Lieutenant-Colonel N.C.E. Kenrick
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment

Lt Col Kenrick showed no thought of his own safety, personally killing at least two Germans, and frequently visited bn comds escorted in a jeep. He was well aware that all roads were covered by SP guns and innumerable snipers. He refused to allow the attack on Bde HQ to interfere with his plans and by his personal contacted succeeded in reorganising the Brigade and restoring the situation.

(D.S.O. citation, 3 May 1945)

Born on 9 July 1905 in Kent, Neville Cyril Evelyn Kenrick was commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment in 1925 and served as battalion adjutant from 1935 to 1938. He was promoted to acting major in August 1940. He was appointed commanding officer of the 5th Battalion in 1943, and led it to France as part of the 43rd Division in late June 1944.

Within only a few days, he was badly wounded and lost part of a hand. With Kenrick evacuated command passed to Major J.H. Child Pearson, who was killed in action the next month. Lieutenant-Colonel W.Q. Roberts took over until October, when a recovered Kenrick resumed command of the 5th Wilts. For his personal courage and magnificent example, he earned the D.S.O as acting CO of the 129th Infantry Brigade in February 1945.

Following this temporary posting to brigade HQ, Kenrick relinquished command of the 5th Wilts in March 1945 to Lieutenant-Colonel J.L. Brind, former 2iC of the 4th Somerset Light Infantry.

Postwar Kenrick commanded the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment in West Germany. “I’ve been in the Army 24 years and this is the happiest battalion I have ever been with,” he declared in 1949, “The Army isn’t what it used to be; it’s better than it used to be!” In 1963, he wrote a history of the Wiltshire Regiment from its origins in the eighteenth century to the amalgamation with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1959.

Having retired from the army in 1959 after a thirty-five-year career, Kenrick died in Surrey on 31 March 1976.