Year: 2009
Sir Reresby Sitwell Bt. who died on 31st March 2009 was born on 15th April 1927. Son of Sir Sacheverall and nephew of Sir Osbert, the latter who served in the Regiment during the First World War.
Educated at Sandroyd School and at Eton he took a scholarship to King’s College Cambridge. Before taking up the scholarship, he joined the Regiment in May 1945 and was posted to the 2nd Bn in August 1946. He transferred to the 1st Bn in January 1948 and left the army in February 1948. He then attended Cambridge but left before completing his degree.
From 1948 to 1963 he had various employments in public relations, industry and the wine trade.
In 1952 he married Penelope Forbes the daughter of Colonel Donald Forbes D.S.O; she was both beautiful and a woman of strong personality and according to Sarah Bradford “precisely the character he needed to provide the support which had not always been forthcoming from his mother”. It was a marriage in which they were blissfully happy. However it was not until his uncle Osbert handed over the family property at Renishaw to him, that Reresby found his true metier.
From an early age he had a fascination with delightful trivia, ranging from an ability at the age of nine to recite the complete list of the Kings and Queens of Scotland to, later in life, an equally detailed knowledge of the Doges of Venice.
Renishaw gave him all the scope he needed to indulge his historical bent to the full. This in part due to the family history in the house dating back to 1626 and further, to the artefacts in the house, including, among many things, boxes of notes meticulously prepared by his Grandfather Sir George, on more subjects than a normal mortal might imagine. He enjoyed taking visitors round the house, expounding in delightful detail on the whats and wherefores in every room. There was in any case much to do at Renishaw, electricity and plumbing to be installed and the gardens, originally laid out by Sir George, to be recovered and brought back to their former glory and further enhanced, this latter largely under Penelope’s care.
As mentioned above he served in the 2nd Bn for two years during a period of change.
Oliver Lindsay writes in his book “Once a Grenadier”, regarding the 2nd Bn in January 1946, “Some wings were clipped, strict and harsh discipline proved necessary”. From the point of view of the subaltern officer this proved only too true.
On one occasion when he just had an invigorating visit to Adjutants Memoranda, Reresby said to me somewhat sadly: “you know there is little to choose between the journey from the Tuilleries to the Guillotine and the journey from Adjutant’s Memoranda to extra piquets, except that the former was terminal, and the latter has a nasty habit of repeating itself”. A view with which I for one heartily concurred.
His records, still held at Regimental Headquarters, show a continual improvement – his Brigade Squad report in 1945 read “He is not at all suited to army life. In spite of everything he keeps remarkably cheerful.” By January 1946 the report read: “He gives the impression of being a scholarly rather than a soldierly type. Confident and sociable to talk to and has a good sense of humour coupled with a rather broader outlook that most cadets of his age”.
By March 1947 his Commanding Officer reported “a very good officer”; from Lieutenant Colonel Geordie Gordon Lennox, high praise indeed.
Those are the facts: now may I speak for myself. We both attended Sandroyd School, Eton and were officers in the 2nd Bn together. Reresby has been a close friend from the age of nine till his death. There was never a moment when I did not look forward to his company either in London or at Renishaw. He fits the description “a really lovely man”. I shall miss him, oh so much, as will his family and many, many other friends.