Colonel William Whitson Etches, (15 May 1921 â 12 April 2015) was a senior British Army officer. After having attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and after being commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in December 1939, he served with the commandos during the Second World War, taking part in the raid on St Nazaire for which he won the Military Cross and was taken as a prisoner of war.