Keith Coster

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.[5] He retired from that post in 1972 as a lieutenant-general, having commanded the Rhodesian Army from 1968 to 1972.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8] Whilst in Rhodesian service he was awarded the Independence Decoration (Rhodesia in 1965), which was awarded in 1970, and in 1971 he received the Exemplary Service Medal. Later when in South African service he was awarded in 1981 a Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of South Africa.[9]

• Independence Decoration (ID)
• Order of the British Empire (OBE)
• Star of South Africa (Silver) (SSAS)
• Exemplary Service Medal (ESM)

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.[10]