Guy Prendergast (British Army officer)

Guy Lenox Prendergast
Guy Lenox Prendergast
Born (1905-07-08)July 8, 1905
Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Died October 6, 1986(1986-10-06) (aged 81)
Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch , British Army
Rank Brigadier
Unit Long Range Desert Group
Special Air Service
Commands held Long Range Desert Group
Battles/wars Second World War
Awards Distinguished Service Order

Guy Lenox Prendergast DSO was a Saharan explorer and officer in the British Army during the Second World War.

History

Guy Lenox Prendergast was one of a group of British Saharan explorers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. These men included Ralph Alger Bagnold, Pat Clayton and Bill Kennedy Shaw. they had explored the desert, before the war and had gained much valuable experience.[1] Prendergast learnt to fly as part of the Western Arab Corps in Sudan in the 1930s.[2] After the outbreak of the Second World War Prendergast was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment, together with his explorer associates he was involved in the formation of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) under the command of Bagnold.[1] On 1 August the then Major Prendergast was promoted Lieutenant Colonel and assumed command of the LRDG between November 1941 and October 1943.[3] After commanding the LRDG, he went on to be Deputy Commander of Raiding Forces and later Deputy Commander of the Special Air Service Brigade in 1944–1945 and officially, Commander of the Free French SAS Regiments with the rank of Brigadier. For his wartime service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order,[4] and the Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion III Class.[5]

He died 6 October 1986 age 85 and is buried in the Strathoich Cemetery, Fort Augustus with his wife Angela Mary.[6]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Molinari 2007, p. 14
  2. ↑ Mortimer, Gavin (20 April 2017). The Long Range Desert Group in World War II. Osprey Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 978-1472819338.
  3. ↑ Molinari 2007, p. 19
  4. ↑ "No. 35697". The London Gazette. 8 September 1942. p. 3948.
  5. ↑ "No. 38122". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 November 1947. p. 5354.
  6. ↑ Headstone inscription

References

  • Molinari, Andrea (4 July 2007). Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940-43. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1846030062.
Military offices
Preceded by
Ralph Alger Bagnold		 Commander, Long Range Desert Group
November 1941 – October 1943		 Succeeded by
John Richard Easonsmith
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