John Montagu Wyatt (60-64) OBE, a Lt. Colonel in the Army, died on 18th February 2026 aged 79 from leukemia. He leaves a wife Plum and two sons Toby and Nick. A Thanksgiving Service was held in March at Christ Church, Derry Hill in Wiltshire attended by a large congregation followed by a Wake at the local golf club. 

At the NCP John rose to be a Cadet Captain in Macquarie Division, passed ‘A’ levels in Geography and Maths and rowed in the 1st VIII in 1964. On leaving, he began officer training at RMA Sandhurst and, on being commissioned, joined the Royal |Engineers serving initially in Malta and Singapore. In 1972 he was posted as ADC to a general to Brussels where he met Plum who was working there as a secretary. After Brussels he was seconded to the Trucial Oman Scouts for two years and saw action during the Dhofar Rebellion.
Married in 1976, several postings to Germany followed (one of which included a four-month deployment to Northern Ireland in 1977) during the next decade before he was sent to the Falklands in 1985 for six months to oversee the rebuilding of the airfield. In 1986 he returned to the U.K. and took command of the Junior Leaders Regiment in Dover – one of his most stimulating postings. A stint in London at the Ministry of Defence then began in 1990.

In 1993 John was appointed Military Attaché at the UK embassy in Maputo, Mozambique as the long civil war in that country was winding down. It was “the highlight of his military career” according to Plum – and the role that led to his award of the OBE. In effect, his job was to support the amalgamation of Frelimo government and Renamo rebel troops into a single national army – “no mean feat” as a friend has remarked. On one occasion in 1994 he sat in the bush for three spine-tingling weeks waiting for the leaders of both armies to emerge and begin talks. 

Another fulfilling Amy posting came next when he was appointed Commandant of the Army Alpine Adventure Training Centre in Sontofen, Bavaria in 1996 – “just up his street” in his wife’s words. While at Sontofen, as part of a re-training initiative he launched designed to reduce injuries, he led a team on an expedition to climb the 23,500 ft Mt. Pumori (“Everest’s daughter”) in the Himalayas. Avalanches and extreme weather conditions were part of the physical challenge; John admitted later that he chewed aspirins for two weeks to combat a losing battle with dreadful headaches. 

Leaving the Army in 2000, several unsatisfactory jobs in civilian life ensued until he rejoined the Army in a civilian capacity and spent seven years running the Cotswold Centre in Wiltshire – at the time a base where military families could stay until they got housing. It was during this period that the Wyatts moved permanently to Derry Hill, a village near Calne. 

Throughout his adult life John was activity-oriented. He rowed at a high level, skied, and climbed mountains. This continued in retirement when he took part in a number of Masters rowing championships, played golf regularly and undertook serious bike rides including one from Biarritz to Marseilles and another from London to Paris. “He was never idle,” Plum recalls. “In fact, he did a bike ride around the Isle of Wight a week before he was diagnosed with leukemia.”

Shaun Maynard (60-64) adds: “Whilst in Maputo John and Plum used to drive to Johannesburg for breaks and we had a chance to catch up on our lives. I admired his no- nonsense attitude. Put simply he was as tough as nails! He possessed great determination, immense charm and a wonderful sense of humour. He got on with everyone, was excellent company and a fine raconteur. He deliberately did not attend the Staff College at Camberley as he said that staff appointments were not why he joined up. He realised this would be career-limiting, but he wanted to enjoy his time in the Army.”