LIEUTENANT ANTHONY HUTTON-RIDDELL

Lieutenant Anthony Hutton-Riddell, 'B' Squadron, 1st Royal Dragoons, Royal Armoured Corps was born in January 1919 to Christine and Richard Hutton Riddell. 

He lived at Twitten House, Church Road, Newick

ANTHONY HUTTON RIDDELL (A, 1932-36), born February 9, 1919, the son of R. Hutton

Riddell, of Newick, Sussex, came to Mr. Altham's House in 1932 from Copthorne School. A keen,

if not particularly gifted games player, he won his Flannels and represented his House in both

cricket and Association, besides being a good high-jumper. He reached Sixth Book before he

left, and won  "Holgate" in Senior Part.

On leaving Winchester he went to Oriel, Oxford, from which he was commissioned in Lovat's

Scouts in October 1929. Transferring to The Royal Dragoons in April 1940, he fought in Syria

in 1941 and was taken prisoner. Repatriated to Beirut in September 1941, he wrote an admirable

account of his experiences which appeared in the Cavalry Journal. He subsequently took part

in the whole North African advance to beyond Tobruk, was awarded the Military Cross in September

1942, and was killed when the ship on which he was returning from leave in Egypt sank on

March 27, 1943. Quiet and rather diffident as a boy, Tony Riddell won no great distjnction at

Winchester, but to those who knew him his loyalty, unselfishness and integrity promised a development

which war did even more than Oxford to consummate. It gave him what as a boy he lacked real

belief in himself and, with it, happiness : the more trying the situation, the more he found to

amuse him, whilst his passion for birds was undiminished to the end.

Lieutenant Anthony Hutton-Riddell died at sea on 27 March 1943 aged 24 when the ship on which he was returning from leave in Egypt sank.

It is highly likely that he was travelling on the cargo ship City of Guildford which was torpedoed on 27 March and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off Derna, Libya  by U-593 with the loss of 129 of the 142 people aboard. 

At 15.24 hours on 27 March 1943, U-593 fired a spread of four torpedoes at convoy XT-7 off Derna and heard three detonations after 3 minutes 40 seconds followed by loud sinking noises. Kelbling thought that he had scored hits on two ships, but in fact only the City of Guildford (Master Clifford Collard) was hit and sunk. 70 crew members, 11 gunners and 48 army personnel were lost.