Fondly Remembered
I too recall Bobby Robson's time as DDIOT. When he arrived the "joke" was that we had cadets and super-cadets (ie the DS). The rules were that DS had to dress exactly the same as the cadets especially when on exercise in combat clothing - no aircrew boots or jackets, no Regiment specials etc.
Bobby R arrived on the agenda for his first Director's meeting was an item "Eccentricities of DS Dress". On this item being reached in the meeting he said "There are to be eccentricities of DS dress" and smartly moved on to the next item.
I used to swim (early mornings when he wasn't sheep farming or as he put it cultivating the EU subsidy) and run with him and he was always charming, if hard to keep up with. But in those days I had a chance.
On my next tour, one of my copilots was in the West London Magistrates Court for drink driving (spiked drinks apparently). For various reasons I had to attend at least 3 times as the case was adjourned. On one of these visits I visited Bobby in MoD when he was DPR. On hearing why I was in London he called a minion in to ask "Do we know about this and if not why not?"
As has been said in earlier posts - a top bloke and a joy to work for/with.