Major-General Michael John Hatley Walsh, born on June 10, 1927, and passed away October 13, 2015.
CB DSO DL KStJ was a senior British Army officer and the Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories between 1982 and 1988.
Michael was born in 1927 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
He was educated at two independent schools: at Clifton House School in Harrogate, Yorkshire and at Sedbergh School in Cumbria, and was a member of the local Scout Troop.
He attained the King’s Scout Award with the added distinction of Gold Cords, indicating it as the highest award available in Scouting at the time.
Michael Walsh joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps as a rifleman in 1944 and was commissioned in 1945.
He spent the winter of 1945 – 46 in northern Italy guarding against incursion by Josip Broz Tito’s partisans.
After instructing at the Small Arms School and the Jungle Warfare School in Malaya, he was seconded to the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (known as “3 Para”) and went with them to Cyprus in 1956 as a company commander, where he took part in operations against EOKA insurgents.
Michael was Knight President of the London-based Society of Knights of the Round Table from 1988 until 1995, the Director of Overseas Relations for St. John Ambulance from 1989 until 1995, and Vice President of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
Michael J. H. Walsh died on 13 October 2015.