Peter Young (British Army officer)

Peter Young (British Army officer)

Major General Peter George Francis Young CB CBE (15 July 1912–4 November 1976) was a senior British Army officer who was General Officer Commanding Cyprus District from 1962 to 1964.[1]

Contents

Early life

Young was educated at Winchester College.

Military career

Upon completion of training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Young was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1932. He served with the Royal West African Frontier Force from 1935 to 1939. During the Second World War he served with Airborne Forces in the UK, Italy and India. He was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (Airborne) between 1944 and 1945.

He was Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Divisional Headquarters between 1947 and 1948. He was an Instructor at the Staff College, Camberley from 1948 to 1950. He was a General Staff Officer Grade 1 in Operations and Training, Allied Land Forces Central Europe between 1951 and 1952. Young commanded the 1st Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry 43rd and 52nd in the Suez Canal Zone and at Osnabrück from 1952 to 1955. The Regimental Sergeant Major was RSM, later Major John Stevenson MBE DCM. He commanded 44 Parachute Brigade TA from 1955 to 1958. He commanded 1st Bde Royal Nigeria Regiment from 1958 to 1961. He served at the War Office between 1961 and 1962. He was promoted to Major General in 1962. Young was GOC Cyprus District from 1962 to 1964. At the original ceasefire in 1964 Young drew a line on a map with a blunt green chinagraph pencil identifying the truce line between the Greek and Turkish communities. It became known internationally as the Green Line. He was Director of Infantry at the Ministry of Defence from 1965 to 1967. He retired from the Army in 1968.

Decorations and awards

He was appointed CB in 1965, CBE in 1958 and OBE in 1949.

Personal life

He married Patricia FitzGerald in 1949 and had two children, Susan Elizabeth (1951) and James Peter Gerald (1954). He lived in Pewsey, Wiltshire.

References

  1. ^ Getting It Wrong: Fragments from a Cyprus Diary 1964, Martin Packard, ISBN 1434370658, 2008
  • Who Was Who Volume VII 1971-1980 (1981)
  • Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College University of London
  • Max Arthur. Men of the Red Beret (1990).