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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Digby Willoughby
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = 4 May 1934
| birth_place = India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|27 February 2007|4 May 1934}}
| death_place = [[St Moritz]], Switzerland
| nationality = British
| education = [[Blundell's School]]
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
|module = {{Infobox military person
|embed = yes
|allegiance = United Kingdom
|branch = [[British Army]]
|serviceyears = 1955–1978
|rank = [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]]
|unit = [[2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)|2nd Gurkha Rifles]]
|battles = [[Brunei revolt]] <br /> [[Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]]
}}
}}
[[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]] '''Digby Jeremie Willoughby''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MC|MBE}} (4 May 1934 – 27 February 2007) was a soldier and sportsman, one of a two-man [[bobsleigh]] team that broke the world record in 1961. He later became chief executive of the [[Cresta Run|St Moritz Tobogganing Club]], a position he held for 24 years, fiercely guarding its traditions, which he saw as part of the last truly amateur sport.

==Early life==

Digby Jeremie Willoughby was born in [[India]], the son of an officer of the Bombay Grenadiers and the [[Indian Political Service]]. He was educated at [[Blundell's School]] in [[Tiverton, Devon|Tiverton]] and the [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst|RMA Sandhurst]]. He was commissioned into the [[2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)|2nd Gurkha Rifles]] and joined the 1st Battalion in Malaya in 1955.

During his early leaves from the [[Far East]] Willoughby began to ride bobsleigh runs, and in 1961 his two-man team broke the world record on the St Moritz Bob run and was in the British contingent at the [[World Games]] at [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]] in 1962. He had also started riding the single toboggans at the [[Cresta Run]] in [[St Moritz]] in 1958 and was a member of the Army Cresta team in the 1960s and 1970s.

==Military career==

In 1962 Willoughby's battalion was ordered to [[Brunei]], where the [[Brunei Revolt]] had broken out. Willoughby, with a small party of Gurkhas, rescued [[Omar Ali Saifuddien III]], the [[Sultan of Brunei]], from his palace and earned the Sultan's long-lasting gratitude. Willoughby was [[Mentioned in Despatches|mentioned in dispatches]] for his actions.

During the [[Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]] in 1963, arising from [[Indonesia]]n attempts to destabilise the newly formed [[Malaysia]], increasing incursions by Indonesian forces in the eastern Malaysian states of [[North Borneo]] and [[Sarawak]], resulted in [[Walter Walker (General)|General Walter Walker]], the director of Borneo operations (also an [[:Category:People educated at Blundell's School|Old Blundellian]]), receiving approval to carry the campaign to the enemy by secretly crossing areas of the 1,000-mile border to launch offensives against the Indonesian bases.

In 1964 Willoughby, then a major in command of "A" Company, was instructed to mount one such operation. On 4 September he and his company were lifted by helicopter to the Sabah-Kalimantan border and, the next day, guided by a village headman, they set off across the border into [[Kalimantan]]. Two days later the Gurkhas became embroiled in a battle with Indonesian forces and carried the four enemy positions one after the other with minimal casualties before fighting off a counter-attack. The Indonesians withdrew with considerable losses in men and equipment and Willoughby was awarded an immediate [[Military Cross]].

He subsequently completed a tour as the company commander of Ypres Company at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst during which time the eldest son of the Sultan he rescued, Hassanal Bolkiah, was an officer cadet. Willoughby commanded his battalion from 1972 to 1975.

==Later life==

Willoughby took early retirement from the Army and from 1978 combined work as an auctioneer’s representative with that of secretary and chief executive of the St Moritz Tobogganing Club, an appointment which he held for 24 years and which he had coveted ever since his early runs down the Cresta.

Willoughby was appointed MBE in 2002. He died at St Moritz, the day before he was to watch the Willoughby Cup, which he founded.

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121112115111/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1544740/Digby-Willoughby.html Obituary of Lieutenant Colonel Digby Willoughby, The Daily Telegraph, 7 March 2007]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_09mar2007.shtml Last Word, BBC Radio 4, 9 March 2007]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willoughby, Digby}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Blundell's School]]
[[Category:Royal Gurkha Rifles officers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:British male bobsledders]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]]

Digby Willoughby (bobsleigher) - Revision history

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