MAJOR R RISING LVO RM

Major Robin Rising LVO RM passed away peacefully on 18 December 2024 aged 90. Born in Bristol, he was educated at Pangbourne where he had been a Cadet Captain and represented the school at cross country running as well as captaining the sailing team. Inspired by his uncle Captain Humphrey Woods RM, who was killed in action in the cruiser HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate, he elected to carry out his National Service in the Corps. Joining as a recruit in October 1952, he quickly gained a National Service Commission and in August 1954 was selected to be a General List officer.

On completion of training he qualified as a Landing Craft Officer, achieving a Distinction on his course; a result that was ‘noted with satisfaction by the Commandant General’. He served in HMS Ark Royal from 1956 58 arriving with a Firefly dinghy towed behind his 1934 London taxi. In 1959 he proceeded to Malta where he took command of HMS Ickford, which at that time was manned by Royal Marines. Thereafter he was selected for the prestigious appointment of ADC to Admiral Sir Guy Grantham, the Governor of Malta.

He returned to Lympstone as a DS in the Officers’ Training Wing and is remembered fondly by the YOs he took through training; with his ubiquitous pipe in hand to calmly emphasise a particular point of tactics or some other matter of import. During this period, in January 1965, he was honoured to be selected to stand vigil in Westminster Hall beside the coffin of Sir Winston Churchill. The Army DS in the Officers’ Training Wing was Major David Goddard, who had also carried out his National Service in the Royal Marines and was later commissioned into the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. He was the founder of the Exeter Maritime Museum and whom Robin over the years assisted in sailing an assortment of antique boats up to Exeter. Robin was then selected as Adjutant 45 Commando RM on active service in Aden: returning to attend the RAF Staff College at Bracknell.

Promoted Major he served as the Amphibious Operations Officer in HMS Albion. He was one of the first to carry out this pivotal role and to which he brought his analytical mind and unflappable approach to guide the Commanding Officers of Commando Units and their staffs on exercises as far apart as Norway, the Far East, the Mediterranean and Canada. In 1972 he became the GSO 2 (Operations/Plans) at HQ Commando Forces in Plymouth and thereafter served as the Chief Training Officer at RM Poole. His final appointment in 1976, as a Local Lieutenant Colonel, was to the USA as Amphibious Plans officer on the staff of SACLANT. On return he took early retirement at the age of 46 to become Secretary of the Royal Yacht Squadron.