The Green Howards Friends Website,

The following Obituaries for surnames beginning with "N" have appeared in the Green Howards "Gazette", or have been notified to the Green Howards.

Geoff Nalton

George Wilson, Secretary of the Scarborough Branch, writes :

Geoff Nalton passed away on 25th February 2006, aged 87 years. When he left Scarborough Boys’ High School in 1937 he joined the firm of Watts, Kitchin and Donner (Solicitors) in Scarborough as an articled clerk. As war approached, like many of us, he joined the 5th Battalion, The Green Howards.

At the age of 19, he was promoted to Lance-Corporal in the Signals Platoon and was sent to northern France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. He was a Corporal by the time of the retreat to Dunkirk and it was there that he and his friend, George O’Dowd, ‘pinched’ a rowing boat and set off for England one day ahead of the rest of the Battalion which escaped on 3rd June 1940 – a day before the Germans entered Dunkirk. Fortunately for Geoff and George, a tug found the rowing boat and pulled them back to the safety of England, where they rejoined the Battalion.

He was promoted Signals Sergeant and departed for North Africa with 50th Division only to be captured with the rest of the 5th Battalion at the Battle of Gazala on 1st June 1941. He spent the remainder of the war in prisoner of war camps in Italy and later, from 1943, in Germany.

On returning to civilian life he rejoined his firm of solicitors rising to Managing Clerk. It was then that a friend from his schooldays, a stockbroker, told Geoff somehow to raise £1,000 for him to invest in some ‘certainties’. In a few years time, this sum was worth £25,000. Geoff got his friend to reinvest the lot and this was to be the basis of his fortune. Geoff married very late and had no children so, when his wife died, he decided to bequest the sum to be distributed amongst many of the organisations of which he was most interested. One of these was the Green Howards Museum, to which he bequeathed £106,000 on his death.

The Regiment has lost a very staunch member, and the Scarborough Branch a very close friend. There were over 300 people at his funeral in St Columba’s Church and, typical of Geoff, he asked that the collection should be given to the Church Restoration Fund. The collection raised almost £1,500.

Major The Reverend R E Nash

Major Hilary Nash RE writes

My father, Richard Edward Nash was born on 19 September 1910, the second son of John and Edith Nash (nee Hornell) in Clapham, London. He was educated at Sherborne Prep and later went to School House at Sherborne. After Sherborne he went to RMA Sandhurst where he said his only claim to fame was never to be unseated during equestrian tuition. On one occasion he finished up hanging under the horse's neck, and his instructor said, "You're off now sir, let go". He did an upward circle to regain the saddle; it was not for nothing that he was awarded the PT Sword!

He was commissioned into The Green Howards and spent two dreary years in Maida Barracks, Aldershot, where he won many of the Battalion sports prizes, especially for the 440yds and the long jump. He won Silver for the latter in the Army Championships. He also managed to spend a night in the police cells for being drunk and disorderly.

The Battalion was then posted to India, to Poona, about 100 miles inland from Mumbai (Bombay) where they stayed for about eight months before moving on to Meerut near Dehli in Uttar Parash. They also had a beautiful hill station to which they retreated during the hottest months. From Meerut, he visited the Taj Mahal in nearby Agra and even managed to go skiing in Kashmir. It was during this time that he was sent to the NW Frontier where The Fakir of Ipi was causing trouble. The Battalion's task was to protect road-building parties from sniper fire. To do this they had to occupy sangars and dominate the high ground overlooking the construction. A Sikh Battalion assisted them. Nights were spent sleeping in sangars. On one occasion his Platoon Sergeant, Sgt White, was wounded by a sniper whilst they were withdrawing from one of these positions and fell in open ground. Richard had to rescue him, luckily they had a machine gun which kept the enemy fully occupied whilst he did so.

After India he was posted back to The Green Howards Depot in Richmond, Yorkshire, from where he met and married Joan Daunt. Their wedding was on 2nd September 1939, the day before World War II was declared. Shortly afterwards he went to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force with the 4th Battalion. He was evacuated from Dunkirk and spent a period in the south of England training newly formed battalions of the South Dorset Regiment.

His next posting was as Town Major of Tel Aviv in Palestine where he arrived on a burning hot day in August 1946. Citrus House, which stood in quite a small enclosure, was surrounded by barbed wire and was guarded by a Platoon of Indian Troops from the Gharwal Rifles. Day after day, week after week these quiet little men sat behind their Bren Guns, patient, alert and watchful; off duty they knotted endless scarves in atrocious colours. Their devotion to duty and patience was truly admirable. The Stern Gang and other terrorist organizations had become expert at blowing up places. One tactic used was to get hold of an Army vehicle, pack it with explosives, provide with passes and papers, drive brazenly up to their target, get out and fade away. "I soon realized that they could blow up Citrus House any time they wished in spite of the faithful vigilance of the Indian soldiers."

He returned to the UK from Palestine and then re-joined the Green Howards, who were based in Bharatpur in India. The troubles with impending partition leave them untouched but an attached Ghurka officer, who was trying to transfer to the British Army, had to visit Delhi. He arrived at the station to find a massacre in progress on the platform, with Sikhs murdering Hindus. He was told he would be next if he intervened. The Battalion moved from there to Khartoum in the Sudan. Here life seemed untouched by the war, where the major decision was the choice between tennis and polo after lunch. He was roped in to play tennis with the Governor General, who sent his ancient Rolls Royce to pick him up from the Mess. After a period of knocking up, the Governor would announce, "We'll stay this end and serve", such is the privilege of rank! The GOC, General "Bolo" Whistler, challenged the Green Howards to a squash match, and he was picked to play the General. Because of the heat the match was supposed to consist of only two games, both of which were closely contested, and which he won. The General was determined to win a game so a third was played, by which time my father had the measure of the General and chased him round the court. At the end of it the General turned to him and said, "Ive got blisters, damn you!"

After Khartoum Richard was posted to a Staff appointment in the Salisbury area. He moved in 1949 to Chepstow, initially as Company Commander of A' Company of the Army Apprentice School at Beachley and later on as Deputy Commandant. In this job he found himself responsible for running the big events and the bane of his life were seating plans. Everyone thought they had the right to be in the front row. This he solved by reserving his place in the back row so whenever there was a complaint he would offer to exchange his seat. This was to be his final job in the Army before he retired in 1953 to start his second career as a minister in the Church of England.

This began with two years of theological framing at Wescott House in Cambridge. Following ordination he was appointed a curate in the Parish of Holy Trinity in Weymouth. His first parish was Graffham in West Sussex, where the gift of the living was with The Hon Mrs MacDonald Buchanan, who also ran a stud farm there. She was far more interested in horses than the church and left the choice to her manager, who happened to be a retired Colonel and a Roman Catholic. Lewes followed Graffham then Eridge, before he moved back to his 'roots', such as they were for an itinerant soldier, taking the Parish of Stinsford, where Hardy's heart is buried.

He and Joan retired to Neighbourne in the Mendips. It was an ideal cottage in a beautiful little village, but it was on a steep hill and after being snowed in for a week they decided that their pioneering days were over so they moved into a house in Wells. Whilst they were there Joan had a stroke and thereafter required full time nursing. Their final move was to Manormead in Hindhead, where Joan died in 1996. Richard was now suffering from skin cancer brought on by too much sun in India and he succumbed to it on 20th November 2004.

He always claimed that he was a not a model soldier, as he could and would not take pompous people seriously, nor did etiquette worry him. He had a great understanding of people and a tolerant attitude to the peripheral activities of life. He did though insist on high moral standards, which earned him the respect of all who knew him well. He did not like blowing his trumpet and when we discussed his funeral service he was absolutely insistent that "there mustn't be one of those dreadful eulogies!"

Joe Newton

The following was published in the April 2008 edition of "The Green Howard"

William 'Dixie' Dean from Okanagan Falls, B.C., in Canada writes:

Regretfully I have to inform you of the death on 27th October 2007 of Joe Newton of Sunderland.

Joe served six years with the 1st Battalion in Singapore, Malaya, Austria and Germany. Joe and I served together in Malaya with Support Company, together with Dickie Bebb. In 2002 we met in Richmond for the first time in over 50 years and continued to meet each year ever since. Joe was a good friend and a very proud Green Howard. He will be sorely missed by his wife, Lila, his family and his many friends in the Regiment.

Mr Dudley Northey

Tom Heron writes

Regretfully I have to inform you of the death, on 2nd May 2007, at the age of 95, of Dudley Northey. Dudley had lately been resident for a number of years in The Moorlands Nursing Home, Northgate, Guisborough. He was the father-in-law of Green Howard Association member Bill Bowes, 16 Goathland Grove, Guisborough.

Dudley Northey's Army number is 4387345 and he enlisted on 1st June 1931 in The Green Howards. He was posted to the Second Battalion in India on 4th February 1933, serving there until 27th April 1938. During that time he also served on the North-West Frontier. Between 2nd September 1939 and 3rd February 1946 (when he was demobilised) he served with our Regiment's 4th Battalion in Norway, North Africa and Italy.

Dudley was a private man and he requested and received a quiet family funeral. Our sympathies lie with Dorothy Elford, Jean Bell, Janet and Bill Bowes and their respective families.