MC
1926-1993
Service Dress Cap, c. 1943
Flower
joined The London Rifle Brigade of the Territorial Army in 1938 and
received an emergency commission to The Rifle Brigade on August 24,
1940. He was advanced to W.S. (War Substantive) lieutenant in early 1942
and made a temporary captain by October. Whilst leading a carrier
platoon at the Snipe position during the Second Battle of El Alamein,
Flower was awarded the Military Cross and mentioned in despatches for
overrunning an infantry position, assaulting a tank laager consisting of
forty tanks and setting fire to three vehicles, dispersing an infantry
attack, and destroying two enemy guns. Flower was made a W.S. captain in
September of 1943 and a temporary major that December. He was attached
to headquarters of the British 8th Army in 1945. Flower remained in the
army after the war and was made a permanent captain in 1947 with a date
of seniority commencing on July 1, 1946. The Rifle Brigade was reduced
to one battalion in 1948 and brigaded with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps
as the Green Jackets Brigade. Owing to this, when Flower received his
majority on March 4, 1952, it was in the 2nd Battalion of the King’s
Royal Rifle Corps. He was assigned to General Headquarters East Africa
from 1955 to 1956, during the time of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. The
Rifle Brigade was renamed the 3rd Green Jackets, The Rifle Brigade in
1958 and Flower was assigned to The Green Jackets Depot (a training
barracks) as deputy commander. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on
February 12, 1959. Flower retired from the army in 1961 as commander of
The Green Jackets Depot and was made an Officer of the British Empire
for his service in the 1962 New Year Honours.
