ANSELL, Maj-Gen Nicholas George Picton CB OBE 1937-2024
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He was s of Col Sir Michael Picton ANSELL CBE DSO 1905-94 and his 1st w Victoria Jacintha Fleetwood 1911-69 d of Sir John Michael Fleetwood FULLER 1st Bt KCMG 1864-1915 and as her 1st h Norah Jacintha 1878-1935 d of Charles Nicholas Paul PHIPPS 1845-1913 sometime head of that gentry family of Chalcot and Clare Emily 1854-1918 d of Sir Frederick HERVEY-BATHURST 3rd Bt 1807-81 and his 2nd w Clare Emily 1821-67 d of Sir Richard BROOKE 6th Bt 1785-1865 by his w a dau of Sir Foster CUNLIFFE 3rd Bt 1755-1834 and his w a dau of Sir David KINLOCH 5th Bt c1710-95 of Gilmerton, etc etc. He m 1961 (as her 4th cousin once removed) Viv(ien) b 1939 d of Lt-Col Anthony Donnithorne TAYLOR DSO MC 1910-85 sometime head of that gentry family of North Aston and Vanda Gertrude Isabel 1912-78 d of Maj Foster SWETENHAM 1876-ka1914 (gs of Ellis Watkin CUNLIFFE 1787-1866 s of Sir Foster CUNLIFFE 3rd Bt 1755-1834) and as her 1st h Muriel Gladys CHAPLIN 1884-1948, and had issue:
1 Mark Picton b 1963, m 1986 reg Q2 Hastings Sarah Barbara b 1962 reg Q4 Kent d of P PETTMAN and Mrs B Hammon (nee STONE) of Tenterden, Kent, and had issue
1.1 Thomas Peter P[icton] b 1994 reg Q1 Bucks
1.2 Luke Edmund b 1996 reg Q3 Bucks
1.1 Sophie b 27 Oct 1992 (Times 31 Oct) reg Q4 Bucks & d 1992 reg Q4 Bucks
1.2 Eleanor Rose b 26 Jan 1998 (Times 2 Feb) reg Q1 Bucks
2 Julian Threepwood b 1964, m 1992 reg Q4 Surrey Sophie N b 1964 reg Q4 Hants d of Jeremy Michael Agnew SPURLING of Dockenfield, Surrey by his 1957 m reg Q3 Wilts to Antoinette J b c1938 reg Q1 Essex d of Alexander Henry BLEST 1896-1971 by his 1931 m reg Q3 Glos to Joan 1908-99 d of Lt-Col Arthur Albert CROCKER OBE 1872-1960 and Dorothy Seymour HOWARD 1880-1968, and had issue
2.1 Lara Jade b 16 Sep 1994 (Times 20 Sep)
2.2 Sasha Rose b 11 April 1996 (Times 17 April)
2.3 Chloe Isabella b 21 Sep 1998 (Times 29 Sep)
1 Clare Victoria b 1968, m 3 July 1999 (Times 27 July) Jeremy Michael Owen b Feb 1962 reg Q2 Bucks s of Michael EVANS of Hawkhurst, Kent, and had issue
1.1 Michael Picton O[wen] EVANS b 14 Dec 2002 (Times 24 Dec)
1.2 George Nicholas O[owen] EVANS b 2005 reg Q1 Ken&Chelsea
1.1 Ella Jacintha Owen EVANS b 7 Oct 2000 (Times 12 Oct)
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Obit in the Times of 2 April 2024:
E X T R A C T
Major General Nick Ansell, clear-sighted backer of British tank choice
Director of the Royal Army Corps whose championing of the British-made Challenger 2 tank was vindicated by its long service
…Nicholas George Picton Ansell was born in Devon in 1937, the eldest son of a Skin, the remarkable Colonel Sir Michael Ansell DSO, who lost his sight and the fingers of his left hand in action in 1940 while commanding the 1st Lothians and Border Horse (Territorials). Taken prisoner but repatriated in 1943, and a noted prewar showjumper and international polo player, after the war and despite his blindness he became chairman of the British Showjumping Association, restarted the Royal International Horse Show and initiated the Horse of the Year Show. His own father had been killed in 1914 leading a mounted counter-attack by the 5th Dragoon Guards…
Nick Ansell was educated at Wellington, like his father and grandfather, and was head of school. Called up for National Service, he did his basic training in the ranks at Catterick before selection for Mons Officer Cadet School at Aldershot. Naturally enough he joined the Skins and saw out his 18 months with them in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), where he made his mark as the assistant regimental boxing officer.
He then went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read law, and was master of the university drag hunt. On the day that he came down from Cambridge in 1961 he married Vivien Taylor, daughter of Colonel Anthony Taylor DSO MC, who had escaped from Dunkirk in a rowing boat after the evacuation had ended and the Germans had taken the town, and who subsequently commanded 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars from Normandy to the Baltic. They had met at a dinner hosted by Captain Ronnie Wallace, doyen of masters of foxhounds. Vivien survives him, along with three children: Mark, an engineer; Jules, who worked as a commodities trader; and Clare, who worked for Action Aid and then with her husband, Jeremy Evans, set up the Egmont Trust, which works with children affected by HIV/Aids in countries with high infection rates and high levels of poverty…
… He left the army in 1992 at the age of 55, the usual compulsory age for retirement for “two stars” and below, and returned to his native Devon. There he became clerk of the course at Exeter racecourse and director of Devon & Exeter Steeplechases, as well as a JP, deputy lieutenant and high sheriff. In Who’s Who he gave his recreations as fishing and birdwatching. Horses (as well as tanks) he would have considered his life rather than his recreation…
Major General Nick Ansell CB OBE, Royal Armoured Corps director and horseman, was born on August 17, 1937. He died following a stroke on February 18, 2024, aged 86