Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Villiers
9th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)

By his careful planning and his personal example in the deplorable conditions, his Brigade secured all their objectives. He was always to be found well forward, skillfully directing his Brigade and assisting to control the forward move of his supporting arms.

(D.S.O. Bar citation, 10 May 1945)

Born on 10 September 1905 in London, Richard Montagu Villiers was educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before taking a commission in the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in 1925. He was promoted to captain in 1937 and then major in 1942. He assumed command of the 9th Battalion, Cameronians in January 1943.

A week after D-Day, the battalion arrived in Normandy as part of 46th Infantry Brigade in the 15th Scottish Division. After two weeks in action, Villiers would earn the Distinguished Service Order: “During the periodic intense mortaring of this village on 28, 29 and 30 June, Lt-Col Villiers with complete disregard for his personal safety was continually going round his coys encouraging his men and raising their morale.” He was slightly wounded by a mortar bomb in July but would quick resume command of the 9th Cameronians.

By early August, Villiers had been elevated to command of 46th Brigade after the promotion of Brigadier Colin Muir Barber to 15th Division. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Bradford. For Villiers’s leadership during the remainer of the North West Europe campaign, he received the D.S.O. Bar.

In the 1950s, he became secretary for the Royal Hospital and Home Incurables in Putney, South West London (it would be renamed the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in 1995). In a call for fundings, Villiers emphasized, “We are not a home for the dying, we are very much a home for the living, and we like our patients young—30 to 40, rather than 70 to 80.” He continued, “We really combine—the benefits of a hospital, and the normal treatment that our patients receive with the security and comforts of a home.”

Villiers died on 8 August 1973 in Strathpeffer, Scotland.