Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Peter George Francis Young CB

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(15 July 1912 – 4 November 1976) was a senior

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and later was general officer commanding (GOC)

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

District from 1962 to 1964.

Military career

Peter Young was born on 15 July 1912 and was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

, Young was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...

(OBLI or Ox and Bucks) on 1 September 1932. He was posted to the 1st Battalion, OBLI (the former 43rd Regiment of Foot).Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He served with the

Royal West African Frontier Force The West African Frontier Force (WAFF) was a multi-battalion field force, formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. In 1928, it received royal recognitio ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

from 1935 and then with the 2nd Ox and Bucks (the 52nd) in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

from 1939.Pegasus archive
/ref> During

Young was second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Ox and Bucks, then having returned to England and forming part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade of

Frederick Browning Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague "Boy" Browning, (20 December 1896 – 14 March 1965) was a senior officer of the British Army who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobslei ...

's 1st Airborne Division, at

Bulford Bulford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, close to Salisbury Plain. The village is close to Durrington and about north of the town of Amesbury. The Bulford Camp army base is separate from the village but within the parish. ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, from June 1942 to February 1943. He served with the

3rd Parachute Battalion The 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (3 PARA), is a battalion sized formation of the British Army's Parachute Regiment and is a subordinate unit within 16 Air Assault Brigade. Roled as an Airborne light infantry unit, the battalion is capable ...

, part of

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

Gerald Lathbury General Sir Gerald William Lathbury, (14 July 1906 – 16 May 1978) was a senior British Army officer who fought during the Second World War, serving with distinction with the British Army's airborne forces, commanding the 1st Parachute Briga ...

3rd Parachute Brigade The 3rd Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade raised by the British Army during the Second World War. The brigade was initially part of the 1st Airborne Division, but remained in Britain when that division was sent overseas, and becam ...

, during Operation Husky, the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It b ...

, in July 1943 where he was taken

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

(POW). He was a POW in Oflag 1X AZ at Rotenburg in Hesse during 1943 and 1944 when having convinced his captors that he was suffering from deafness he was repatriated and he became a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (Airborne) at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. Young commanded the

16th (Staffords) Parachute Battalion The 16th (Staffords) Parachute Battalion was an airborne infantry battalion of the Parachute Regiment, raised by the British Army in World War II. World War II The battalion was formed in India from the 1st Battalion of the South Staffordshire R ...

in India and also attended the

Staff College, Quetta ( ''romanized'': Pir Sho Biyamooz Saadi)English: Grow old, learning Saadi ur, سیکھتے ہوئے عمر رسیدہ ہو جاؤ، سعدی , established = (as the ''Army Staff College'' in Deolali, British India) , closed ...

in 1946. He became assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (AA&QMG) at the HQ of the 6th Airborne Division, in Palestine during the

Palestine Emergency A successful paramilitary campaign was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine from 1944 to 1948. The tensions between the Zionist underground and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 an ...

in 1947. Returning to England, he was an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in 1948. He was a General Staff Officer Grade 1 in Operations and Training, Allied Land Forces Central Europe between 1951 and 1952. Young became commanding officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, OBLI in the Suez Canal Zone in 1952 and remained in command of the battalion following its move to

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, in 1953. He became commander of 44 Parachute Brigade TA in 1955 and commander of 1st Brigade Royal Nigeria Regiment in 1958. He was posted to the

in 1961 and became General Officer Commanding Cyprus District in 1962.Getting It Wrong: Fragments from a Cyprus Diary 1964, Martin Packard, , 2008 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 Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. It became known internationally as the Green Line. He was director of infantry at the Ministry of Defence from 1965 to 1967 and retired from the army in 1968. Young was chairman of the 43rd and 52nd Old Comrades Association from 1968.

Family

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

Pewsey Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about south of Marlborough and west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the Re ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Peter 1912 births 1976 deaths British Army Commandos officers British Army major generals British Army personnel of World War II British expatriates in India British expatriates in Nigeria British military personnel of the Palestine Emergency British World War II prisoners of war Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Bath Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers People educated at Winchester College People from Pewsey Royal West African Frontier Force officers War Office personnel in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Academics of the Staff College, Camberley