LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR DELAVAL COTTER, BT., D.S.O., 13TH/18TH ROYAL HUSSARS. Six: Baronets Badge for Ireland (central device of the Red Hand of Ulster, shamrocks around), silver-gilt and enamel (reverse engraved "Cotter of Rock Forest 1763"), London hallmarks for 1929 Distinguished Service Order, George VI, silver-gilt and enamel, reverse officially dated 1944 and with with its original slip-on top ribbon bar 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, 1939-45 Defence and War Medals. Replacement suspension loop to Baronets badge, and a couple of restored chips to white enamel, otherwise Almost Extremely Fine, DSO with couple of chips to green enamel on wreath, otherwise generally Almost Extremely Fine.
Group accompanied by copied research re. the Cotter family of Rock Forest, Co. Cork, Ireland, copied extracts from Army lists re Lieutenant-Colonel Cotters service and copied D.S.O. citation.
Sir Delaval James Alfred Cotter, Bt., DSO, was a member of the Cotter family of Rock Forest, Co. Cork, Ireland. Born 29/4/1911, he was first commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 13th/18th Hussars, 27/8/1931, and promoted Lieutenant 27/8/1934, Captain 27/8/1939, Major 6/12/1940, Lieutenant-Colonel, 16/11/1953, and retired on 17/7/1959.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cotter saw service with the 13th/18th Hussars as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France, 1939-40, being evacuated from Dunkirk following the fall of France, and subsequently saw service in North-West Europe, 1944-45, the tank that he commanded on D-Day being one of the first British tanks to land on the beaches of Normandy on that day. His Distinguished Service Order, awarded for gallantry in the Bocage, Normandy, was announced in the London Gazette of 21/12/1944, the following citation, also published in the regimental history, has been extracted from official records:
"This officer was in command of a Squadron of tanks which, when the remainder of the Regiment had captured Mont Pincon on the 6th Aug. 1944 had been left with a depleted battalion of infantry to hold the village of Lar Variniere on the Regiment's line of communication. This village had not been completely cleared of the enemy and there was also a large number in the surrounding woods and orchards. It was vital that the village should be held, otherwise withdrawal from Mont Pincon would have been inevitable. With great courage and drive and under intense enemy shelling and mortar fire, this officer held the village for 24 hours, which enabled the troops on Mont Pincon to be reinforced and the position secured. During this period Major Cotter's Squadron lost several tanks from short range infantry weapons and the danger from this was ever present as the enemy was able to creep up close to the tanks in the thick country. However, in spite of these difficult circumstances, Major Cotter's Squadron held on and was able to inflict serious casualties on the enemy. An 88mm. S.P. gun was destroyed and a considerable number of enemy infantry killed and taken prisoners. There is no doubt that but for the tenacity and leadership shown by this Officer the captured position of Mont Pincon could not have been held."
The regimental history of the 13th/18th Hussars describes the capture of Mont Pincon as the "turning-point" of the break-out from the Normandy. Cotter is also mentioned in the regimental history as having had a lucky escape during the fighting in and around the German town of Waldefeucht on 20/1/1945, when he was the sole survivor of his tank crew, after his tank had been hit by a round from a German 88mm anti-tank gun. "On the following morning, 20th January, the Squadron (E) was placed under the command of the 7th/9th Royal Scots Fusiliers and ordered to continue the advance. Very little progress was made before they were again held up by well concealed 88mms. and S.Ps. Major Cotter's tank was hit and "brewed up", Sergeant Bradley and Trooper Reid being killed Major Cotter himself was untouched."
Lieutenant-Colonel Cotter's Obituary was published in The Times, Thursday, 26 April 2001:
"Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Delaval Cotter, Bt. Hussar officer who led a tank squadron on to the beaches on D-Day and later fought some tough battles in the Normandy hinterland.
The 13th/18th Royal Hussars, which Sir Delaval Cotter went on to command in the 1950s, will long be remembered for getting the first battle tanks ashore on "Queen Red" and "Queen White" beaches on D-Day. These were the ingenious duplex-drive "swimming tanks" with floatation screens invented by the Hungarian-born engineer Nicholas Straussler. The War Office bought the idea from Straussler but the Royal Navy was so sceptical about the tanks surviving in the open sea that 300 Sherman tanks had to be converted to duplex-drive by factories in the United States and shipped in haste to England.
The first two squadrons of the 13th/18th got 31 of their 40 tanks to positions on or just off the beach, from where they could give fire support to the assaulting infantry of the 3rd (British) Drvision, which had the task of taking Caen by the end of D-Day. Cotter, commanding the third squadron, was struggling to contain his impatience while waiting to beach his tanks direct from their landing craft. This they achieved, but the regiment became involved in intense fighting on the exit points from the beach. Caen was not captured by nightfall - indeed not for a month.
Exactly two months after D-Day, Cotter won an immediate DSO for his tenacity and leadership in command of his squadron during the battle for Mont Pinçon, south of Aunay-sur-Odon, which barred exploitation of the breakout from the bridgehead south-west of Caen. His squadron was assigned to hold the village of La Varinière on the centre line of the assault, west of Mont Pinçon, with an infantry battalion already seriously depleted by casualties.
The area had not been cleared and Cotter found the surrounding woods and orchards full of the enemy. Despite intense shelling and accurate mortar fire, Cotter cleared the village and held it against repeated attacks for the vital 24 hours it took the other two squadrons of the regiment and the supporting infantry of 129 Infantry Brigade to secure the decisive lodgement on the western sector of Mont Pinçon.
A few days later, after the advance had resumed, Cotter's tank received a direct hit from a German 88mm gun. Two of his crew members were killed but he climbed out without injury. He survived in command of his squadron to the end of the campaign in North-West Europe and left his regiment in 1945 to attend a course at the wartime college at Haifa, Palestine.
Delaval James Alfred Cotter was the sixth holder of the baronetcy (created in 1763), having inherited it from his father, Sir James Laurence Cotter, as a schoolboy. He was born in Dublin and educated at Malvern College and Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 13th/18th Royal Hussars in 1931 and joined the still-horsed regiment in India, where he served until 1939.
The 13th/18th Hussars came home to Shorncliffe before the outbreak of war, converted for mechanised fighting and were equipped with light tanks. Cotter went with them to France to join the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939. Following the confused withdrawal after the onset of the German offensive in May 1940, he was evacuated through Dunkirk.
After the end of the war in Europe he held a staff appointment in England before rejoining his regiment as second-in-command in Cyrenaica. In 1949 he accompanied the 13th/18th Hussars to Malaya, where the communist insurrection had begun the previous year. Although the public imagined infantry battalions slogging through the jungle, the armoured cars of the cavalry regiments played a key part in keeping roads open and escorting convoys of troops and supplies throughout the Emergency.
Cotter returned to England in 1950 to take over command of the Warwickshire Yeomanry, a Territorial Army regiment. Usually only one regimental command is permitted in peacetime but in 1953 he was selected to command the 13th/18th Hussars in Germany. This proved to be the peak of his career and also allowed him to demonstrate skilful horsemanship in military competitions. Later he served on the staff of the Regular Commissions Board from 1956 until retirement from the Army in 1959.
In 1943 he married Roma, widow of Squadron Leader Kenneth MacEwen, but the marriage was dissolved in 1949. In 1952 he married Eveline, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel John Paterson. She died in 1991. He is survived by two daughters of his first marriage. His heir is his nephew, Patrick.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Delaval Cotter, Bt, DSO, commanding officer 13th/18th Hussars, 1953-1956, was born on April 29, 1911. He died on April 2, 2001, aged 89." He was succeeded by his nephew, Patrick Cotter, as 7th Baronet Cotter.
Note: there is an error in the Times obituary, Cotter's tank was destroyed by a direct hit from a German 88mm gun not in Normandy after the engagement at Mont Pincon, but during the advance into Germany at Waldefeucht on 20/1/1945.
The Cotter family were of Hiberno-Norse (Viking) ancestry, and one of the few Irish families of Norse descent to survive the Norman invasion of Ireland. The family trace their ancestry to the Ottar Viking dynasty who established kingdoms and principalities in Dublin, Cork, the Isle of Man, Scotland and the Western Isles, including the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. An Ottir Iarla (old Norse, Ottir the Black) is associated with the Viking settlement of Cork in the early 10th century and took part in a Viking expediton against Constantine II of Scotland in 918. A descendant of Ottir Iarla, Ottir Dub (Gaelic, Ottir the Black), is recorded as having fought at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 against Brian Boru. A later Ottir Dub was king of Dublin, 1142-1148 and his son, Thorfin, established an independent kingdom in the Hebrides and Thorfin's son, Therulfe, following the fall of the Viking kingdom of Dublin, took part in a naval expedition mounted in 1173 by the Vikings of Cork against the Norman warlord Adam de Hereford, after which Therulfe and his followers settled in Cork. During the following centuries the Cotter family became thoroughy Gaelicised, producing a number of Gaelic poets and scholars, the chieftains of the Cotter clan being among the last to remain patrons of Gaelic literature. During the civil wars of the 17th century, the subsequent invasion of Ireland by William II after the Glorious Revolution of 1698, and the Jacobite intrigues of the early 18th century, the Cotters were staunch supporteers of the Stuart dynasty and the Jacobite cause.
The Rockforest branch of the Cotter family, long associated with the city and county of Cork, trace their descent from a William Cottyer, who was living in Cork during the reign of William IV (1461-83). The baronetcy was conferred on Sir James Cotter (1714-1770), the son of James Cotter (1689-1721), of Ann Grove, who was executed in 1720 for high treason, in consequence of his support for the Jacobite cause. Sir James Cotter represented the borough of Askeyton (now Askeaton) in the Irish parliament in 1763. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Delaval James Alfred Cotter was the original recipient of the Baronet's badge in this group, he having succeeded his father in 1924 as the 6th Baronet Cotter. On his death in 2001, Sir Delaval Cotter was succeeded by his nephew, Patrick Laurence, as 7th Baronet Cotter.
In 1624, to raise money independently of parliament, James I sold grants of land in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) to Scotsmen. In 1625 Charles I conferred on the holders of this land the title and dignity of Baronets of Nova Scotia and decreed that they should wear round their necks "an orange tawny ribbon whereon should be pendent an escutcheon". After the union with England (1707) English and Scottish baronetcies ceased to be created, being replaced with baronetcies of Great Britain. Irish baronetcies continued to be created until the Irish Act of Union with Great Britain, 1801, after which all new creations were of the United Kingdom. Until 1929 only the baronets of Nova Scotia wore badges. In 1929, all the other baronets, whether created under the auspices of England, Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain or the United Kingdom, were granted the right to wear badges, the design of each type of badge to be worn by the newly entitled baronets being specific to the period when the respective baronetcy was first created, and the badges engraved on the reverse with the name of the baronetcy and its year of creation. Thus baronets of Irish baronetcies created before 1801 wear an Irish baronets badge, whereas Irish baronets created after 1801 wear the badge of a Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Original badges of the type introduced in 1929, like that ot fhe Baronets Cotter, as first worn by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Delaval Cotter, are hallmarked for 1929.
