Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Richard Geoffrey Gordon Byron, 12th Baron Byron
DSO (3 November 1899 – 15 June 1989) was a British nobleman,
peer, politician, and
army officer
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service.
Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contextu ...
. He was a descendant of a cousin of
Romantic poet and writer,
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
.
Early life and education
Byron was the son of Col. Richard Byron and Mabel Mackenzie Winter. He was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
in
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
, UK.
Professional life
After passing out from the
Royal Military College, Byron was commissioned into the
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers. It was renamed as the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in 1788 and service for two centuries, incl ...
as a
second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
on 21 August 1918, barely three months before the end of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He was promoted to
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
on 21 February 1920. Byron was
Aide-de-Camp to the
Governor of Bombay
Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...
, Sir
George Lloyd, from 1921 to September 1923. On 1 March 1929, Byron was seconded to the
Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry
The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (DLOY) was a yeomanry unit of the British Army from 1798 to 1992. Originally raised as part-time cavalry for home defence and internal security, the regiment sent mounted infantry to serve in the Second Boer ...
, a
Territorial Army regiment, as its adjutant with the temporary rank of
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. He was promoted to the substantive rank of captain in the Regular Army on 25 March 1933, and vacated his appointment as adjutant in the yeomanry on 14 November.
Byron served as
Military Secretary to the
Governor-General of New Zealand
The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and li ...
, the
Viscount Galway
Viscount Galway is a title that has been created once in the Peerage of England and thrice in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1628 in favour of Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde. He was made Earl ...
, from December 1937 to October 1939. He fought in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, during which he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the
4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards
The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army formed in 1922. It served in the Second World War. However following the reduction of forces at the end of the Cold War and proposals contained in the Options for Change ...
in 1941. As a temporary
lieutenant-colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
, Byron was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...
(DSO) in August 1944, for heroism during
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
. He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 1 August 1945, and retired from active service on 27 August 1947.
Family life
Byron married Margaret Mary Steuart in 1926, but they were divorced in 1946, and later that same year, he married Dorigen Margaret Esdaile, and had two sons by her:
* The Hon. Richard Noel Byron (1948–1985)
*
Robert James Byron, 13th Baron Byron (1950)
Byron succeeded to the title of 12th
Baron Byron
Baron Byron, of Rochdale in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1643 by letters patent for Sir John Byron, a Cavalier general and former Member of Parliament. The peerage was created with ...
in 1983 upon the death of his fifth cousin
Rupert Frederick George Byron, 11th Baron Byron, in Australia. Lord Byron died on 15 June 1989 at age 89, whereupon his surviving son
Robert Byron
Robert Byron (26 February 1905 – 24 February 1941) was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue ''The Road to Oxiana''. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian.
Biography
He was the son of Eric Byron, a civil engi ...
became the 13th Baron.
Arms
References
* Charles Mosley, editor, ''
Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, USA: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, pp. 630–632
* ,
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byron, Richard Geoffrey Gordon Byron, 13th Baron
1899 births
1989 deaths
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards officers
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
People educated at Eton College
4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards officers
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
British Army personnel of World War I
British Army personnel of World War II
Barons Byron
Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry officers
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst