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They were reminded of their forebears who had fought in these deserts during the First and Second World Wars.
They had also served in wars with The Grenadier Guards, O Battery and The Life Guards. They had also spent several years in the Middle East in Iraq and the Persian Gulf and had fought desert wars in Mesopotamia, Persia and East Africa. Robert Fox of the Daily Telegraph, a familiar and welcome addition to the Battlegroup, wrote an article in The Telegraph with the headline “The Family Goes to War”. Lieutenant Colonel ‘Freckles’ Tilney, who had been the last Commanding Officer of the 14th/20th Hussars to give orders in action to an armoured regiment, was the father of Major Godfrey Tilney, the Regiment’s Second-in-Command. Major Peter Garbutt, A Squadron Leader was the son of Major ‘Billy’ Garbutt, lately of the 14th/20th; Captain Jonty Palmer, Adjutant and Commanding Officer’s Loader, was the son of Major General Sir Michael Palmer, the Colonel of the Regiment at the time of the Gulf War; Captains Alastair Ross and Andrew Gosssage were respectively son and grandson of former regimental officers. There were many other instances throughout all ranks of fathers, grandfathers and brothers who had served in the regiment.
