Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja (Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) 30 July 1879 - Mount Arruit, Morocco, 5 August 1921) was a Spanish soldier, brother of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja and uncle of Falange’s founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera. He entered the Cavalry School in Valladolid in 1898, excelling at both riding and fencing. He completed his training in the French Cavalry School in Saumur. In 1909 he married María Cobo de Guzmán. After various postings on the peninsula and being promoted to Captain, he was ordered to
Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja Melilla, commanding the 2nd Taxdirt hunters squadron. He received a commendation for the Cross of Military Merit for his actions in battle. In the same year, after taking the village of Ulad Garen, he was promoted to Commander and awarded the Cross of María Cristina. Like his brother Miguel, Fernando criticised the Spanish intervention in Morocco. In 1920, by then lieutenant colonel, he was sent to the Cavalry Hunter Regiment of Alcántara nº14 as second commander. It was then that the so-called Disaster of Annual occurred. On 22 July 1921, Primo de Rivera had deployed the regiment’s four sabre squadrons