Major General Nick Ansell (L 55)

In 1989, not long before the Gulf War, Major General Nick Ansell, Director of the Royal Armoured Corps (DRAC), was preoccupied with one thing: the problems encountered in the planned upgrade of the Army’s new tank, the Challenger. Nick was not responsible for procurement policy but as professional head of the Royal Armoured Corps, whose crews depended on firepower as well as mobility and protection, he spoke up forthrightly. As a result, further trials were conducted and concluded that the MoD’s proposed upgrade and therefore life-extension programme for Challenger was fundamentally unsound. 

It was a risky call, given that there seemed to be no alternative, but Ansell told the MoD bluntly that the upgrade “won’t do”. After the personal intervention of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the MoD decided to ditch the upgrade. British-made Challenger 2 was created by Vickers, and despite the considerable extra cost, Ansell had got his way. Challenger 2 entered service in 1994, deploying to Kosovo five years later and seeing action in Iraq in 2003. 

Nicholas (Nick) George Picton Ansell was born in Devon in 1937, the eldest son of a Skin, the remarkable Colonel Sir Michael Ansell DSO. Nick was educated at Wellington College, like his father and grandfather, and was head of school. Called up for National Service, he did his basic training in the ranks at Catterick. Naturally, he joined the Skins and saw out his 18 months with them in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). 

He then read law at Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read law; on the day that he came down from Cambridge in 1961 he married Vivien Taylor, daughter of Colonel Anthony Taylor DSO MC. Vivien survives him, along with their three children, Mark, Jules and Clare.  

After graduating, he rejoined the Skins, believing “it’s in the blood”, and that it might let him indulge his passion for horse racing. Three years later he won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown, and served with the Skins in Libya, Cyprus and Germany.  

After staff college at Camberley, he was appointed brigade major, and in 1977 he took command of the Skins in Osnabrück, Germany. At the end of his time in command, Ansell was appointed OBE (Military), an uncommon recognition at the time for those serving exclusively in BAOR. The recommendation cited his ‘consistently outstanding qualities of leadership’ and ‘selfless dedication to the cause and wellbeing of his regiment’. 

He returned to the staff college as head of one of the three teaching divisions and was then quickly promoted to command of 20th Armoured Brigade in 1982. After a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) in London and a staff post in Headquarters BAOR, promotion and appointment as DRAC followed, after which he returned to the RCDS as its senior army member. 

He left the Army in 1992 at the age of 55 and returned to his native Devon. There he became clerk of the course at Exeter racecourse and director of Devon & Exeter Steeplechases, as well as a JP, deputy lieutenant and high sheriff. Challenger 2 is now in action in Ukraine, in no small part due to Ansell’s clear-sightedness and determination in that appointment. 

Major General Nick Ansell CB OBE, Royal Armoured Corps director and horseman, was born on 17th August 1937. He died on 18th February 2024, aged 86. 

Courtesy of The Times.