Robert Long

Brigadier Robert George Long, (30 January 1937 – 19 September 2014) was a British Army officer who was the last Colonel of the Royal Hampshire Regiment.

Early life Long was born on 30 January 1937 in the military hospital at Alipore, outside Calcutta, India. He was the son of Robert Herbert Long, Adjutant of the 7th Rajput Regiment. During the War, his father was captured while serving in Corps HQ in Malaya, and spent the war as a prisoner of the Japanese. His mother, Margaret (née Culshaw) worked as a cypher clerk with Force 136, the British clandestine organisation in Burma. In 1944, aged seven, Long was despatched back to the UK on board the SS Strathmore, and spent much of his childhood living with relatives in Fareham. He was educated at Sherborne School before taking a National Service Commission, and subsequently went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he graduated with a Fourth Class Honours degree.

Military career Long was selected for officer training during his National Service and attended the Officer Cadet School at Eaton Hall in Cheshire. He was commissioned into the Royal Hampshire Regiment, and served in Germany. On graduation from Oxford he took up a management trainee position with an oil company, but became disillusioned and applied to rejoin his regiment with a regular commission. 1st Battalion Royal Hampshires were then serving as the West Indies Garrison Battalion, where Long joined them as a platoon commander. His first action came in suppressing riots in Georgetown, British Guiana, On relinquishing command, he moved back to the Ministry of Defence, where he ran the Adjutant General's secretariat. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1982. At the end of 1986 Long was appointed to the honorary position of Colonel, The Royal Hampshire Regiment. In this capacity he undertook the difficult challenge of negotiating the demise of his regiment, which was amalgamated with the Queen's Regiment to form The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (PWRR) in 1992. Long was instrumental in ensuring that Diana, Princess of Wales, who had been Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Hampshires, continued in that position in the new regiment named in her honour.

Long was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Birthday Honours list of 1988. Mentioned in Despatches 21 March 1978 during service in Northern Ireland Appointed to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1982 New Year honours list Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1988 Birthday honours list Appointed to the Colonelcy of the Royal Hampshire Regiment in January 1987 Appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Hampshire in February 1991