Evelyn Barker

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Barker (center) in May 1945 on the Kiel Fjord; right Rear Admiral Baillie-Grohmann

Sir Evelyn Hugh Barker (born May 22, 1894 in Southsea, Portsmouth , Hampshire , England, † November 23, 1983 in Mendip , Somerset , England) was a general in the British Army in World War II and 1946-47 commander in chief of the British troops in Palestine .

Life

Evelyn Barker was born the son of Major General Sir George Barker and joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1913 . He was used as a soldier on the Western Front from 1914 . In 1919 he fought in Russia in the British operation against the Bolsheviks . He experienced the Arab uprising of 1936-39 in the Middle East as a battalion commander. During the Second World War , the 10th Infantry Brigade he commanded was evacuated from the continent after the Wehrmacht overran France . With the 49th Infantry Division he took part in the invasion of Normandy again and distinguished himself personally by the successful capture of Le Havre , so that he was raised to Knight Bachelor . His units advanced to Lower Saxony and liberated, for example, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the Lüneburg Heath . The British Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery made him commander of the British occupation forces in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg after the German collapse in 1945 . The 8th British Army Corps had its headquarters in Plön Castle in Schleswig-Holstein.

In the spring of 1946 Sir Evelyn was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in the British Mandate for Palestine . After the attack on the King David Hotel with numerous British and other deaths, he took massive action against the Irgun and other terrorist groups, in which he identified the perpetrators of the attack. Some critics accuse him, because of his tough measures in the context of this British colonial fight against terrorism, of having been a "supporter of the Arab cause" without this assessment being substantiated in any more factual manner.

In 1950 he retired. After his death in 1983 he was buried in Somerset .

Orders and awards

Web links

Commons : Evelyn Barker  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Barker, Evelyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barker, Sir Evelyn Hugh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British general
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Portsmouth
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1983
Place of death Mendip , England