Basil Eugster

{{Infobox military person

|honorific_prefix=Sir

|name= Basil Eugster

|image=

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|birth_date= {{Birth date|1914|8|15|df=y}}

|birth_place=

|death_date= {{death date and age|1984|4|5|1914|8|15|df=y}}

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|allegiance= United Kingdom

|branch= British Army

|serviceyears= 1935–1974

|rank= General

|servicenumber= 65413

|unit= Irish Guards

|commands= UK Land Forces
Southern Command
British Forces in Hong Kong
London District
4th Division
3rd Infantry Brigade
1st Battalion Irish Guards
3rd Battalion Irish Guards

|battles= Arab revolt in Palestine
Second World War

|awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order
Military Cross & Bar
Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star (Austria)

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}}

General Sir Basil Oscar Paul Eugster, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|KCB|KCVO|CBE|DSO|MC1}} (15 August 1914 – 5 April 1984) was a senior British Army officer who served as Commander in Chief, UK Land Forces from 1972 to 1974.

Army career

A British soldier of Swiss descent,Beat de Fischer, 2000 Ans de Presence Suisse en Angleterre: L'etonnante epopee des Suisses D'Outre-Manche, de L'epoque Romaine a la Communaute Europeenne Basil Oscar Paul Eugster attended Beaumont College.{{cite web |title=Sir Basil Oscar Paul Eugster |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp132046/sir-basil-oscar-paul-eugster |website=National Portrait Gallery |access-date=24 September 2021}} In 1935 he joined the Irish Guards.[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/EUGSTER.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives] He served with his regiment through the Second World War and fought in the Narvik Campaign in Norway in 1940. He was commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards in 1945, and again in 1947, and of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards from 1951 to 1954.

Eugster served as commander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Cyprus from 1959 to 1962 and was then General Officer Commanding 4th Division in Germany from 1963 to 1965. He went on to become Major-General commanding the Household Brigade and General Officer Commanding London District from 1965 to 1968 and Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong from 1968 to 1970. In 1966, Eugster was awarded the Austrian Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star.{{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = German | page=26 |trans-title=| accessdate = 4 October 2012 }} He was then General Officer Commanding Southern Command from 1971 to 1972. He served as the Commander in Chief, UK Land Forces from 1972 to 1974 when he retired.

Later career

Eugster was Colonel of the Regiment of the Irish Guards until his death in 1984, aged 69.[https://web.archive.org/web/20030725041307/http://www.irishguards.org.uk/pages/history/recent.html Irish Guards: History]