Death of a Distinguished Old Aldenhamian

The School, and indeed the whole Foundation, are deeply saddened by the death of Field Marshal The Lord Vincent of Coleshill GBE KCB DSO.

Richard (Dick) Vincent was in School House from 1945 until 1950. After his National Service he became a full time soldier with the Royal Artillery initially serving as part of the Army of the Rhine and eventually rising to be the most senior ranking officer in the British Army. During his illustrious military career he served with the Commonwealth Brigade in Malaysia at the time of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation; he commanded the 12th Light Air Defence Regiment in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, for which he was awarded the DSO, and later the 19th Airportable Brigade; he went on to be Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff in the late 1980s in the aftermath of the Gulf War and subsequently became Chair of the Military Committee of NATO in the mid-1990s.

He was ennobled in the 1996 Birthday Honours, being created a life peer and retired from the House of Lords in 2016. He was Chancellor of Cranfield University. He had a long lasting connection with the School as he assumed the Presidency of the Old Aldenhamian Society in 1999 and for many years served as a Governor. In recent years he was made a Governor Emeritus. His portrait hangs in the School Dining Hall.

Field Marshal the Lord Vincent GBE KCB DSO, the most senior ranking officer in the British Army, stands in front of a bust of General Sir Richard Gale GCB KBE DSO MC, founder of the Parachute Regiment.  Both of these outstanding officers were former pupils of Aldenham. Lord Vincent also conducted the first Biennial inspection of our newly reformed CCF.

In April 2005 Lord Vincent performed the official opening of the Richard Platt Building which houses the English and Modern Foreign Languages departments.

The school flag will be lowered to half-mast for the next three days and again on the day of his funeral.