Hardress Jocelyn de Warrenne Waller:HARDRESS JOCELYN de Warrenne Waller of Rynskaheen, Ballycommon, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, who has died aged 92, was a distinguished British army officer who forged a second career with horses and settled eventually in Ireland.
Hardress was born in Perth, Scotland, where his father was recuperating from injuries received on active service in the trenches during the first World War. He was educated at Rossall, a public school in Lancashire, following prep school in Cumbria.
During school holidays in Nenagh, Kilkenny and Dublin, he developed a lifelong love of riding, sailing and other outdoor pursuits. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich on leaving school, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He had a distinguished army career, serving in the Royal Horse Artillery. His first posting was to India, where he manned shore batteries defending the city of Bombay, before war broke out with Japan.
It was there that Hardress met his wife Lygia. They were married in September 1940 in the Catholic cathedral in Bombay by Archbishop Thomas Roberts SJ.
Hardress fought the Japanese both in the campaign to contain their advance on India and in the eventual counter-offensive in the jungles of Burma, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.
In peacetime he served in many places around the world, including Egypt, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, attending the Staff College in England and the Nato Defence College in Paris.
He received an MBE in 1956, and retired in 1965 with the rank of brigadier.
After leaving the army, he threw himself into a second career in the administration of horse racing. He was secretary of the UK Horserace Betting Levy Board 1965-68 and then director general of the Racecourse Association 1968-1975.
He and Lygia then returned from London to Ireland to live at Rynskaheen, the house his father had bought in 1935 on the shores of Lough Derg. He continued his interest in horseracing as a steward, and subsequently was senior steward of the Irish Turf Club 1991-93.
In his private life, Hardress was a man of varied accomplishments: a fine jockey, a first-rate polo player, a highly competitive and successful sailor, a military historian, a family genealogist, and with his wife Lygia a restorer of oil paintings.
A large congregation gathered for his funeral service in St Mary’s Church of Ireland in Nenagh to recall his gifts of character, integrity and leadership, his sense of humour and zest for life.
After the service he was buried in the family graveyard at Clough Prior beside his parents, Edgar and Dorothy (née Carlisle).
He is survived by his widow Lygia, son Jocelyn, grandson Thomas and great-grandsons Alexander and William. A second grandson Edward was killed by a terrorist bomb in Bali in 2002. He is survived also by his twin sister Gundred (Gunnie), and younger sisters Anne and Bridget (Biddy).
Brig Hardress Jocelyn de Warrenne Waller: born May 5th, 1917; died March 6th, 2010