ONE of Worcestershire's most illustrious soldiers of the 20th Century was in fine form when he gave a speech to a packed audience at Worcester Guildhall this week half-a-century ago.

General Sir Richard Gale, then Britain's Director-General of Military Training, said he had joined the Worcestershire Regiment in 1915 and had once been "a scruffy second-lieutenant, somewhat ill-disciplined and not very bright.

"I didn't dream that one day I would be Colonel of that same regiment, the privilege I now enjoy. One thinks oneself a deuce of a chap to be Colonel of the regiment!"

Speaking of the British Army of the early 1950s, the General stressed: "It's all right. The pay is good and with its other assets, there is the business of doing something to hold this Empire of ours together. There is nothing like the British Army and never has been. Don't be afraid of saying so.''

Of the Worcestershire Regiment's one remaining battalion, then serving in Malaya, the General said: "I have not had a detailed report of their latest success but they have done magnificently out there." He added that there was good news for the Worcestershire Regiment, too, in that it was to about get back its depot at Norton Barracks where it was soon to receive its first batch of National Service recruits.

Previously, Sir Richard Gale had been General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt and the Mediterranean and, in the later part of the Second World War, had been deputy commander of the 1st Allied Airborne