Ray Daniels

Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Daniels MC (15 July 1923 – 27 April 2003) was awarded the Military Cross for his ‘exemplary actions during fierce fighting’ at the Battle of Cloppenburg in 1945, played rugby for Wasps RFC after World War II and later became Chief Executive of the William Press Group that he led to become a FTSE 100 company in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.

Raymond Alfred Daniels was born on 15 July 1923 at Pinner, Middlesex and educated at Bedford Modern School. After school he enlisted in the Buffs where he won the regimental heavyweight boxing title while still a private.

After completing his officer cadet training, he was commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment, later transferring to the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment where he served as a platoon commander in A Company.

The 7th Battalion landed on the Arromanches beaches on 22 June 1944 and ‘suffered severe losses in the Norman bocage with its undulating fields, woods and high hedges which greatly favoured the defenders’. In August, the British ‘broke out of the bridgehead and the 7th Hampshires took part in the action to capture the Mount Pincon feature, the highest point in Normandy and strongly defended by the enemy’. Daniels was mentioned in despatches.

On April 13 1945, the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment ‘was ordered to clear the town of Cloppenburg and to secure two bridges over the river which ran through it. As the 7th Battalion approached the main bridge at Cloppenburg was demolished and the Germans strongly resisted before B Company and D Company were able to force a crossing via the remaining bridge and establish themselves on the other side of the river. A Company, the leading platoon commanded by Lt Daniels, then passed through B Company on the right and was immediately plunged into a confused, close-quarter battle among the streets and rabbit warrens of ruined houses’.

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