Desmond Langley

Sir Desmond Langley
Born	16 May 1930
Died	14 February 2008(2008-02-14) (aged 77)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1949–1988
Rank	Major-General
Commands held	Household Cavalry Regiment 4th Guards Armoured Brigade London District British Forces Cyprus
Battles/wars	Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
Awards	Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Member of the Order of the British Empire

Major-General Sir Henry Desmond Allen Langley KCVO MBE (16 May 1930 – 14 February 2008) was Major-General Commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District.

Military career

Remembrance Day parade, at the Cenotaph, in the City of Hamilton, Bermuda, 1990. HE The Governor, Major-General Sir Desmond Langley, inspects war veterans, and is speaking with former Second-in-Command of the Royal Bermuda Regiment Major Donald Henry "Bob" Burns, MC.

Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Langley was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1949.^[1] He was posted to Egypt and then to Libya.^[1] He then served with HQ Far East Land Forces during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the early 1960s.^[1] He later became Commanding Officer of the Household Cavalry Regiment and Silver Stick to The Queen.^[1] In 1976 he was appointed commander of 4th Guards Armoured Brigade and in 1978 he became a brigadier on the General Staff at UK Land Forces.^[1]

He became Major-General commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District in 1979^[1] organising, inter alia, the military ceremony for the marriage of the Prince Charles and Princess Diana.^[2] His final appointment was as commander of British Forces Cyprus and Administrator of the Sovereign Base Areas in 1983 before retiring in 1988.^[1]

In retirement he was civil Governor and military Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1988 to 1992, taking particular interest in the Bermuda Regiment (now the Royal Bermuda Regiment) and hosting summit meetings in Bermuda between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush, and then between Prime Minister John Major and George Bush.^[1]

Mourners who attended his funeral at St Luke's Church in Milland on the 10th of March, 2008, were two former commanding officers of the Bermuda Regiment Lieutenant-Coloner Alan Rance and Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, as well as two of Sir Desmond’s three ADCs from the Bermuda Regiment, Major William Madeiros and Captain Larry Mussenden.^[3]

Family

In 1950 he married Felicity (Flick) Oliphant and they went on to have a son and a daughter.^[1]

References