Rohan Delacombe

Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe, KCMG, KBE, CB, DSO, KStJ (25 October 1906 – 10 November 1991) was a British military officer who commanded the British occupation forces in Berlin from 1959 to 1962 at the height of the Cold War. He was also the last British Governor of Victoria in Australia from 1963 to 1974.

Early life

Delacombe was born in Malta on 25 October 1906, the son of Addis and Emma Louise Mary Delacombe.

Military career

In 1926, he joined the Royal Scots regiment of the British Army, with whom he saw service in Egypt, North China and Quetta in India (now Pakistan) with the Regiment's 1st Battalion. He then served in Palestine from 1937 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Delacombe was posted with the 4th Infantry Brigade as part of the British Expeditionary Force which was sent to the Franco-Belgian border following Germany's invasion of Poland. After working at the British Army Staff College in 1940, Delacombe assisted Lt Gen Adrian Carton de Wiart as a General Staff Officer (Grade 2) during the Namsos Campaign in Norway.^[1]

In 1942, he was made commanding officer of the Royal Scots 8th Battalion which he led at the Battle of Normandy in 1944, where his leadership earned him a Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He was then made a commander of the Royal Scots 2nd Battalion, which fought in the Italian Campaign, followed by security duties in Lebanon. Delacombe then returned to staff duties as General Staff Officer (Grade 1) during the re-occupation of British Malaya from 1945 to 1947 and as a general staff Colonel at the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine. He spent much of the next thirteen years in Germany, as Brigadier commanding the 5th Infantry Brigade (1950–1953), as Deputy Military Secretary for the War Office, General Officer Commanding the 52nd (Lowland) Division, and finally as Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin, which included representing British interests in Spandau Prison, where Rudolf Hess was incarcerated. He retired from the army in 1962.^[1]

Governor of Victoria

Sir Rohan was appointed as Governor of Victoria in Australia in 1963. As Governor, he was made an honorary colonel in the Australian Army's 1st Armoured Regiment.

In 1967, Sir Rohan was petitioned to exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy on behalf of the Queen, to commute the execution of Ronald Ryan. Four members of the jury had submitted a guilty verdict, in the belief that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria, and that Ryan's sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. These jurors then petitioned the governor to save Ryan after it became apparent that the Premier Henry Bolte was determined he should hang. Sir Rohan called a meeting with the Victorian cabinet, at which it was unanimously agreed that the execution should proceed. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967, the last person in Australia to be executed.^[2]

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