Rohan Delacombe

Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe, KCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO, KStJ (25 October 1906 – 10 November 1991) was a senior British Army officer.

[1] After passing out from Sandhurst, Delacombe was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Scots, then the most senior line infantry regiment in the British Army, on 4 February 1926.

[4] Delacombe then served in Palestine with the battalion during the Arab revolt from 1937 until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939; he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1939 King's Birthday Honours.

[8] He was wounded and, after recovering, made commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots, part of the 66th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, which fought in the Italian Campaign.

[23] In 1967, Delacombe was petitioned to exercise the Royal prerogative of mercy on behalf of the Queen, to commute the execution of Ronald Ryan.

Four members of the jury had submitted a guilty verdict, in the belief that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria, and that Ryan's sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment.

[23] Delacombe died on 10 November 1991 at his home at Shrewton, England, and was buried in the churchyard at the parish church, St Mary's.