View source for Charles Harington (British Army officer, born 1910)

{{Short description|British Army general (1910–2007)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Charles Henry Pepys Harington
|birth_date=5 May 1910<ref name="Officers of the British Army">{{cite web|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_H01.html#Harington_CHP|title=British Army officer histories|publisher=Unit Histories|accessdate=2017-06-27}}</ref>
|death_date=13 February 2007 (aged 96)
|birth_place=[[Royal Tunbridge Wells]], [[Kent]], [[England]]
|death_place=
|placeofburial=
|placeofburial_label=
|image=CharlesHarington.jpg
|caption=
|nickname=
|allegiance={{flag|United Kingdom}}
|serviceyears=1930–1971
|servicenumber=44880
|rank=[[General (United Kingdom)|General]]
|branch={{army|United Kingdom}}
|commands=1st Battalion, [[Manchester Regiment]]<br>1st Battalion, [[Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)|Parachute Regiment]]<br>[[49th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|49th Infantry Brigade]]<br>[[School of Infantry]]<br>[[3rd Division (United Kingdom)|3rd Division]]<br>[[Staff College, Camberley]]<br>[[Middle East Command]]
|unit=[[Cheshire Regiment]]
|battles=[[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt in Palestine]]<br>[[World War II|Second World War]]<br>[[Mau Mau Uprising]]<br>[[Aden Emergency]]
|awards=[[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]<br>[[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<br />[[Distinguished Service Order]]<br />[[Military Cross]]
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}
[[General (United Kingdom)|General]] '''Sir Charles Henry Pepys Harington''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|CBE|DSO|MC}} (5 May 1910 – 13 February 2007) was an officer in the [[British Army]]. He served in the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] and in [[Normandy]] during the [[World War II|Second World War]]. He was later Commander-in-Chief of the three-service [[Middle East Command]] from 1963 to 1965, based at [[Aden]]. He ended his military career as Chief of Personnel and Logistics at the [[UK Ministry of Defence]] from 1968 to 1971.
==Early life and career==
Charles Henry Pepys Harington was born in [[Royal Tunbridge Wells]], into a military family, on 5 May 1910. He was related to General [[Charles Harington (British Army officer, born 1872)|Sir Charles Harington Harington]], the commander in [[Constantinople]] in 1922 during the [[Chanak crisis]]. His father, Lieutenant-Colonel [[Herbert Hastings Harington]], an officer in the [[British Indian Army]], was killed in action in [[Mesopotamian campaign|Mesopotamia]] in 1916, and Harington and his two sisters were raised by their widowed mother.
Charles Harington was educated at [[Malvern College]] and later the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], and was [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] as a [[second lieutenant]] into the [[Cheshire Regiment]] on 30 January 1930, being immediately posted to the regiment's 2nd Battalion.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33575|page=651|date=31 January 1930}}</ref><ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/HARINGTON.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> Promoted on 30 January 1933,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33907|page=673|date=31 January 1933}}</ref> he excelled at athletics, holding the [[British Army]] record for the [[440 yard hurdles]] and competing for the Army against the other services. He was captain of the 2nd Battalion's athletics team, winning the Army Inter-Unit Team Athletic Championship in 1937, 1938 and 1939. He succeeded [[Thomas Brodie]] as the [[adjutant]] of the 2nd Battalion, then commanded by [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] [[Eric Paytherus Nares|Eric Nares]], from 1936 to 1939, and on 1 August 1938 he was promoted to [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34538|page=5031|date=5 August 1938}}</ref> During this time the battalion was deployed to [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] during the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt]], where it remained trying to keep the peace between the [[Palestinian Jews|Jews]] and the [[Arabs]], until 1938 when it returned to [[Aldershot]], [[Hampshire]].
==Second World War==
He joined the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] (BEF) in [[France]] in 1939 and 1940, commanding a [[machine gun]] company of the 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, which was attached to [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Harold Alexander]]'s [[History of the British 1st Division during the World Wars|1st Infantry Division]].<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> During the retreat from the [[River Dyle]] in the face of the German [[blitzkrieg]] in May 1940, his company formed part of the division's rearguard, supporting the [[13th/18th Royal Hussars]] and 21st Anti-Tank Regiment of the [[Royal Artillery]]. He was awarded the [[Military Cross]] (MC) for his actions, and was [[Dunkirk evacuation|evacuated from Dunkirk]].<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
He spent most of the war on a variety of staff appointments, and married Victoire Marion Williams-Freeman in 1942. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he was appointed as [[Commanding officer|Commanding Officer]] (CO) of the 1st Battalion, [[Manchester Regiment]], in March 1944.<ref name=lh/> The battalion (formerly the 6th Battalion, a [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] before being redesignated as 1st Battalion in May 1942), serving as the machine gun battalion of the [[53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division]], a first-line TA formation commanded by Major-General [[Robert Knox Ross|Robert Ross]], was poorly trained and virtually unfit for duty, but Harington quickly brought it to full combat readiness. The battalion, along with its parent division, landed in [[Normandy]], France, in late June, three weeks after the [[Normandy landings]], and was engaged in severe fighting throughout the [[Operation Overlord|Battle of Normandy]], and most of the subsequent [[Western Front (World War II)|fighting in Western Europe]], until Harington relinquished command in mid-September 1944, when he became a [[Staff (military)|General Staff Officer Grade 1]] (GSO1) with the 53rd Division HQ. He retained this post until May 1945.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> For his services as CO of the 1st Manchesters, Harington was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] DSO in early 1945.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
==Post-war service==
Harington was rapidly promoted after the war.  He was General Staff Officer Grade 1 at the headquarters of the [[53rd (Welsh) Division]],<ref name=lh/> then served as an instructor at the [[Staff College]] in [[Camberley]] for two years, before joining the British Military Mission in Greece during the [[Greek Civil War]].<ref name=lh/> He commanded the 1st Battalion, [[Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)|Parachute Regiment]] from 1949 to 1951.<ref name=lh/> He then served as military assistant to two [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff]], [[Field Marshal (United Kingdom)|Field Marshal]] [[William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim|Viscount Slim]] and General [[Sir John Harding]], before spending time at [[Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe]] in France.<ref name=lh/>
Promoted to [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]], he commanded the [[49th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|49th Infantry Brigade]] in [[Kenya]] in 1955 and 1956, during the [[Mau Mau Uprising]].<ref name=lh/> He was appointed CBE in 1957, and was commandant of the [[School of Infantry]] in [[Warminster]] in 1958.<ref name=lh/> He was promoted to [[Major General (United Kingdom)|major-general]], and took command of the [[3rd Mechanised Division (United Kingdom)|3rd Division]] in 1959.<ref name=lh/> He then became commandant of the [[Staff College, Camberley]] in 1961.<ref name=lh/> He succeeded Major-General [[Thomas Brodie|Tom Brodie]] as Colonel of the [[Cheshire Regiment]] in January 1962,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=42560|supp=y|page=77|date=29 December 1961}}</ref> remaining the regiment's Colonel until 1968.
==Aden==
Promoted to [[Lieutenant-General (United Kingdom)|lieutenant-general]], he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the three-service [[Middle East Command]] in May 1963, with responsibility for an area extending from the [[Persian Gulf]] to [[East Africa]].<ref name=lh/> In January 1964, he had to deal with [[mutiny|mutinous]] battalions in newly independent [[Kenya]], [[Tanganyika (1961–1964)|Tanganyika]] and [[Uganda]], formerly part of the [[King's African Rifles]].  He was [[1964 New Year Honours|knighted in 1964]].
He then had to deal with [[insurgency]] of [[Haushabi]] and [[Radfan]] tribes in the [[Western Aden Protectorate]] on the road between Aden and [[Dhala]].  The deployment of British forces bolstered support for the [[Front for the Liberation of South Yemen]], triggering a campaign of violence in Aden itself.
[[Assassination of Sir Arthur Charles|Sir Arthur Charles]], the Speaker of the nascent National Council, was murdered outside his house in [[Crater (Yemen)|Crater]] in September 1965.  [[wikt:direct rule|Direct British rule]] was reimposed when the president of the council, [[Abdull al-Qawi Mecca-wi]], refused to condemn the killing.  The subsequent [[counterinsurgency]] operations failed: the [[Aden Police]] were infiltrated, and officers in the local [[Special Branch]] were killed.  In 1966, the British government, led by [[Harold Wilson]], decided to withdraw British forces from Aden and the Protectorates by 1968, by which time Harington had returned to the UK.
==Late career==
[[File:Memorial, Chester Cathedral 5.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial to General Sir Charles Harington in [[Chester Cathedral]].]]
Harington returned from Aden in 1966 to take up the position of [[Deputy Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff]].<ref name=lh/> He was promoted to [[General officer|general]] in 1968, and became Chief of Personnel and Logistics at the [[UK Ministry of Defence]].<ref name=lh/> He was appointed GCB in 1969, and was an [[Aide-de-camp]] to the H. M. the Queen from 1969 to 1971.  He retired from the Army in 1971.
In retirement, Harington was president of the [[Combined Cadet Force Association]] from 1971 to 1980 and also from 1972 to 1980 chairman of the Governors of the [[Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond]], for disabled ex-servicemen. He was a vice-president of [[Battersea Dogs' Home]] and from 1966 to 1999 president of the Milocarian (Tri-Service) Athletic Club.  He also enjoyed sailing, and was president of the [[Hurlingham Club]] for over twenty-five years.
Harington's wife died in 2000, and he himself died in 2007, to be survived by a son and two daughters.
==Awards and decorations==
* Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Bath]] (1969), previously Knight Commander (1964), and Companion (1961)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* Commander of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (8 March 1957), previously Officer (Civil Division) (1953)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* [[Distinguished Service Order]] (1 February 1945)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* [[Military Cross]] (20 August 1940)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* [[Mentioned in despatches]] (4 April 1946)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* Knight Grand Officer of the [[Order of Orange Nassau]] with Swords (Netherlands, 18 July 1947)<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070217035642/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1386755.ece Obituary], ''[[The Times]]'', 15 February 2007
* [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=D3SLQKPLHJTLBQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/02/20/db2001.xml Obituary]{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 20 February 2007
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060721055654/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ewh.bryan/harngton.html Extract] from ''The Cheshire Regiment Association Newsletter'', December 2001
* [https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,2039660,00.html  Obituary], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 22 March 2007
* [http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_H01.html#Harington_CHP British Army Officers 1939–1945]
{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Geoffrey Musson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Waterloo Lines|Commandant of the School of Infantry]]|years=1958–1959}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Antony Read]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[George Gordon-Lennox]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[3rd (United Kingdom) Division|GOC 3rd Division]]|years=1959–1961}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Vivian Street (British Army officer)|Vivian Street]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Reginald Hewetson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Staff College, Camberley|Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley]]|years=1961–1963}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Worsley (British Army officer)|John Worsley]]}}
|-
{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Brodie]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Cheshire Regiment|Colonel of the Cheshire Regiment]]|years=1962–1968}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Napier Crookenden|Sir Napier Crookenden]]}}
|-
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Richard Anderson (British Army officer)|Sir Richard Anderson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Middle East Command|C-in-C Middle East Land Forces]]|years=1963–1966}}
{{s-aft|after=Post disbanded}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[John Hackett (British Army officer)|Sir John Hackett]]}}
{{s-ttl|title= [[Deputy Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff]]|years=1966–1968}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ian Freeland|Sir Ian Freeland]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Desmond Dreyer|Sir Desmond Dreyer]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chief of Defence Materiel|Chief of Personnel and Logistics, UK Ministry of Defence]]|years=1968–1971}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Christopher Foxley-Norris|Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harington, Charles}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army generals]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Aden Emergency]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Mau Mau Uprising]]
[[Category:Cheshire Regiment officers]]
[[Category:Commandants of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Grand Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:People educated at Malvern College]]
[[Category:People from Royal Tunbridge Wells]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:British military attachés]]
[[Category:Academics of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Kent]]