Major-General Nigel Gribbon RIP

Kyt · Feb 19, 2009

Major-General Nigel Gribbon - Telegraph

In April 1941 a German-inspired coup put Rashid Ali al-Gaylani at the head of the government in Iraq. Gribbon, a young officer serving in India with the 1st Battalion, King's Own Royal Regiment (1 KORR), flew with a force of some 500 men to reinforce the RAF station at Habbaniya.

The station, which was about 55 miles west of Baghdad, was shelled by an Iraqi artillery force while German and Italian fighters began to appear as well as some Iraqi aircraft which were of British manufacture. The undersides of British planes were painted white, and all ranks were warned not to treat them as hostile. When a flight of Blenheims arrived from Palestine and was fired upon by levies, one of the crew was so cross that he dropped a bomb on the parade ground. Their CO, who was having a rest, was blown out of his bed.

On May 6 two companies supported by armoured cars broke out of the perimeter. "B" Company ran into strong opposition and suffered many casualties. "D" Company, commanded by Gribbon, fared better, taking a large number of prisoners and three German AA guns. The capture of the dominating plateau led to the raising of the siege, though Gribbon was wounded in the knee.

Nigel St George Gribbon was born in Westminster on February 6 1917 during a Zeppelin raid. Aged four, he was living in the Dolmabachi Palace, Constantinople, where his father was chief of staff to the GOC, British Forces in Turkey.

Young Nigel was educated at Rugby and Sandhurst before being commissioned into 1 KORR and posted to India. After the action at Habbaniya, he served in Mosul and Kirkuk guarding oil pipelines, and then accompanied 10th Indian Infantry Division on its long trek to the Western Desert.

After attending Staff College, Quetta, he was posted to Northern Ireland, where he ran a radio cell as part of an operation to deceive the Germans into planning for an invasion across the Pas de Calais. Gribbon then volunteered for the Airborne Forces and went with the Airborne Division to Palestine. Their task was to try to control the large influx of Jews from Russia, Poland, the Yemen and elsewhere in the face of militant Jewish organisations which provided constant armed resistance.

He returned to 1 KORR as adjutant at Trieste in 1947 before commanding a company in Hong Kong and then the 5th (TA) Battalion. A spell at the War Office as Assistant Military Secretary was followed by command of 161 Infantry Brigade (TA).

In 1967 he moved to BAOR as Brigadier General (Intelligence) and Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) Northern Army Group before becoming Assistant Chief of Staff at Shape, which involved extensive travel throughout Nato and to North America.

Gribbon retired from the Army in 1972. He and his wife sailed their sloop for a month and then settled in Suffolk. He set up Sallingbury Ltd to handle public relations work in the political and commercial fields, work which was supported by his wide circle of contacts.

His clients included the Venice-Simplon Orient Express and the European Channel Tunnel Group, of which, for several years, he was head of the secretariat and public relations. As chairman of the Committee of the United Kingdom Falkland Trust from 1982 to 1997, he was involved in the development of the agrarian economy of the islands and worked closely with the Governor, Sir Rex Hunt. He was a regular commentator on radio and television, and was appointed OBE in 1960.

Nigel Gribbon died on January 9. He married, in 1943, Mary MacLiesh, who survives him with their two sons and one daughter.
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