and became second in command. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel and served in the War Office, and was appointed OBE in 1956. He then commanded the 12th Royal Lancers in Germany for two years, and next was promoted brigadier in 1961 and took a staff posting to the War Office as deputy-director of personnel administration. He was promoted major general in 1963, and became Army director of public relations, dealing with press scrutiny into the behaviour of soldiers in Germany in the aftermath of unhelpful comments from the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo. He became chief of staff at the Headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine in 1965. He was appointed a Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown in 1965 (Leopold III of Belgium was Colonel of his regiment), and Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1966. He left the army in 1967, but was colonel of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers from 1967 to 1973. Retirement years In retirement, he ran his farm near Maidstone, Kent. He served on the board of directors of Anglo-Portuguese Bank, Burberrys and Ransomes. He regularly attended the House of Lords, having succeeded to the Viscountcy in 1965, speaking on rural affairs and the armed forces. Originally a Conservative, he resigned the whip to become a cross-bencher. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent from 1970, and his wife was High Sheriff of Kent in 1981 and 1982. He was interested in archaeology, and pursued an active interest in heraldry, being President of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies for 35 years (1965–2000). He became a Grand Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold II in 1978. He lost his right to sit and vote in the House of Lords in 1999; in his attempt to become one of the ninety-two elected hereditary peers, he submitted a manifesto which included "I support the Queen and all the royal family... All cats to be muzzled outside to stop the agonising torture of mice and small birds... LEVEL UP not level down. God willing." Family and issue Monckton married Marianna Laetitia Bower (1929-2022), a Roman Catholic and the daughter of Commander Robert Tatton Bower (RN), on 30 December 1950. She later became a Dame of Malta, President of Kent St John's Ambulance, Patroness of the Heart of Kent Hospice, and High Sheriff of Kent (1981-82). She died peacefully in