David Mostyn

Sir Joseph David Frederick Mostyn KCB CBE (born November 28, 1928 in London , † January 20, 2007 ) was a British officer and general in the Army . From 1980 to 1983 he was the 18th Commander of the British Sector of Berlin and thus one of the Allied City Commanders . From 1986 to 1988 he was the 52nd Adjutant General of the British Armed Forces and a member of the Army Council.

Beginning of the military career

David Mostyn attended the Downside School in Radstock, England, and graduated from the Sandhurst Military Academy from 1948 . Eventually he was accepted into the military as a lieutenant and assigned to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry .

Mostyn was initially used in the Rhine Army in Germany as well as in Greece and Cyprus .

In 1958 he graduated from the Canadian Army Staff College and subsequently moved to the then War Department . There he assumed responsibility for the operational area of ​​the Caribbean , the Mediterranean, as well as the Middle East and Africa .

It was during the initial years of the 1960s Kuwait - crisis set in the local area, then to Rhodesia , in Cameroon and again to Cyprus. Mostyn made a special name for himself as a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets during the riots in connection with the independence of British Guiana , for which he was accepted as a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1962.

After a brief activity as a trainer at a military academy, Mostyn became the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets in 1969 , which was in service with the Rhine Army in Germany and finally in Northern Ireland .

He was then used again as an instructor before he took over the post of commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade in Londonderry in 1972 . In 1974 he received the rank of Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE).

This was followed by a position as deputy director of the training system of the British Army , before he took over a position at the Royal College of Defense Studies and later again with the Rhine Army.

In 1978 David Mostyn was promoted to major general and at the same time transferred to the post of head of the Army Personal Service . To this day he is regarded as the head of personnel in the British armed forces who pushed through the most serious improvements in the area of salary and working conditions .

City Commander in Berlin

As the successor to Robert Richardson , he was appointed Commander of the British Sector of Berlin in September 1980. He was thus one of the allied city commanders and, together with the Americans Calvert Benedict and James Boatner (from 1981) and the French Bernard d'Astorg and Jean Liron (from 1980), formed the highest authority of the western allies in Berlin . He was thus a member of the Allied Command , which was subordinate to the Allied Control Council .

The First Gulf War , which began in 1980, as well as the first squatting , unrest and mass demonstrations in Berlin also fell during his term of office .

As city commander, he assumed one of the most important and outstanding posts that the British military had to fill outside of Great Britain. As such, he was on the one hand the military, but above all the "political leader" of his country and exercised a kind of representative status for Queen Elizabeth II , since Berlin was formally not part of the scope of the Federal Republic of Germany and Great Britain's ambassador residing in Bonn was not responsible.

Like its predecessors, Mostyn, as the city commander, mainly focused on the political and diplomatic representation of his country and his duties as a

Member of the Allied Command, while the respective brigade commander took over the purely military command of the British armed forces in the four-sector city .

With the move to Berlin Mostyn moved with his family in the Berlin district Gatow located Villa Lemm , by members of the German Service Unit (Berlin) , a German service organization and wax police of the British armed forces, was guarded. During his term of office, the unit was integrated as the 248 German Security Unit in the 2nd regiment of the British Military Police RMP in April 1982, which was significantly supported by Mostyn.

The members of the British royal family also resided in the Villa Lemm during their stays in Berlin. A British city commander fulfilled the function of host to the royal family at least once a year when the Queen's Birthday Parade was to be accepted on the Berlin Maifeld at the Olympic Stadium .

During his tenure as Commandant Mostyn put considerable pressure sensitive relief for 18 since July 1947 in Berlin-Spandau Prison imprisoned former Hitler - deputy Rudolf Hess by, which was already since 1 October 1966, the only prisoner in the detention center.

In October 1983 Mostyn was replaced as town commander by Bernard Gordon-Lennox .

Last commands

Following his time in Berlin, David Mostyn was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed military secretary in the Ministry of Defense .

On 31 December 1983 it rose Queen Elizabeth II. He as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the knighthood , which is why he now on the additional name "Sir" led.

In 1984 he was promoted to general.

In 1986 Mostyn was appointed adjutant general of the British Armed Forces and was thus also a member of the Army Council. In this 250 year old post he held one of the highest positions in the British Armed Forces and was responsible for human resource development , including recruitment.

During his tenure, Mostyn took action against the increasing cases of bullying within the military. In addition, it achieved an improved range of uses for female soldiers and set the first accents for equality between men and women in the British military.

In 1987, Queen Elizabeth II also appointed him ADC General and thus her special representative .

His last major assignment during his active service was in 1987 holding the Sovereign's Parade to mark the 40th anniversary of Sandhurst Military Academy.

After 41 years of service, David Mostyn finally retired in early 1989 .

Social work

David Mostyn has been involved in numerous non-profit organizations . He held honorary positions in the Royal Military School and was also President of the Boxing and Swimming Association of the British Army, Chairman of the Lyme Regis Hospital Trust and Director of the Joseph Weld Hospice .

Between 1983 and 1988 Mostyn also held two posts as honorary colonel .

Private

David Mostyn came from an old family of officers. He was the son of First Lieutenant Joseph Philip David Mostyn (1894-1929) and Mary Catherine Moss, his grandfather was Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Joseph Mostyn (1857-1916).

After his father died just a few weeks after the birth of David Mostyn, the future general grew up with his uncle Tom Tyrwhitt-Drake in Amersham .

He had been married to his wife Diana, a daughter of Brigadier Bertrand Sheridan, since December 13, 1952 . The marriage resulted in a daughter and three sons.

The family had lived on an estate near Devonshire - Dorset in southern England since 1964 . David Mostyn died in January 2007 at the age of 78.

Trivia

• David Mostyn's real first name, Joseph, goes back to an old family tradition . His grandparents, Mary and Edward Henry Joseph Mostyn, had nine children, all of whom were baptized with the given names Joseph and Mary, respectively. In addition, they were given different middle names. Since then, these names have appeared regularly in subsequent generations.
• In his time in Berlin was during the rehearsal of a Queens Birthday Parade , the horse of the town commander for loud music by Army band of the incoming. However, no one was injured.
• In addition to Geoffrey Bourne , David Mostyn was the only commander in the British Sector of Berlin to have achieved the rank of four-star general during his active service .

literature

• Robert Corbett: Berlin and the British Ally 1945–1990 . 1991.

Web links

• The British city commanders on the GSU History website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ General Sir David Mostyn. THE TELEGRAPH, January 29, 2007, accessed March 3, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Sir David Mostyn. In: THE PEERAGE. January 11, 2015, accessed March 3, 2018 . 
3. ^ Carsten Schanz: Memories of Sir David Mostyn. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit e. V. November 27, 2013, accessed on March 3, 2018 (German).