From The Daily Telegraph 6 November.
On joining the Royal Artillery he became a member of the Hampshire Hunt - though with pay of £180 a year, plus £10 a month from his father, he had to sell his car to keep a good horse (known as a "15 bobber").
After the outbreak of hostilities, Webster was posted with 2nd Searchlight Regiment to Brest, where the men got drunk on Algerian wine. He saw little action until the retreat to the Channel ports, when he sheltered in the cellar of a house at Dunkirk that was destroyed by a direct hit.
After climbing out of the rubble he found himself with a motley group of men in a plantation of trees, and he had to draw his revolver to prevent them running out and being seen by German bombers. Eventually he managed to board a small Dutch scow for England.
Three weeks after his marriage in 1940 to Beryl Otley, with whom he was to have two sons and a daughter, he was sent to Gibraltar. In early 1943 he was posted to Tunisia; one night he was ordered to dig an ammunition dump, only to realise from the smell that he was doing so in a burial ground. While he was serving as a battery commander at the Battle of Banana Ridge, the Germans mounted a spoiling attack, and he had to hide up for several days before Allied units arrived.
After earning a mention in despatches as brigade major, RA, in Italy with 10th Indian Division, Webster returned after the war to Salisbury Plain, and then spent a year in Korea and another in Hong Kong. He commanded 42nd Field Regiment at Plymouth; became director of movements for the Army at the War Office; and finally, in 1967, Brigadier, Northern Command.
Full obituary with photograph.
On joining the Royal Artillery he became a member of the Hampshire Hunt - though with pay of £180 a year, plus £10 a month from his father, he had to sell his car to keep a good horse (known as a "15 bobber").
After the outbreak of hostilities, Webster was posted with 2nd Searchlight Regiment to Brest, where the men got drunk on Algerian wine. He saw little action until the retreat to the Channel ports, when he sheltered in the cellar of a house at Dunkirk that was destroyed by a direct hit.
After climbing out of the rubble he found himself with a motley group of men in a plantation of trees, and he had to draw his revolver to prevent them running out and being seen by German bombers. Eventually he managed to board a small Dutch scow for England.
Three weeks after his marriage in 1940 to Beryl Otley, with whom he was to have two sons and a daughter, he was sent to Gibraltar. In early 1943 he was posted to Tunisia; one night he was ordered to dig an ammunition dump, only to realise from the smell that he was doing so in a burial ground. While he was serving as a battery commander at the Battle of Banana Ridge, the Germans mounted a spoiling attack, and he had to hide up for several days before Allied units arrived.
After earning a mention in despatches as brigade major, RA, in Italy with 10th Indian Division, Webster returned after the war to Salisbury Plain, and then spent a year in Korea and another in Hong Kong. He commanded 42nd Field Regiment at Plymouth; became director of movements for the Army at the War Office; and finally, in 1967, Brigadier, Northern Command.
Full obituary with photograph.
