Gerald Templer

Gerald Templer, 1953

Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer KG , GCB , GCMG , KBE , DSO (born September 11, 1898 in Colchester , Essex , † October 25, 1979 in London ) was a British field marshal . A division and corps commander in World War II , he became widely known as High Commissioner and Supreme Commander in Malaya during the Malay Uprising in the 1950s, and rose to head of the Imperial General Staff in 1955 . As such, he was the primary military advisor to Prime Minister Anthony Eden during the Suez Crisis .

Life

Youth and First World War

Templer was born the son of an officer of the Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) , later Lieutenant Colonel Walter Francis Templer, and his wife Mabel Eileen, née Johnston. He attended, among other things, the Edinburgh Academy and Wellington College before he came to the Royal Military College Sandhurst in December 1915 to be trained as an officer like his father. After completing his course, which was greatly shortened due to the First World War , he was accepted as a second lieutenant in his father's regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, in August 1916 , with whose 3rd battalion he initially served in Ireland. In October 1917 he came to the Western Front in France, where he took part in the Battle of Cambrai with the 1st Battalion of his regiment within the 36th (Ulster) Division . Promoted to First Lieutenant in February 1918 , he was sent to England for treatment for diphtheria in March . After his recovery he took part in the Hundred Days Offensive .

Interwar period

Templer served with his battalion in 1919/20 in the Middle East (Persia and Mesopotamia), later in Egypt. For the Summer Olympics in 1924 he was available as a substitute for the athletics team (110 m hurdles), but did not take part in the competitions. He returned to Egypt with his battalion in 1925. From 1928 he attended the two-year course at Staff College Camberley , where Bernard Montgomery was one of his instructors. After graduation, he moved to the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) in hopes of faster promotion . He served as a staff officer with the Southern Command and the Northern Command in the early 1930s . During the Arab Uprising in Palestine , he commanded the A Company of the 1st Battalion of his regiment and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and mentioned in dispatches . After returning to the motherland, he moved back to the Royal Irish Fusiliers and served two years on the staff of the 53rd (Welsh) Division in the Western Command . In October 1938 Templer, now a major , took up a position as General Staff Officer 2nd Degree (GSO2) in the Directorate of Military Intelligence in the London War Office .

Second World War

With the outbreak of World War II he was appointed General Staff Officer 1st Degree (GSO1) on the staff of the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939 , as which he served under the Head of Military Reconnaissance , Major General Noel Mason-MacFarlane . During the retreat at Dunkirk , Mason-MacFarlane and Templer were sent back to England. Templer was tasked with setting up a new one, the 9th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment . In November 1940 he was given command of a newly established homeland security brigade.

A new use for Templer arose in May 1941 when he was appointed Chief of Staff (BGGS) of the V Corps commanded by Edmond Schreiber . In April 1942 he was given command of the 47th (London) Infantry Division , which he held for five months. In September 1942 he took over the II Corps in East Anglia and at the age of 44 became the youngest British ( acting ) lieutenant general during the war. At the beginning of 1943 Templer's corps command was disbanded and instead he took over the XI Corps formed at the same point . This command was also short-lived.

In July 1943 Templer was transferred to North Africa, where he took over the 1st Infantry Division in Tunisia , which was preparing for deployment in Italy. Even before landing in the Anzio bridgehead , Templer was transferred in October 1943 as the new commander of the 56th (London) Infantry Division , which was already fighting in Italy and whose previous commander, Douglas Graham , had been seriously wounded on the Volturno . Templer fought with this division in early 1944 in the Battle of Monte Cassino before it was relocated to the Anzio bridgehead in February. Here he temporarily represented the wounded commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Ronald Penney . At the end of July 1944 Templer received command of the 6th Armored Division deployed in Italy . This command post ended after just twelve days after he was badly wounded in a land mine explosion . He went back to England to recover.

Templer was then transferred to the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive in London, where he was temporarily head of the German Directorate . In March 1945 he joined the staff of the (British-Canadian) 21st Army Group under Bernard Montgomery in Brussels. He was responsible for matters relating to military government and civil affairs.

post war period

In this function he became the de facto head of government in the British occupation zone in occupied Germany after the end of the war . In October 1945 , he pushed through the dismissal of the mayor of Cologne , Konrad Adenauer , appointed by the Americans , for alleged obstructionism.

In March 1946 he went back to England, where he became Director of Military Intelligence in the War Office . He held this post until January 1948, when he was appointed Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In February 1950 Templer, meanwhile a substantial lieutenant-general , took over the post of commander-in-chief in the British Eastern Command . A little later, he was promoted to general . In August 1951 he also took on the role of aide-de-camp for King George VI. which he held from 1952 under Queen Elizabeth II .

Malaya

Templar awards a medal to the Malay businessman WE Perera

In February 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed Templer High Commissioner and Director of Operations in the Malaya Federation to succeed Henry Gurney, who was killed in a communist assassination attempt . The Malay uprising , which had been going on since 1948 and was mainly supported by ethnic Chinese who were organized in the communist Malayan Races Liberation Army , he met with tough military countermeasures as well as political concessions. By 1953, his dual strategy, which also incorporated elements of the earlier Briggs Plan , had resulted in the Communists losing the initiative and withdrawing into the northern jungle areas. He left Malaya in late 1954. The following year the first general elections could take place.

The English phrase "winning hearts and minds" is attributed to Templer, with which he himself described his strategy in Malaya.

Chief of the Imperial General Staff

According to the wishes of the then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) John Harding, Templer was to become the new Commander-in-Chief of the British Army on the Rhine , but this did not materialize for political reasons (Konrad Adenauer was now German Chancellor). On September 29, 1955 Templer was appointed Harding's successor as CIGS. In the Suez Crisis of 1956, Templer, who overestimated the strength of the Egyptian army, insisted on a carefully planned invasion carried out by strong forces. The resulting delays helped to turn the initially favorable public opinion at home and in countries like the United States into the opposite. The initially successful military operations had to be discontinued after a few days after massive pressure from the UN and the USA.

The rest of Templer's three-year tenure as CIGS was marked by the politically ordered troop reductions in the wake of the crisis, which Templer had to reluctantly submit. He had been appointed field marshal in November 1956 and as such retired from active service immediately after the end of his tenure as CIGS.

Last years

In retirement, Templer devoted himself to helping set up the National Army Museum in London . In 1965 he became Constable of the Tower and the following year he became Lord Lieutenant of Greater London . From 1965 to 1979 he was President of the Society for Army Historical Research . He was also honorary colonel of several regiments, including his regular regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers . He died of cancer in 1979 at the age of 81.

literature

• TA Heathcote: The British Field Marshals, 1736-1997: A Biographical Dictionary. Pen & Sword, 2012.
• Leon Comber: Templer and the Road to Malayan Independence: The Man and His Time. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 2015.

Web links

• Personality Profile: Gerald Templer on mindef.gov.sg

predecessor	Office	successor
John Harding	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1955–1958	Francis Festing