"Lieutenant General Sir Robert Richardson, who has died aged 85, was GOC Northern Ireland from 1982 to 1985. It was a period which saw an escalation in the violence and sophistication of the weapons used by the terrorist organisations, as well as a series of spectacular attacks on the British mainland, and called for qualities in a commander which Richardson had in full measure. He had a robust approach to command and was a straight talker to the point of bluntness; but he had a sure touch with all ranks, a talent for leadership and an intuitive feel for the constraints imposed by a complex political situation. During his tour he masterminded a reduced role of the Army units’ day-to-day security and the ceding of greater control to the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Robert Francis Richardson, the son of Robert Buchan Richardson, an Edinburgh wines and spirits merchant, was born at Leith, Scotland, on March 2 1929, and educated at George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh. After Sandhurst, where he played rugby for the Academy, in 1949 he was commissioned into the Royal Scots and served in Korea in the last phase of that war." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11308513/Lieutenant-General-Sir-Robert-Richardson-obituary.html