John Charteris
Officer who served during the Troubles, flew Sioux helicopters and adopted a baby gibbon in Borneo
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN CHARTERIS, who has died aged 83, had an adventurous career as an infantryman, an Army pilot and an intelligence officer; in 1973 he was awarded a Military Cross.
Charteris completed four tours in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1972, the last two in command of a company of 1st Battalion Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) (1RS). On July 9 1972 he was ordered to secure the area around an outpost in Belfast manned by a Royal Artillery battery which was under attack by rioters.
As he led his company forward in armoured personnel carriers, the rioters scattered. IRA gunmen concealed in high-rise apartments directed heavy fire at his force. With complete disregard for his safety, he cleared the apartments and secured the area, remarkably without sustaining a single casualty.
A few days later, his company secured an outpost in Belfast after continuous stoning and sniping, culminating in a truck-borne bomb which exploded and caused considerable damage. Later that same month, he led the assault of two companies in the Creggan area. He directed his men on to their objectives, secured them quickly and dominated the area with firmness and tact. The citation for his MC paid tribute to his courage, determination and outstanding leadership.
John Anthony Charteris was born in Hampstead on September 4 1940. His grandfather, Brigadier John Charteris, CMG, DSO, was Field Marshal Lord Haig’s Chief of Staff. His uncle Euan took part in the raid on the German radar station at Bruneval in northern France in 1942 and was awarded an MC in North Africa.
Young John was educated at Wellington and, by the age of 16, he had learnt to fly so that he could tow his father in a glider. He went on to RMA Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Scots. He joined his unit in Libya, famously driving 1,000 miles across the desert for a cocktail party with a cavalry regiment.
Charteris saw active service in Aden and Yemen before learning to fly Tiger Moths and then Sioux helicopters at the Middle Wallop Army airfield in Hampshire. Between 1964 and 1969 he flew the Sioux in Malaya, Borneo and Hong Kong.
In 1965, while serving with the Army Air Corps (AAC) at Seremban, Malaysia, he flew by helicopter to Brunei in Borneo, where the AAC had a detachment to support operations in the Confrontation with Indonesia. He adopted a baby gibbon found clinging to the back of his mother, who had been killed by a poisoned arrow fired from a blowpipe.
He named him Shak, inspired by Ringo Starr’s hairy-headed son Zak, and fed him using a Parker pen as a milk dropper. As Shak grew larger, he started to fly uncaged, and liked to jump out of the cabin of the Sioux and swing from the stabilising bar as the rotors slowed.
On one occasion, Charteris was called back from leave to fly a brigadier into dense jungle. He had been on leave, partying for two days, but was ordered to report for duty as he was the only pilot available. He was feeling very ill, and on his way to the helicopter he was sick. “I very much hope you aren’t flying,” said the brigadier. “Don’t worry,” Charteris replied. “The gibbon can handle the flying.”
Charteris formed the 10th Gurkha air platoon in Hong Kong to help deal with insurgencies on the border with China. At the time, he was called to fly the pregnant wife of a Gurkha to hospital. She sat between Charteris and the midwife, but on the way she started to give birth and the midwife asked for help. The birth was successful – and the mother was so grateful that she named the baby John.
In 1979, he commanded the Royal Guard at Balmoral before returning to active service in Northern Ireland. He was very disappointed to miss the Falklands campaign in 1982, but he arrived there soon after the conflict and did much to rebuild morale. He re-established the racecourse at Port Stanley and rode in the final race of the inaugural meeting. He also liaised with GCHQ and the American Defence Intelligence Agency on signals-intercept work.
A tour as Commander Army Recruiting Scotland was followed by command of the Junior Infantry Battalion, and in 1990 he became Commandant of the Otterburn Training Area in Northumberland; the 80,000-acre area was a home to many rare species. He was appointed MBE for his successful efforts to integrate largescale exercises with substantial advances in conservation, without which military training in the area was likely to be banned entirely.
Charteris retired from the Army in 1995 in the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 2001 he ran as the Conservative candidate for the constituency of Dumfries and Galloway, polling second. For many years, he worked for Marie Curie Cancer Care, for which he was the chief fundraiser for south-west Scotland.
He was a local councillor for the Lochar ward for 15 years. Settled in Locharbriggs, Dumfriesshire, he planted 10,000 trees and created several small wildlife lochs on his farm land. He enjoyed field sports, ran his own small shoot and was a keen skier. He was also a renowned bon viveur who made a party more interesting and sometimes rather surprising.
John Charteris married, in 1967, Antoinette Lowe. She survives him with two daughters, both of whom married career Army officers, and a son who served for nine years in the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons).