Monkey Blacker, as he had been known since his schooldays, was the antithesis of the typical cavalryman. An outstanding soldier and a renowned horseman, he combined these talents with an extraordinary range of other attributes. His intellectual depth sometimes put him ahead of contemporary thinking; he was widely read and an accomplished artist and author; an amateur showjumper, jockey and athlete; a lover of field sports and country life, and an amusing raconteur and delightful companion.

It is hard to say which was the main inspiration of his life, love of soldiering or horsemanship, since the two complemented one another so nicely; but his interest, close involvement in and services to horseracing continued long after the end of his military career.

Cecil Hugh Blacker was the son of Colonel Norman Valentine Blacker. He was educated at Wellington and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in 1936. He was adjutant of the regiment in France in 1940 and, with three squadrons dispersed to three different divisions, eventually saw the regiment safely evacuated over the beaches of Dunkirk.

He did not see action again until the invasion of Normandy in 1944. He was by then second-in-command of the 23rd Hussars in 11th Armoured Division. He won the Military Cross during Operation Goodwood, the extension of the south-eastern corner of the beachhead in June 1944, which led to the later breakthrough at Falaise.

By the end of the war, he was commanding the 23rd Hussars at the age of 28. He always kept himself physically fit; indeed, he was something of a fitness fanatic. He must be one of the few commanding officers who have become regimental lightweight boxing champion while in command.

If he was ambitious, Blacker never showed it. Always polite, he had an air of unobtrusive, nonchalant confidence which masked a steely determination to succeed in everything that he undertook. In the immediate postwar years he held appointments in the United Kingdom in which he could use his intellectual talents to the full: instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, from 1951 to 1954, and military assistant to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, from 1958 to 1960. He commanded his regiment in peacetime from 1955 to 1957 and was then Assistant Commandant at Sandhurst, 1961-62.

He did not become involved in overseas operations again until he was in command of 39th Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland in 1962, at a time when all was quiet in the province. A brigade headquarters was unexpectedly needed to command operations against the Nasser- inspired dissidents in the arid Radfan Mountains in the Western Aden Protectorate. Blacker flew out with his headquarters staff at very short notice and assumed command. The successful campaign which he fought was a model of Army-Air Force co-operation in very difficult country.

With this experience behind him, he was an obvious choice for command of the 3rd Division in the Army Strategic Reserve — the “fire brigade” for overseas operations — in 1964. This was the period when the Army was trying to ensure an orderly handover of political power east of Suez.

Two years later he was scooped out of the frying pan into the fire when he was appointed to one of the hottest seats in the Ministry of Defence as the Director of Army Staff Duties, responsible for policy and executive decisions on organisation and deployment of the Army worldwide. His problems there were not eased by Denis Healey’s defence reviews, which were then in full flood.

In 1969 he was delighted to escape from London when he was promoted lieutenant-general to become General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command at York, where his love of horses and field sports endeared him to the Northern establishment. Much to his and their regret, his time there was curtailed so that he could return to London to join the Army Board as Vice-Chief of the General Staff in 1970.

As Vice-Chief at the beginning of the 1970s, he was responsible for aligning military with political policy during the most violent period of the Northern Ireland Troubles, and for juggling the Army’s limited resources so as to provide adequate force levels in Ulster — without endangering the deterrent posture of the British Army of the Rhine. Invariably accessible, equable and courteous, he never seemed to be under pressure, despite all the frustrations of working in Whitehall at a time when political turmoil was leading up to the fall of the Heath Government.

His last appointment within the Army was as Adjutant-General in 1973, when he was faced with handling the difficult personnel problems thrown up by the run-down and redeployment of the Army after the completion of the withdrawal from east of Suez. His greatest success lay in the improvements in the quality of life of all ranks that he drove through during his final three years on the Army Board.

Retirement from the Army in 1976 enabled him to give more time to his equestrian career. After the war, he had become one of the finest horsemen in the Army. Many will recall his showjumping successes with his brilliant horse Workboy, and his victories on the racecourse, culminating in winning the Grand Military Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 1954 on Pointsman. He represented Great Britain in the World Modern Pentathlon Championship in 1951, and in showjumping from 1959 to 1961. He became a member of the Jockey Club in 1954. His books, The Story of Workboy and Soldier in the Saddle, give the full flavour of his showjumping and racing career.

In 1976 he became president of the British Show Jumping Association, and from 1980 he was president of the British Equestrian Federation too. In 1981 he joined the Horserace Betting Levy Board, and in 1984 he became deputy senior steward of the Jockey Club. He will be greatly missed in the horseracing and equestrian world.

In 1947 he married Felicity Mary, widow of Major J. Rew and daughter of Major I. Buxton. His wife survives him, together with two sons, one of whom, Philip, followed his father as an amateur jockey, riding in several Grand Nationals, and is now a noted equestrian sculpter.

General Sir Cecil Blacker, GCB, OBE, MC, Adjutant General 1973-76, and outstanding horseman, was born on June 4, 1916. He died on October 18, 2002, aged 86.