Grahame Vivian

Major John Edgar Grahame Vivian MC and Bar (28 October 1919 – 10 July 2015) was a British Army officer who won the Military Cross in Burma in 1944 and again in Malaya in 1956. He later served as an officer in the army of the Sultan of Oman.

Early life John Edgar Grahame Vivian was born in Camborne, Cornwall on 28 October 1919. His father managed mining companies and the family moved to Burma and Siam to take up work there. He went to school at Repton in Derbyshire and would go on to attend Camborne School of Mines. However, the outbreak of the Second World War curtailed his studies at the mining school. Vivian was finally able to leave hospital in February 1946 when he rejoined the Gurkha Rifles at Quetta.

Post Army Life Civilian Work Vivian retired from the army in 1959, going to work for English China Clays in Cornwall. From there he moved to the Sultanate of Oman to become an officer in the Sultan’s Armed Forces.

Sultanate of Oman In Oman, Vivian served as Deputy Commander of the Oman Gendarmerie up to 1965 and Commander Coastal Patrol till 1966. A political appointment followed in 1973 as Djebel Liaison Officer where he reported to Sayyid Fahr bin Taimur Al Said, based at Saiq in the Djebel Al Akhdar mountains. He was known as Abu Primus (Father Primus Stove) as his temper could flare up as quickly as a Primus Stove. Vivian retired in 1985 and was awarded the Sultan’s Distinguished Service Medal.

Return to Britain After leaving Oman, Vivian returned to Cornwall where he cared for his wife, who died in 1987. He lived for the next nine years Vivian lived at the family home in Lostwithiel before remarrying and settling in Golant. Vivian was a member of the Regimental Association and contributor to the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Vivian died at Golant in Cornwall on 10 July 2015.

Personal life He learned languages and spoke English, Urdu, Gurkhali and Arabic fluently.

Vivian first married Gwen Caswell, to whom he had been engaged for six years, in 1945. Gwen predeceased him 1987 and he remarried in 1996 to Lorna Kirby. He had two sons and a daughter from his first marriage and three step daughters from his second.