Rohan Delacombe Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe KCMG , KBE , CB , DSO , KStJ ( 25 October 190610 November 1991 ) was a British general officer who commanded the British occupation forces in Berlin from 1959 to 1962 at the height of the Cold War . He was also the last British Governor of Victoria in Australia from 1963 to 1974 . Early life . Delacombe was born in Malta on 25 October 1906 , the son of Addis and Emma Louise Mary Delacombe . Military career . Delacombe was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots regiment of the British Army on 4 February 1926 , and was promoted to lieutenant on 4 February 1929 . He saw service in Egypt , North China and Quetta in India ( now Pakistan ) with the Regiment ' s 1st Battalion , and was promoted to captain on 2 March 1937 . He then served in Palestine from 1937 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939 ; he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire , Military Division ( MBE ) in the 1939 King ' s Birthday Honours List . Delacombe was posted with the 4th Infantry Brigade as part of the British Expeditionary Force which was sent to the Franco - Belgian border following Germany ' s invasion of Poland . After working at the British Army Staff College in 1940 , Delacombe assisted Lt Gen Adrian Carton de Wiart as a General Staff Officer ( Grade 2 ) during the Namsos Campaign in Norway . In 1942 , he was made commanding officer of the Royal Scots 8th Battalion with the temporary rank of lieutenant - colonel , and was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 4 February 1943 . He led the battalion at the Battle of Normandy in 1944 , where his leadership earned him a Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) , gazetted on 19 October 1944 . He was then made a commander of the Royal Scots 2nd Battalion , which fought in the Italian Campaign , followed by security duties in Lebanon . Delacombe then returned to staff duties as General Staff Officer ( Grade 1 ) during the re - occupation of British Malaya from 1945 to 1947 . He was promoted to substantive lieutenant - colonel on 22 March 1948 , and served as a general staff Colonel at the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine . He was promoted to colonel on 31 December 1950 and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire , Military Division ( CBE ) in the 1951 New Year Honours List . He spent much of the next 14 years from 1948 to 1962 in Germany . He served as a temporary brigadier commanding the 5th Infantry Brigade ( 1950 – 1953 ) , and was promoted to brigadier on 16 November 1954 , in which capacity he was Deputy Military Secretary for the War Office . He was promoted to temporary major - general on 4 October 1955 and appointed General Officer Commanding of the 52nd ( Lowland ) Division . and to substantive major - general on 29 November 1956 . He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath , Military Division ( CB ) in the 1957 Birthday Honours List . He relinquished command of the division on 10 October 1958 and was appointed Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin on 23 March 1959 . As Commandant , his role included representing British interests in Spandau Prison , where Rudolf Hess was incarcerated . Knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire , Military Division ( KBE ) in the 1961 Birthday Honours List , Delacombe relinquished his appointment as Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin on 4 May 1962 , and retired from the army on 27 July . Governor of Victoria . Sir Rohan was appointed as Governor of Victoria in Australia in 1963 , and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St . Michael and St . George ( KCMG ) in the 1964 New Year Honours List . As Governor , he was made an honorary colonel in the Australian Army ' s 1st Armoured Regiment . In 1967 , Sir Rohan was petitioned to exercise the Royal prerogative of mercy on behalf of the Queen , to commute the execution of Ronald Ryan . Four members of the jury had submitted a guilty verdict , in the belief that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria , and that Ryan ' s sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment . These jurors then petitioned the governor to save Ryan after it became apparent that the Premier Henry Bolte was determined he should hang . Sir Rohan called a meeting with the Victorian cabinet , at which it was unanimously agreed that the execution should proceed . Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967 , the last person in Australia to be executed . Delacombe ' s term ended in 1974 . He died in 1991 .