Col. Charles Milne USHER D.S.O., O.B.E., Hon. M.A. (Edin)

  General Notes:

Full title as in 1956 Usher book
Charles Milne, D.S.O., O.B.E., Hon. M.A. (Edin), Chevalier Legion d'Honour, Croix de Guerre with Palm, Citoyen d'honneur of the Town of Caen

  Research Notes:

1168047
Usher, Charles Milne 1891-
Who's Who. An annual biographical dictionary. 126th Year of Issue, 1974-1975. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1974. (Who 74)

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military Training: Royal Military College (Sandhurst). ⁶ won the Golf Cup

• His obituary was published in 1981. Obituary

Col. C.M. Usher
The death has occurred of Col. Charles Milne Usher, DSO, OBE, MA, Director, of Physical Education at Edinburgh University for 13 years and who captained Scotland in both rugby and fencing, playing 16 times for the Scotland rugby side between 1912 and 1922. He was 89.

Educated at Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Col. Usher joined the Gordon Highlanders in 1911. After the Battle of Mons, in the First World War, he spent four-and-a-half years as a prisoner-of-war in Germany. He gained the Mons Star and two other medals.

In 1939, on the outbreak of the Second World War, he commanded the 1st Battalion of the Gordons and, for his work at Dunkirk, when he organised the defence of a line vital for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, he was awarded the DSO. He returned to th Continent again with the troops invading Normandy.

A fluent French speaker be was put in charge of civil affairs at Caen after the liberation, for which service the city presented him with a medallion.
In the course of, his sporting career, he played rugby for many clubs, including Edinburgh Wanderers, and captained the Army, and London Scottish.
He was appointed Director of the Department of Physical Recreation at Edinburgh University in 1946 and held the post with distinction until 1959, when he retired.

He took charge of the Scottish teams at the British Empire Games in New Zealand and at Vancouver, and was at Cardiff in the summer of 1958. He captained Scotland against the U S at fencing (sabre and epée), and in 1976 was made an honorary life member of the Scottish Amateur Fencing Union which he had helped to found. He also wrote 'The Usher Family in Scotland' which appeared in 1956.

He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, holder of the Croix de. Guerre with Palm, Citoyen d'honneur of Caen, and in 1958 was awarded the Grand Prix du Dirigeant Sportif by a body of distinguished French authors interested in sport. in 1953 Col. Usher was appointed chairman of the Midlothian and Edinburgh branch of the Forces Help Society and Lord Roberts' Workshops. He married in 1919 and had two sons.

Charles married Madge Elsa BELL, daughter of T. Carbut BELL and Unknown, in 1919.² (Madge Elsa BELL died on 21 Nov 1981 ⁴.)