Field Marshal Lord Vincent of Coleshill
Chief of the Defence Staff whose political skills proved invaluable during the Soviet Union’s fall and the ensuing Balkan conflict
FIELD MARSHAL LORD VINCENT OF COLESHILL, who has died aged 87, was successively Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, Chief of the Defence Staff and Chairman of the Nato Military Committee between 1987 and 1996; it was a decade that wrought immense changes in the balance of power in Europe, with far-reaching implications for Britain’s Armed Forces.
Vincent’s appointments coincided with the demise of the USSR, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact countries, the Gulf War, the implementation of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty and the re-unification of Germany. He also had to deal with the start of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the consequent commitment of British forces to the UN’S Organisation Protection Force (Unprofor).
These events raised important questions about British defence policy and structures. As the Cold War moved to its conclusion and the conflicts in the Balkans escalated, other Nato countries were reviewing their force structures, and one of Vincent’s key objectives was that the United Kingdom should retain the military capability to engage unsupported in high-intensity conflict. This ambition was not universally shared in Whitehall, where some considered that the time had come to remodel the Armed Forces with an emphasis on peacekeeping.
Britain did, however, preserve its capability for high-intensity conflict and secured permanent command of the newly formed Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps. Vincent felt correctly that this would provide future generations of commanders and their staffs with invaluable operational experience.
To begin with, he argued that until the destiny of the USSR became clearer it was important not to give Moscow the impression that the West was seeking to cash in prematurely on any “peace dividend”. But a visit to the Soviet Union in November 1989 convinced him that its demise was imminent and that Britain needed to start planning its response.
He therefore supported the “Options for Change” studies commissioned by the Defence Secretary in July 1990. He insisted that it was not a clandestine defence review, but a timely attempt to set out the options for a fundamental restructuring of the Forces, made necessary by international developments. The Gulf War intruded on the pace of these developments in the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, but the studies continued in a low-key manner.
Richard Frederick Vincent was born in London on August 23 1931. His father owned an engineering components company in Southall, Middlesex, while his mother came from Oxfordshire farming stock. He was educated at Aldenham School, Elstree, Hertfordshire, where he represented the school at shooting and was captain of the Fives team. A trip to Switzerland inspired an interest in competitive cross-country skiing. Vincent joined the Army in 1950.
After passing out of Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, he was posted to the 22nd Light Anti-aircraft Regiment in the British Army of the Rhine, then in 1955 to the Boys Regiment RA (later the Junior Leaders Regiment). Promotion to captain followed in 1958, when he went to HQ 33 Anti-aircraft Brigade.
After a year as a gunnery staff officer, Vincent was seconded to the Ministry of Aviation at the Radar Research Establishment at Malvern. He returned to BAOR in 1962 as a troop commander and forward observation officer with the 49 Regiment RA.
After attending the two-year technical staff course at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, and qualifying at the Staff College, Camberley, Vincent was promoted to major and posted to Malaysia, where he served with the 6th Field Regiment RA as a battery commander in the Commonwealth Brigade.
In 1968 he gained his first experience of Whitehall when he moved to the Ministry of Defence as weapons staff officer in the department of the Master General of the Ordnance. After promotion to lieutenant-colonel, he returned to anti-aircraft gunnery as commanding officer of the 12th Light Air Defence Regiment RA in BAOR. Much of his time was spent on tours in Northern Ireland at the height of the emergency.
Vincent’s regiment, acting in an infantry role, was responsible for south and west Belfast, where most of the problems arose. One night, he learned that the Provisional IRA had laid an explosive charge in a culvert in the Andersonstown Road. He decided to reinforce a Humber armoured car and send it down the road with a volunteer driver.
The Humber was so heavily weighed down with protective sandbags that it left a trail of sparks behind it. When the IRA detonated the charge, men from 12 LAD swooped on the firing point and captured those responsible. Shortly afterwards, the regiment added the “Provo” battalion commander to the “bag” and, by early morning, they had picked up most of the unit. The driver of the Humber was badly shaken but not injured. Vincent was awarded the DSO for his services in 1972.
That year he became an instructor at Staff College before attending the Administrative Staff College, Henley, and moving to the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, as military director of studies. In 1975, following his promotion to brigadier, he commanded 19 (Airportable) Brigade of the Strategic Reserve, his only all-arms operational command.
After attending the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1979, Vincent returned to the MOD as one of the two deputy military secretaries to the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for the Army. Promoted to major-general, he was appointed commandant at the Royal Military College of Science, where he masterminded the controversial but successful transfer of academic instruction under contract to the Cranfield Institute of Technology. This innovation, which linked the College to an institution with a much wider scientific base, raised academic standards and reduced the cost to the Exchequer. It made Vincent’s reputation in Whitehall.
Further promotion to lieutenantgeneral followed in 1983 on his appointment as Master General of the Ordnance, and he served for four years on the Army Board as the member responsible for the acquisition of new land weapon systems and equipment. Once again, he made radical changes and, by contracting out work, achieved big savings.
He was promoted to general in 1986 and appointed Vice Chief of the Defence Staff the following year. Michael Heseltine’s reorganisation of the MOD (he was Defence Secretary 1983-86) required the appointment of a VCDS as a fifth full member of the Chief of Staffs Committee to handle the increased responsibilities of the Central Defence Staff. Vincent, known as a very able staff officer with a strong personality and a familiarity with Whitehall, was the first Army officer to be appointed to this four-star post.
The Reagan-gorbachev summits of the mid- to late-1980s prepared the ground for more fruitful arms control negotiations. Then came the collapse of the Berlin Wall and talks on re-unification between the two Germanies and the four wartime Allies, in which Vincent made a significant contribution to the British team. His outstanding speech at a seminar in Vienna brought him widespread recognition as a man who understood the opportunities flowing from the thaw in East-west relations.
His six-day visit to Moscow in 1989 was the first by a serving member of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee since Montgomery’s visit in 1947, and he consolidated his reputation with initiatives that led to several highranking officers in the Soviet General Staff visiting Britain.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he travelled widely in the region, visiting eastern Ukraine and sailing with the Black Sea Fleet. In 1990, he came to Margaret Thatcher’s notice during discussions at Chequers on the CFE Treaty which would set limits on a range of conventional weapons in a zone stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals. Vincent showed that he could hold his own at the highest political level, and as the Mod’s frontman at the CFE negotiations, he impressed Nato allies and the Russians with his grasp of monitoring and verification issues.
He was not closely involved with the operational side of the Gulf War. His main involvement, as VCDS, was to try to ensure that he and his colleagues, as chiefs of staff, had a clear statement from the government of its war aims, and that the US shared those objectives.
Vincent’s technical expertise – greatly valued at a time when precision-guided weapons were changing the nature of warfare – and the reputation that he gained for building on the opportunities created by the rapprochement with the former Soviet Union, paved his way to the top, and he was made Chief of the Defence Staff in April 1991.
The appointment was not without its critics. Vincent had not been professional head of his own service and some speculated that the government, in not choosing one of the three chiefs, wanted to keep inter-service rivalry to a minimum during the impending round of cuts.
Another of Vincent’s key concerns was Bosnia. Although Unprofor was mandated as essentially a peacekeeping force, he felt that he and his fellow chiefs of staff had failed to persuade the Prime Minister, John Major, that it was vital to contribute forces that were strong enough to deal with infringements of UN Resolutions. As a result, Unprofor was unable to carry out its protection task – at a grave cost in civilian casualties.
Vincent was promoted to field marshal in 1992, shortly before his election as chairman of Nato’s Military Committee, the first time since 1974 that a British commander had held the post. He took up the appointment in one of the most demanding periods in the organisation’s history. Nato had to review its strategy and implement a major revision of its structures when most member governments were looking for – or already taking – the “peace dividend”, and as the alliance became progressively more involved in operations in the Balkans.
With Unprofor increasingly ineffective, Nato was being urged to provide greater military support for the UN operation in Bosnia, at first through the enforcement of a no-fly zone, then by embargo operations in the Adriatic, and by helping Unprofor to protect the UN Safe Areas. But trying to combine a peacekeeping and humanitarian operation under UN direction, with the increasing application of force by Nato, was extremely difficult. The failure of Unprofor, brought to a head by the loss of Srebrenica and Zeppa, led to Nato’s belated air campaign against the Bosnian Serbs, with the agreement of the UN, in mid-1995 and a ceasefire after 11 days.
The Dayton Peace Process followed in 1996 and Unprofor was replaced by the Nato-led implementation force, Ifor. In an alliance where everything had to be achieved by consensus, Vincent played a central role in gaining political approval for the deployment of Ifor.
Vincent was a man of conservative views but he was capable of radical thinking, and his policies were always geared towards constructive change. Generous and straightforward, he eschewed political manoeuvring, and once his mind was made up he relied on the strength of his convictions to win acceptance for his proposals. Relaxed and amusing company, he had a gift for friendship.
Retiring from his full-time military career in 1996, he assumed the chairmanship of the governors of Imperial College (1996-2004) and was Chancellor of Cranfield University (1998-2010). He took on various directorships with defence companies and was president of the Defence Manufacturers’ Association (2000-5). He also contributed to many military publications.
He was colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery (1983-2000) and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (1981-87); honorary colonel of 100 (Yeomanry) Field Regiment RA (Volunteers) TA (1982-91) and 12 Air Defence Regiment (1985-91); and Master Gunner, St James’s Park (1996-2000).
Latterly, Dick Vincent settled in a Hampshire village. He was appointed KCB in 1984, GBE in 1990 and was created a life peer in 1996.
He married, in 1955, Jean Paterson Stewart, with whom he moved home more than 35 times. They had two sons, one of whom predeceased him, and a daughter.
Field Marshal Lord Vincent of Coleshill, born August 23 1931, died September 8 2018