Urquhart, Robert Elliott “Roy” born 28-11-1901 in London, the son of the Scottish dentist Alexander Urquhart. Robert was educated at St Paul’s School, London, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
, Urquhart was commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry
in 1920. When stationed in Malta with his battalion, Robert became a friend of the actor David Niven,
who recalled Urquhart in his autobiography The Moon’s a Balloon,
describing him as “a serious soldier of great charm and warmth” both were commissioned in Highlands Light Infantry
– Urquhart in 1920 and Niven in 1930). David Niven took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, although he was sent to France several days after D-Day. He served in “Phantom”,
a secret reconnaissance and signals unit which located and reported enemy positions, and kept rear commanders informed on changing battle lines. Niven remained tight-lipped about his wartime experiences, but in his autobiography The Moon’s a Balloon he recalled a private conversation in 1940 with Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
who told him, “Young man, you did a fine thing to give up your film career to fight for your country. Mark you, had you not done so − it would have been despicable.”
Robert Urquhart was serving in India during the early years of World War II. He remained there until 1941, when he was posted to North Africa before an appointment as a staff officer in the 3rd Infantry Division ,
serving in the United Kingdom. Thereafter, his career accelerated and between 1941 and 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall´s Light Infantry
until 1943, when he was appointed as a staff officer in the 51st Highland Infantry Division
, under command of Major-General D. Charles Bullen-Smith
, which was then stationed in North Africa. Bullen-Smith was born on 23-10-1898 and attended Wellington College, Berkshire. He then attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
during the First World War, from where he was commissioned on 16-08-1916 into the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
Urquhart was promoted to lieutenant on 16-02-1918. Towards the end of the war, during the Hundred Days Offensive, he was awarded the Military Cross,
He retired in July 1946 and, having attained the age limit, ceased to belong to the Reserve of Officers on 23-10-1956. Charles died in 1970 (aged 71-72).
For a short time, Robert Urquhart commanded the 231st Infantry Brigade Group , which saw action in the Allied invasion of Sicily Until 1944, Urquhart was a senior staff officer in XII Corps. However, in that year, he was given command of the 1st Airborne Division
. Its former commander, Major General George Frederick Hopkinson
had been killed in the early stages of the Italian Campaign, on 09-19-1943, age 47 and his successor, Brigadier Ernest Edward Down
had been given command of the 44th Indian Airborne Division in India.
Ernest Down died age 78 in 1980 Ironically, Urquhart was prone to airsickness and had never commanded or, for that matter, been a member of an airborne unit. Although a newcomer to airborne operations, Urquhart commanded his division during Operation Market Garden
in September 1944 as it was dropped into Arnhem in the Netherlands in an attempt to secure a crossing over the River Rhine. For nine days Urquhart’s
division fought unsupported against armored units of II Panzer Corps under SS Obergruppenfùhrer Wilhelm `Willi` Bittrich.
The 1941 SS tour of Mauthausen concentration camp headed by Heinrich Luidpold Himmler
(center). Otto Kumm
(front row, left), Wilhelm Bittrich and Paul “Papa” Hausser,
who later became key figures in HIAG.
Wilhelm Bittrich (26-2-1894 – 19-04-1979, age 85) was a high-ranking Waffen-SS commander of Nazi Germany. Between August 1942 and February 1943, Bittrich commanded the SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer, in rear security operations (Bandenbekämpfung, literally: “gang fighting”) in the Soviet Union. From November 1944 to February 1945 the 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division was in Budapest, where it took part in the Battle of Budapest. During the battle won by the Red Army, the division was destroyed. Of the 30,000 men the division had, fewer than 800 managed to reach the German lines.
From July 1944 until the end of the war Bittrich commanded the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in Normandy, during Market Garden and in Hungary. Of the 1,500 transports that arrive in Auschwitz, only one has been photographed: the train that entered Auschwitz-Birkenau on 26-05-1944. He transports Jews from the north of Hungary. Two SS men take pictures of the people getting out.
The recordings show that they have to line up in front of SS officers. Men and women who have been selected for forced labor enter the camp wearing camp clothing. Another group of people wait near the gas chambers. The transport includes 3,500 of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz between May 15 and July 8, 1944. Almost all of them were murdered.
After his arrest in May 1945, Bittrich was extradited to France to stand trial for allegedly ordering the executions of 17 members of the French Resistance. After being convicted of less serious charges in relation to the executions, Bittrich was sentenced to five years in prison. Following his release, he became active in HIAG, a revisionist organization and a lobby group of former Waffen-SS members and served as chairman during the 1970s.
Suffering increasingly heavy casualties in Arnhem, the British airborne forces desperately held on to an ever-shrinking defensive perimeter until orders were received for the remnants of the division to withdraw across the Rhine on 25 September. During these nine days of heavy fighting the 1st Airborne Division had lost over three-quarters of its strength. Shattered as a fighting formation, the division was withdrawn to the United Kingdom and saw no further action in the Second World War. Urquhart was awarded the Dutch Bronze Lion for his command.
In May 1945, following the German surrender, Urquhart led a reconstituted 1st Airborne Division as the advanced guard of Force 134 in Operation Doomsday, the Allied occupation of Norway. During its time in Norway, the division was tasked with supervising the surrender of the German forces, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities. Due to delays in troop arrivals, Urquhart ended up driving into Oslo in a captured German staff car, accompanied only by four military policemen and two platoons from 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment . Until the arrival of other units from Force 134, as well as the Headquarters of Allied Forces, Norway, Major General Urquhart and his headquarters staff had complete control over all Norwegian activities. This meant that it was Urquhart who welcomed Crown Prince Olaf of Norway
and three ministers representing the Norwegian Government when they arrived on a Royal Navy
cruiser. Olav was educated at the Norwegian military academy and at the University of Oxford in England. As crown prince he was a celebrated athlete and sportsman, excelling at ski jumping and yachting. He won a gold medal in yachting at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
During the summer of 1990, the King suffered from health problems, but recovered somewhat during Christmas the same year. At the age of 87, on 17-01-1991, while residing in the Royal Lodge Kongsseteren in Oslo, he became ill and died in the evening of a myocardial infarction.
General Sir Augustus Francis Andrew Nicol Thorne
arrived on 13 May to take command of all Allied troops in Norway and at the end of August, 1st Airborne Division returned to the United Kingdom and disbanded. Urquhart was rewarded with the Norwegian Order of St Olay
. Sir Thorne died 25-09-1970, aged 85 in Spyne Hospital in Elgin Scotland.
Following the end of the war Urquhart served in several staff positions, including service as the General Officer Commanding Malaya (1950–1952) during the Malayan Emergency. He also commanded the 165th Airborne Division, a Territorial Army formation, from 1947 to 1948, then the 52nd Lowland Infantry Division
until 1950. Urquhart retired from the army in 1955.
After leaving the British Army Urquhart became an executive in the heavy engineering industry, retiring in 1970. Urquhart was portrayed by Sean Connery
, here on the set in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far,
for which he himself served as a military consultant. Despite his earlier-mentioned friendship with David Niven, in a publication about the making of the film, he was quoted as saying that he wasn’t much of a film fan himself and could not understand why his daughters were so excited at Connery’s selection to play him.
Urquhart and his wife Pamela had four children, among them Elspeth Campbell, wife of the former leader of the Liberal Democrat party Menzies Campbell and Suki Urquhart, author of The Scottish Gardener. He is also known to have told his daughter never to trust men who bought half-bottles of wine; Campbell bought Elspeth a full bottle on their first date.
In 1958 Urquhart published his excellent book, Arnhem, describing the battle from his perspective, and he presided over the 30th and 35th anniversaries of the Battle in 1974 and 1979


Death and burial ground of Urquhart, Robert Elliott “Roy”




Major General Roy Urquhart died on 13-12-1988, aged 87 year at his home in Port of Menteith near Strilling and is buried on the local cemetery of Menteith.


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