Nigel Bagnall
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Field Marshal Sir Nigel Thomas Bagnall, Template:Postnominals (10 February 1927 – 8 April 2002) was a career British Army officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine, from 1983 to 1985, and then as Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army, from 1985 to 1988. Early in his military career he saw action during the Palestine Emergency, the Malayan Emergency, the Cyprus Emergency and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and later in his career he provided advice to the British Government on the future role of Britain's nuclear weapons.
Army careerEdit
Born in British India, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Harry Stephen Bagnall and Marjory May Bagnall and educated at Wellington College,<ref name=debrett>Debrett's People of Today 1994</ref> Bagnall undertook National Service for a yearTemplate:Sfn before being commissioned into the Green Howards on 5 January 1946.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Shortly afterwards, however, on 13 February 1946 he transferred to the Parachute Regiment<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was deployed to Palestine where the British Mandate was about to end.Template:Sfn Promoted to lieutenant on 24 September 1949,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he served in Malaya, where as a platoon commander, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1950,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and a bar to the Military Cross in 1952.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
Promoted to captain on 10 February 1954,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he returned to the Green Howards in summer 1954 and then took part in counter-insurgency operations against EOKA units in Cyprus in 1955.Template:Sfn He transferred to the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards on 24 April 1956.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was promoted to major on 10 February 1961Template:Sfn and appointed Military Assistant to the Vice-Chief of Defence Staff in May 1964 and then became the Senior Staff Officer dealing with intelligence activities for operations in Borneo in March 1966.Template:Sfn
Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 31 December 1966,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he became the Commanding Officer of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in 1967 and served in that capacity in Omagh in Northern Ireland and Sennelager in Germany.Template:Sfn Promoted to colonel on 31 December 1969,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he became Commander Royal Armoured Corps in 1st (British) Corps in December 1970,Template:Sfn before receiving further promotion to brigadier on 31 December 1970.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He went on to be Secretary of the Chiefs of Staff Committee at the Ministry of Defence in September 1973.Template:Sfn He was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 4th Division on 21 September 1975<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> with the substantive rank of major general from 1 November 1975<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Policy) at the Ministry of Defence on 7 January 1978.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
He became commander of 1st (British) Corps on 1 November 1980 with the rank of lieutenant general<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and, having been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the New Year Honours 1981,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine and Commander of NATO's Northern Army Group with the rank of general on 1 July 1983.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> As Commander of the Northern Army Group he grappled with NATO's strategy of forward defence, when he persuaded the Germans that some ground would have to be surrendered to withstand a massive Soviet Army attack.<ref name=GingeManoeuvre>Template:Cite news and see also Template:Cite book</ref>
After being advanced to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1985<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and also becoming ADC to the Queen on 30 July 1985,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in August 1985Template:Sfn in which capacity he was closely involved in the debate about the future role of Britain's nuclear weapons.<ref name=ObitBagnallGuardian>Template:Cite news</ref> He was promoted to field marshal on 9 September 1988 on his retirement from the British Army.Template:Sfn
He was also appointed Colonel Commandant of the Army Physical Training Corps on 5 February 1981<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and Colonel Commandant of the Royal Armoured Corps on 1 August 1985.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
In retirement he became a military historian and fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He wrote a history of the Punic wars published in 1990<ref>Bagnall, Nigel The Punic Wars Thomas Dunne Books, 1990, Template:ISBN</ref> and, two years after his death, he had a history of the Peloponnesian War published.<ref>Bagnall, Nigel The Peloponnesian War Thomas Dunne Books, 2004, Template:ISBN</ref>
He died on 8 April 2002, at the age of 75.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
FamilyEdit
In 1959 he married Anna Caroline Church; they had two daughters.<ref name=debrett/>
Historiographical worksEdit
- Bagnall, Nigel, The Punic Wars: Rome, Carthage and the Struggle for the Mediterranean, London: Hutchinson, 1990, Template:ISBN.
- Bagnall, Nigel, The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta and the Struggle for Greece, London: Pimlico, 2004, Template:ISBN.
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
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