Guy Prendergast (British Army officer)

Guy Lenox Prendergast was one of a group of British Saharan explorers in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which included Ralph Alger Bagnold, Pat Clayton and Bill Kennedy Shaw, who had explored the desert before World War II and had gained much valuable experience in navigating its hostile terrain.[2] Prendergast learnt to fly as part of the Western Arab Corps in Sudan in the 1930s.[3]

After the outbreak of World War II, Prendergast received a commission with the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment. Together with his explorer associates he was involved in the formation of the Long Range Desert Group (L.R.D.G.) under the command of Bagnold.[2] On 1 August 1941 Prendergast was promoted lieutenant colonel, and was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the L.R.D.G., which he led between November 1941 and October 1943.[4]

After commanding the L.R.D.G., he went on to be Deputy Commander of Raiding Forces, and later Deputy Commander of the Special Air Service Brigade in 1944–1945, and subsequently Commander of the Free French SAS Regiments, with the rank of brigadier general. For his wartime service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in December 1942.[5] and the Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion III Class.[6]

He died on 6 October 1986 at the age of 81 years. His body was buried at Strathoich Cemetery, in Fort Augustus, Scotland.[7]

• Molinari, Andrea (4 July 2007). Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940–43. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1846030062.