RAFCV314: Official Gallipoli Association FDC commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings signed by Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie of Cuddesdon MC PC (1921 – 2000) was Archbishop of Canterbury. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford.

He earned a commission in the Scots Guards during World War II, serving as a tank commander and earning the Military Cross for two feats of bravery in March 1945: he rescued one of his men from a crippled tank under heavy enemy fire, and the next day took his own tank into an exceptionally exposed position in order to knock out three anti-tank guns.

As a result, he is unique among modern Archbishops of Canterbury in having personally killed fellow human beings. In May 1945 he was among the first British troops to enter Bergen-Belsen. On his return to Oxford, he surprised many by taking first class honours in Greats. He was a member of both Tory and Socialist societies at Oxford, and through that he had his first dealings with the young Margaret Roberts, a relationship that was to prove pivotal during his archiepiscopate. Runcie studied for ordination at Westcott House, Cambridge where he received a diploma, rather than a second bachelor's degree in theology.

He was ordained in the Diocese of Newcastle in 1950 to serve as a curate in the parish of All Saints in the wealthy Newcastle upon Tyne suburb of Gosforth, then a rapidly growing suburban area. Rather than the conventional minimum three year curacy, after only two years Runcie was invited to return to Westcott House as Chaplain and, later, Vice-Principal. In 1956 he was elected Fellow and Dean of Trinity Hall in Cambridge, where he would meet his future wife, Rosalind, the daughter of the college bursar. Runcie was selected as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1979.

Ironically, in view of his future relations with the Conservative government, there is evidence that Runcie was actually the second choice of the Crown Appointments Commission, the first choice, Hugh Montefiore, having proven politically unacceptable to the then newly elected Conservative government. During his time as Archbishop of Canterbury he witnessed a breaking down of traditionally convivial relations between the Conservative Party and the Church of England. In 1981 Runcie officiated at the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, despite suspecting privately that they were ill suited and that their marriage would not last.

With a dramatic gesture of goodwill, he knelt in prayer with Pope John Paul II in Canterbury Cathedral during John Paul's visit to Great Britain in 1982.