Colonel Robin Evelegh died in hospital in Oxford on Saturday morning 15th May 2010 after an illness lasting many weeks.

"EVELEGH. - Colonel Robin, late RGJ (Retd), died on 15th May 2010 aged 77. Much loved husband of Gabrielle, father to George, Ted and Polly, grandfather to Katkin and Zanny and friend to many. He is greatly missed by all. A family burial service will take place. A service of thanksgiving will be held at St Marys Church, Cholsey, on Wednesday 23rd of June at 11.30 am. Donations if desired to The Rifles Benevolent Trust (reg no 1119071) or The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust (reg no 1083387) c/o Howard Chadwick F/S, 33 Benson Lane, Crowmarsh, OX10 8ED, tel 01491 825222"

The address for letters of condolence is:
Mrs JRGN Evelegh (Gabrielle)
Cholsey Cottage
59 Wallingford Road
Cholsey
Wallingford
OX10 9LB

Robin Evelegh was born in November 1932 and commissioned into the Oxf. & Bucks LI from Oxford University in 1952.

He was promoted to Lt Col in 1970 when he became Military Assistant to the Master General of the Ordnance.

He commanded 3 RGJ when it was reformed in 1972 and was Mentioned in Despatches for their busy and successful tour of duty in Belfast in 1972/1973.

As a result of his experience in Northern Ireland he wrote and lectured extensively on Peacekeeping in a Democratic Society and on the lessons of Northern Ireland.

After promotion to full Colonel and one job in the Ministry of Defence Robin retired in 1977 to set up, with two other ex-Green Jackets, Ridgeway International, a successful transport firm specialising in the worldwide movement of explosives, ammunition and other sensitive items.

In recent years Robin Evelegh has been a key player in the work to establish the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum Trust (SOFO), which will enable some of the museum artefacts and archives of the 43rd & 52nd to be cared for and displayed in the Oxfordshire County Museum at Woodstock.

He was also Chairman of the committee looking after the residual affairs of his old Regiment.

Robins son Ted was also a serving officer in the RGJ in the mid 1980s and on leaving the regiment joined his father in Ridgeway International.

Colonel Robin Evelegh The Times Obituary 27 May 2010

By kind permission of The Times

Robin Evelegh was a man of questioning mind but his self-depreciatory manner and amusing style of conversation had a tendency to undermine the value of his perception. He twice commanded his infantry battalion in Belfast. The first occasion, at the end of a summer of violence in 1972, led him to try to analyse the reasons for the heightening turmoil.

John Robin Garnet Nial Evelegh was born in 1932 in Madras, the son of Colonel E. N. Evelegh, late Royal Engineers. Educated at Rugby and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a degree in modern history, he was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (43rd & 52nd) in 1952.

His early service included duty in North Borneo during the Indonesian armed confrontation with Malaysia, with the United Nations Force in Cyprus and as ADC to the Commander 1st (British) Corps with the British Army of the Rhine. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel at the age of 37, he was the military assistant to the Master-General of the Ordnance until selected in 1972 to reform 3rd Royal Green Jackets, a battalion of the regiment into which his own had been incorporated, which had been reduced to company size in the 1968 Defence Review.

On achieving operational readiness, his battalion undertook a four-month emergency tour of duty in the Upper Falls area of Belfast in the late summer of 1972. His personal doubts over security force effectiveness played no part in his communications with his soldiers, which were invariably clear and straightforward.

His robust leadership nevertheless concealed concern that little, if any, progress was being made towards reducing the antagonism between communities and the murder and mayhem it generated. His conclusions were later expressed in his book Peace-Keeping in a Democratic Society The Lessons of Northern Ireland (1978), providing cautionary reading to those responsible for the direction of British involvement in the convoluted attempts to contain the violence in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and counter-insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
He wrote: The gap between theory (in dealing with violence in a community) and practice is that the Army has been left to operate in this role without discernible constitutional rules to guide it or a clear chain of constitutional responsibility. This has led to the Army acting with a certain aimlessness and with repeated changes of policy as it tried to respond to each new wave of pressure that washed over it in order to please everybody.

As a serving officer, it would not have been helpful for him to speak his mind publicly in Northern Ireland in 1972, yet he never hesitated to set out his views frankly to senior officers visiting his Belfast headquarters.

His return to the same operational sector towards the end of the following year found a quieter situation, as the antagonists reorganised and rearmed, but Eveleghs concern over the lack of a consistent policy to address the root causes of the grievances and the conflict remained. He was mentioned in dispatches after this second tour of duty but received no decoration.

Between relinquishing command of 3rd Royal Green Jackets in 1974 and promotion to colonel two years later, he returned to Oxford to undertake a defence fellowship study that was to be the basis for his book. He had left the Army before publication in 1978 but the book emerged as an historically critical analysis of the problems that arise when government legislation and military practice fail to keep abreast, especially when the changing nature of conflict occurs within societies rather than between sovereign states.

Drawing on extensive research into the legal issues, Evelegh pointed out the dangers not only of failing to update key legislation relating to the use of armed force in the maintenance of law and order, limiting the Armys usefulness, but also to relatively minor, less obvious issues; for example, rules preventing soldiers demanding driving licences or vehicle documents at checkpoints. He also criticised the propensity of British lawmakers to be imprecise to leave flexibility in interpretation with inevitable penalties to those attempting to apply them to an emergency situation. The book highlighted the weakness in British practice of detecting wrongdoers, however sound the procedures might be once they have been identified. This had serious consequences in Northern Ireland.

Promoted to colonel in 1976, he was appointed head of the department of the Ministry of Defence responsible for monitoring and briefing on defencerelated developments in the Middle East. This was a job to which he was well suited but he decided to leave the Army before the end of the year to set up Ridgeway International, together with two brother officers from the Royal Green Jackets. Ridgeway soon found its niche in the international transport and shipping of explosives and ammunition for governments and commerce. As the companys managing director for many years, Evelegh became a respected authority within the explosives logistics industry and sat on a number of government committees concerned with its regulation.

In 1999 he became involved in a project to create a publicly accessible museum in Oxfordshire dealing with the histories of the countys military, including the County Yeomanry, the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars and the Oxford University Officers Training Corps as well as the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. The Soldiers of Oxfordshire museum is expected to open in the garden of the existing County Museum at Woodstock in 2012.

He was an active member of the Wantage Conservative Party and helped to teach conversational English to immigrants living in Abingdon.
 
Evelegh married Gabrielle Ritson in 1958. She survives him with two sons and a daughter.

Colonel J. R. G. N. Evelegh, soldier and author, was born on November 23, 1932. He died on May 15, 2010, aged 77



Colonel Robin Evelegh
Soldiers of Oxfordshire

Early in 1999 Robin Evelegh became involved in a project to create a publicly accessible museum in Oxfordshire dealing with the histories of the County`s military. The project critically included the County Yeomanry, the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars and the Oxford University Officers Training Corps as well as Evelegh`s own original regiment the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Oxf. & Bucks LI). Although the Oxf. & Bucks LI and the Yeomanry both had good collections, they were inaccessible to the public, being on military premises.

To work, the project depended absolutely on a high level of trust between the two main proponents.   Characteristically, good English regiments often find this difficult, particularly where regimental histories and finance are involved. Working closely with Tim May, a senior Oxford Yeoman, Evelegh ensured that the level of trust and mutual respect, that was developed over the last eleven years of his life, now shows every prospect of bringing the Soldiers of Oxfordshire project to a fruitful conclusion, with their planned museum opening in the garden of the existing County Museum at Woodstock in two years.

Evelegh brought to the project, not only the desirable qualities of a respected and successful soldier, but also the skills and experience of an imaginative and successful businessman.  All involved in the project miss his rationality and common sense acutely. They also know the enormous debt the project will owe to Robin Evelegh when the new museum opens in 2012.

TLM
24.5.2010.

Col Robin Evelegh Post Army

After leaving the Army, Robin Evelegh set up Ridgeway International in 1977 together with two brother officers from the Royal Green Jackets, Christopher Hawker and Robert Williamson.

Ridgeway soon found its niche in the international transport and shipping of explosives and ammunition for governments and commerce and went from strength to strength, establishing sister companies in Canada, Australia and the USA. During this period too, Robins son Ted, also an ex Royal Green Jackets officer, joined the company, which was and remains based in Oxfordshire.

For many years Robin Evelegh was Chairman and Managing Director, but in recent times became less involved, although he retained an abiding interest in the company. He was a highly respected authority within the explosives logistics industry and sat on a number of Government committees concerned with the regulation of the industry.

R.G.K. W.  25 May 2010

Robin Evelegh An Explosives Industry Appreciation

Robin Evelegh, whose untimely death has been deeply felt by his many friends in the Explosives Industry, brought his Company, Ridgeway International, into the Explosives Industry Group of the CBI (EIG/CBI) at its inception in 1984 and remained a dedicated and major figure in the work of this influential business Group, right up to the onset of his last and fatal illness.

Robin Evelegh brought with him to the activities of the EIG/CBI, a wide and valued experience in the highly specialised explosives transport sector; coupled with a unique ability of expressing himself with utmost clarity and sense of purpose and  certainly to making Government Departments sit up and take notice when he spoke.

Above all and in addition to his considerable powers of persuasion, he had the proven ability in maintaining a sense of purpose and determination, in ensuring that important and unresolved issues facing the danger of being placed in the too difficult folder by reluctant Civil Servants, were carried through to satisfactory conclusions.

One area though in which Robin latterly excelled was in the field of transport security; brought into sharp focus by the numerous recent terrorist attacks on public targets. He was very prominent in a major  Departmental study into the security of the carriage of High Consequence Dangerous Goods; in which he made his presence felt, to the extent that in the final conclusions to this notable study, he was singled out for special mention, as being one of the most influential contributors to its recommendations.  A most notable achievement.

In spite of these apparent Rottweiler tendencies however, Robin Evelegh was the most courteous of men, gifted with a beautiful turn of phrase, well read and highly intelligent; and with a superb sense of humour and of the ridiculous always great fun to be with and so utterly loyal to his friends, to the very end of his life.

He will thus be sadly missed by all of those in the Explosives Industry who had the privilege of serving with him the like of whom is virtually irreplaceable.

Brigadier Charles Smith GM , General Secretary, Explosives Industry Group 25 May 2010