Keith Coster

Lieutenant General Keith Robert Coster (19 April 19205 June 2012) was a South African army officer who rose to command the Rhodesian Army from 1968 to 1972.

Coster was born on 19 April 1920 in Eshowe, Natal, Union of South Africa. He was educated at Maritzburg College, in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. After his matriculation at the school in 1936, he enlisted in the Special Service Battalion of the Union Defence Force (South Africa), Union Defence Force (UDF) (of South Africa), and was commissioned into the South African Air Force (SAAF) on 6 September 1939. While flying a Curtiss P-36 Hawk, Mohawk V with 5 Squadron SAAF, he was shot down over North Africa by a Luftwaffe fighter plane, a Bf 109, on 11 July 1942 and was a prisoner of war until 4 May 1945. He was sent to Stalag Luft 111 in 1942 where he was reunited with his old friend Roger Bushell (Big X) just before the camp was liberated in 1945 he helped his neighbour in the next bed Paul Brickhill to successfully hide his manuscript of The Great Escape (book), The Great Escape by wrapping it round his forearm and covering it with plaster of paris.

Post World War II

After the war, Coster transferred to the South African Army, and during 1952 attended the Royal Army Staff College at Camberley in England. In 1955, he left the South African Permanent Force to join the Army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as a major.

On the dissolution of the Federation, Coster joined the Rhodesian Army, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant-general and was appointed as general officer commanding. On 25 April 1969 he took the salute at a Rhodesian African Rifles public open day, in Bulawayo. He retired from that post in 1972 as a lieutenant-general, having commanded the Rhodesian Army from 1968 to 1972. He left for South Africa, serving as a civilian officer with the South African Defence Forces from 1981 to 1985, when he retired after forty-seven years of exemplary public service.

Awards

Coster was awarded four medals for his wartime service and he became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1964 New Year Honours. Whilst in Rhodesian service he was awarded the Independence Decoration (Rhodesia in 1965), which was awarded in 1970, and in 1971 he received the Orders, decorations, and medals of Rhodesia#List of honours, Exemplary Service Medal. Later when in South African service he was awarded in 1981 a Star of South Africa, Grand Officer, Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of South Africa.

*
*
*
*

Personal life

Coster married Molly Stanley in 1941 and had two children, Steven and Judy, from the marriage. After the death of his first wife, he married Millie Aherin in 1995.

Coster died peacefully on 5 June 2012 in Somerset West, South Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coster, Keith
1920 births
2012 deaths
Alumni of Maritzburg College
South African Officers of the Order of the British Empire
South African prisoners of war
Rhodesian military leaders
People from Eshowe
South African World War II pilots
South African anti-communists
Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces
Shot-down aviators
South African expatriates in Southern Rhodesia
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany