Born in 1908, Heneage Michael Charles Finch became the 9^th Earl after the death of his grandfather in 1924, his father, Lord Guernsey, having been killed in the First World War. He inherited two estates in the Midlands and one in Kent and he graduated from Sandhurst in August 1928, joining his father’s regiment, the Irish Guards. His army career was brief for in March 1929, he was “removed” from the army for being absent without leave. He then travelled widely and received a reputation as a playboy and big game hunter. In May 1939, he returned to the Port of London from Malta and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, No 40659, as a second lieutenant on 2 September 1939, the day before war was declared.

Another graduate from Sandhurst in August 1928 was Edward Watkin Williams-Wynn who received a commission into the Welsh Guards. He was the son of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 9^th Baronet, the Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire and the Honorary Colonel of the 61^st (Caernarfonshire and Denbighshire Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, RA since 1923. When the 61^st Medium Regiment was duplicated in 1939, this required the rapid recruitment of officers and men to bring the two regiments, the 61^st and the 69^th, up to strength. In the same year, the London Gazette recorded Edward Williams-Wynn as having transferred from the Reserve of Officers to be a captain in the Royal Artillery to be an adjutant of an unnamed regiment.

The Williams-Wynn’s seat was at Plas-yn-Cefn near St. Asaph and it is recorded that Edward Williams-Wynn, a captain in the 69^th Medium Regiment RA was resident there at the end of September 1939. Also residing at the same address was the Earl of Aylesford, a lieutenant in the same regiment. It seems likely that a few strings had been pulled to enable these officers’ appointments in the new regiment.

Edward Williams-Wynn was best man to the Earl of Aylesford when he married in April 1940.