Brigadier Robert Long MC

"Brigadier Robert Long, who has died aged 77, had a distinguished career in the Army and was awarded an MC in Northern Ireland in 1972.


Long commanded a company of 1st Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment in the Lower Falls area of Belfast in 1972. Details of operational awards in the Province are still restricted but what can be stated is that during an exhausting four-month tour, while under considerable pressure and maintaining strict discipline, he never allowed the Provisional IRA to take the initiative.


Robert George Long was born on January 30 1937 in Calcutta, where his father was the adjutant of 7th Rajput Regiment. Always known as Bob, he was brought up near Fareham, Hampshire, and educated at Sherborne before being called up for National Service and commissioned into the Royal Hampshire Regiment.


After National Service in Germany, Long went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read PPE. He then worked for an oil company but found the work uncongenial and, in 1961, he rejoined his regiment with a regular commission. He experienced his first action in Georgetown, British Guiana, clearing rioters from burning streets. His second was the occasion when he was having a shave in the river and did not notice a log-like object passing over his feet. A soldier shouted that it was an anaconda. Long never moved so fast in his life."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11195963/Brigadier-Robert-Long-obituary.html