Word: templer
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Templer's father had started a collection of regimental trophies, flags, uniforms and weapons at Loughgall Manor, Armagh. Templer set up a regimental museum, restored to the regiment its original war trophy: Napoleon's eagle-headed standard, which an Irish rifleman had captured in the Peninsular...
Polo & Palestine. The dragon-tooth soil of Northern Ireland has farrowed a fine litter of Britain's great generals-Montgomery, Alexander, Dill, Alanbrooke, Auchinleck. It also farrowed Gerald Templer, a thin, deceptively fragile-looking, tough soldier. His father, a dedicated officer in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, had some discussion with his mother about what to call the child, but there was no discussion about his career: it was Wellington, Sandhurst, and the army. Says his mother, now in her 80s : "He always wanted to be a soldier, and I did my best to make...
...Flor ence one day, he met a truck coming from the front with a looted baby grand piano. Seeing the general's stars, the truck driver pulled aside to let him pass-and hit a land mine in the ditch. Part of the piano came hurtling down on Templer's back, seriously injuring his spine. When he recovered, the war was almost over. ("Only general ever wounded by a piano," he says savagely.) Appointed first military governor of the British zone in Germany, he announced that he intended to be "firm to the point of ruthlessness ... I have...
Claret & Crystal. War's end brought Templer full generalship, knighthood, and elevation to the Imperial General Staff. But his proudest preferment is his colonelcy of the Royal Irish Fusiliers...
...Templer is the perfect picture of a British regular soldier: an austere, stiff-backed autocrat in uniform-and in mufti a bit of a dandy. He lived elegantly in London's Belgravia and became a connoisseur of claret, crystal and ijth century books. But in the company of his old war comrades he could relax. Says one: "He'll bring along an elderly fellow in civilian attire and introduce him to the officers as 'You remember Sergeant So-and-So. He and I fought together at So-and-So.' Sometimes if you happen to mention...