Reginald Laurence Scoones

Early years

Reginald Scoones was educated at Wellington School, Somerset (not to be confused with Wellington College) and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was first commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers before joining the Royal Tank Regiment in 1923. In 1928, he was seconded to the Sudan Defence Force and commanded the machine-gun battery. In 1935, back in England, he became the adjutant of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, and by early 1939 had completed a four-month spell as Staff Captain on the staff of the Mobile Division in Egypt.

Second World War

At the outbreak of the war, Scoones was working as a brigade major in Cairo before moving to the staff of the Western Desert Force as GSO2 in 1940. In 1941 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and after a short spell as second in command of 6th Royal Tank Regiment, was appointed commander of 42nd Royal Tank Regiment, part of 7th Armoured Division fighting in the Western Desert. After a spell first as a GSO1 and then as a deputy director of military training at the War Office in London he was sent to India and assigned to command 254th Indian Tank Brigade on 17 November 1943. The brigade, consisting of M3 Lee tanks and Stuart tanks, was soon in action at the Battle of Imphal, serving under William Slim and Scoones's brother, Geoffrey Scoones who was commanding IV Corps. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1945 for his "...gallant and distinguished services in Burma..." and was also mentioned in despatches. In July 1945 his substantive rank was raised to colonel.

Post-war

After the war, Scoones became Deputy Director of Military Training at the War Office. In 1947 he returned to Sudan as second in command of the Sudan Defence Force. In November 1949 his temporary brigadier's rank was made permanent and he assumed command of the Sudan Defence Force in 1950 in the temporary rank of major general, in which capacity he also served on the executive council of Sudan. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1951 and his major general's rank made substantive in that same year. He was to be the last British commander in the Sudan and in November 1954 he handed command over to Lieutenant General Ahmed Mohamed and was knighted for his services in the 1955 New Year's Honours List. He retired from the army in 1955 and in 1957 became the director of the National Trade Defence Association, a trade organization representing publicans, which position he held until 1969. Scoones died aged 90 in October 1991.