Height moverall: 37cm (14.6in)
Silver. An Elizabeth II regimental presentation figure of an officer in long coat, broad brimmed hat bearing a Colour, raised on an integral circular base engraved ‘Ensign 16th Foot 1688, and mounted on a domed ebonised base applied with a silver plaque inscribed ‘Lieutenant-General Sir Reginald Denning KBE, CB, DL, from The Royal Anglian Regiment’, and engraved with The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire regimental badge. Maker’s mark of Edward Barnard & Sons. Hallmarked London 1965.
The figure references the origins of the 16th Foot as one of the oldest regiment’s in the British Army. Raised in 1688 to defend England against Prince William of Orange (the future William III), the regiment was ordered to London but refused to resist William. When William seized power in the bloodless ‘Glorious Revolution’, the commanding officer, a supporter of James II, was replaced and the regiment allowed to continue as part of the Williamite army, being quartered at Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire.
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Lieutenant-General Sir Reginald Denning (1894-1990), was a brother of the Master of the Rolls Lord Denning. He volunteered the beginning of the First World War and served as a private in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles. He was commissioned in the 16th Foot’s decendant The Bedfordshire Regiment in early 1915. In June 1915 he was severely wounded in the back of his head when encouraging men into the attack. Left for dead he was eventually brought in by an NCO. He returned to the front in 1918 to serve briefly as a company commander and later as a staff officer. After the war he was adjutant for each regular of the Bedfordshire battalions, and attanded the staff college. In 1940 he helped with the planning of the Dunkirk evacuations and was appointed to XI Corps defending South East England. He was promoted to Major-General in 1943 to lead the planning for D-Day; he asked to be demoted to Brigadier so he could take part in the landings, but was denied. After the success of the Operation Overlord, he was posted to Far East Command. He retired in 1952 and on the merging of the county regiments into larger Royal Anglian Regiment served as its first Colonel.