Major-General Michael Hicks; Coldstream Guards commander whose diplomatic skills were tested to the limit in Londonderry on 'Bloody Sunday'
Hyfler/Rosner
January 8, 2009
Major-General Michael Hicks: Coldstream Guards commander
The authoritatively calm leadership that was Mike Hicks's
special characteristic was never more apparent than in
Londonderry on "Bloody Sunday". His battalion, 1st
Coldstream Guards, was responsible for containing the route
of civil rights protesters as they advanced to the point
where 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment (1 Para) had been
ordered to identify and "snatch" the ringleaders of those
throwing rocks and stones.
His guardsmen stood firm and resolute despite verbal abuse
and stone throwing. Afterwards, when the media tried to draw
him on the contrast of conduct between his troops and those
of 1 Para, he dispassionately pointed out that the tasks
allocated were quite different, while each battalion faced a
difficult challenge. He was a man of impeccable good manners
and impressed on his subordinates the importance of
remaining calm in the face of intense provocation. When a
sniper's round passed between him and his press relations
officer, Captain (later General Sir) Michael Rose, he broke
neither his step nor quiet conversation.
An earlier tour of duty in the winter of 1970-71 had also
involved his battalion in operations in Londonderry, so he
knew the city's atmosphere well. Encountering a mob
attacking two RUC officers, he ordered his Land Rover driver
to head straight into it with horn blaring, distracting the
attackers and allowing him to lift the policemen to safety.
When a delegation of Catholic women came to complain of a
security measure he had imposed, he addressed their leader
as "madam" and quietly explained the rationale behind the
steps taken. As the delegation left, one woman was heard to
complain: "The trouble with these English, they're too
damned civilised."
William Michael Ellis Hicks was the son of Group-Captain W.
C. Hicks. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, where he
was awarded the King's Medal on passing out at the top of
the order of merit. He had made his mark at the academy in
two ways: first by asking questions others hesitated to
raise for fear of revealing their lack of comprehension;
second, and more remarkably, on the rugby field, leaving him
with an injury that dogged him for the whole of his military
career, even casting doubt on his fitness for battalion
command, at which he in fact was to prove so adept and
resourceful.
His early service was with 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards
in Tripoli and Egypt. His company was detached to the 2nd
Battalion for the Suez operation in 1956 but in the event
was not deployed. Entering the Staff College, Camberley, at
his first attempt in 1958, he again came to attention for
his forthright manner of questioning, including of some
accepted shibboleths left over from a previous era.
His performance at Camberley led to recall as an instructor
in 1963 after a staff appointment in Germany; commanding No
1 Company 1st Coldstream Guards in Windsor and taking it as
a reinforcement to the 2nd Battalion in Kenya. He also
attended a course at the Joint Services Staff College.
Selected for promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1967, he was
posted to the Military Operations Directorate in the MoD as
"chairman" of MO 1. This select group of outstanding young
majors was responsible for devilling information and
preparing briefs for the Chief of the General Staff. It was
a swiftly moving scene with demands on the team invariably
accumulating more quickly than they could be dealt with.
Hicks was well suited to preside over this work and was
appointed OBE before leaving.
Immediately after completing his battalion command in 1972,
he was notified of his selection to attend the following
year's course at the Royal College of Defence Studies in
London. Although not without precedent, this was an earlier
than customary career development even for the more
promising officers, as the course was designed for
brigadiers and their equivalent in the other services. He
was promoted to colonel for the course but, more
significantly, for command of the 4th Guards Armoured
Brigade with the British Army of the Rhine in January 1974.
The Cold War was still at its height and a successful
deterrent capability in the Nato Central Region of Europe
remained one of the four pillars of British defence policy.
Aside from keeping his units up to a high pitch of
operational readiness, Hicks had another problem to handle.
The Guards Brigade included young officers of high spirits
and independent means who might kick over the traces in a
manner unlikely to be greeted with enthusiasm by his very
serious-minded Divisional Commander. That he was able to
keep these potentially conflicting factors in play without
upset says much for his diplomatic skill.
The two years after leaving Germany saw a serious recurrence
of the pain and difficulties left by the Sandhurst rugby
injury. He eventually overcame this following an operation
and regained full physical fitness in time to become the
General Officer Commanding North West District in Preston.
Before that, however, he served as the brigadier in charge
of training at HQ UK Land Forces based at Wilton, Wiltshire,
and then as the official author of the Northern Ireland
campaign up to 1979.
When giving evidence to the Saville "Bloody Sunday" inquiry,
he stated he had not judged it necessary to post a man on a
certain lookout position. Discovering by chance at a
regimental reunion some weeks later that he had placed a man
there, he returned to the inquiry to correct his evidence,
remarking how easy it was to be mistaken 27 years after the
event.
After two years in the North West, traditionally strongly
supportive of the Armed Forces, he was appointed CB and
retired from the Army to become the Secretary of the Royal
College of Defence Studies from 1983 to 1993. He was
president of his local branch of the British Legion and
chairman of the local Conservative Party.
Under age to receive marriage allowance, he married Jean
Duncan in 1950. As she was not entitled to passage by troop
ship, he drove her in his Standard 10 to Marseilles and then
from Tunis to join his battalion at Tripoli. She survives
him with three sons, one of whom followed him into the
Coldstream Guards.
Major-General W. M. E. Hicks, CB, OBE, GOC North-West
District 1980-83, was born on June 2, 1928. He died on
December 27, 2008, aged 80