Brigadier Kenneth Mears
Soldier who served in Normandy before becoming a senior figure in the Intelligence Corps
BRIGADIER KENNETH MEARS, who has died aged 95, served as Director, Intelligence Corps, and Commandant of the Intelligence Centre from 1974 to 1975. The Intelligence Centre, based at Templer Barracks, Ashford, Kent, was the home of HQ Intelligence Corps and the Corps Depot. New recruits were inducted at their Depot and returned to the Centre during their careers for more advanced training. As Director of the Corps, Mears had oversight of all Intelligence Corps units and individuals world wide.
The School of Military Intelligence was initially based there. In 1969 it became the Joint Services School of Intelligence, where intelligence officers and soldiers from all three services and other nations were trained. Mears was the first former Intelligence Corps officer to be Director of the Corps and Commandant of the Centre, a major milestone in Corps history.
Kenneth James Mears was born at Leyton, Waltham Forest, on January 19 1924 and educated at Southend Grammar School. Always known as Ken, he enlisted in the Royal Armoured Corps before attending the short course at Sandhurst and was commissioned in 1943.
In 1944 he joined 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry (1 NY), part of 33rd Armoured Brigade, as a troop leader and took part in the Normandy landings shortly after D-day. He saw fierce fighting around Caen and at Le Havre. Determined snipers and “bazookamen” in orchards and ruined buildings caused casualties, and several Germans were shot climbing on to tanks carrying grenades and magnetic mines.
In January 1945, during the Ardennes
offensive, enemy murder gangs dressed in Allied uniforms, carrying Allied weapons and driving Jeeps, infiltrated the lines. Their aim was to kill unit commanders and senior officers. Special guards had to be formed, passwords issued and a local curfew imposed to counter this threat.
In March, in preparation for the forced crossing of the Rhine, 1 NY temporarily lost their tanks and were equipped with Buffalo armoured amphibious landing craft. In the course of a few days, Mears and his comrades made more than a thousand hazardous crossings, ferrying assault companies over the river.
After the war 1 NY was disbanded, and for the next 12 years Mears served with the 10th Hussars. In 1958 he transferred to the Intelligence Corps, where he held a series of regimental and staff appointments. In Cyprus, during the Eoka conflict, he was Intelligence staff officer to the Director of Operations, followed by postings to HQ Singapore and HQ UK Land Forces.
Mears then served two tours in Defence Intelligence, the main provider of strategic intelligence to the MOD and the Forces. During his first tour, as a major, he played a key role in ensuring that the newly formed Intelligence and Security Group (Germany) became a permanent part of the Army.
On his second tour, by which time he was a lieutenant-colonel, a brother officer described him as having the style of a former cavalryman and the keen, analytical mind of a first-class intelligence officer.
In 1969 he commanded the Intelligence & Security Group, which spanned northern Germany from the Dutch border to Berlin. It was responsible for Operation Intelligence in support of HQ 1 (British) Corps and subordinate formations, Counter Intelligence & Security, defending the Army against the actions of hostile organisations and individuals; and ensuring the physical security of weapons, classified documents and sensitive equipment.
Its remit also included Human Intelligence – the gathering of information from individuals – and Photographic Interpretation, intelligence acquired mainly from aerial photography. His adjutant said of him that as a junior officer he could not have had a finer guide and mentor.
Mears was posted to Northern Ireland in 1973 and in 1974 he was appointed CBE (Military Division) for his service there. After leaving the Intelligence Centre his final posting was to Allied Forces Central Europe as Assistant Chief of Staff (Int). In 1979, he retired from the Corps and became Deputy Governor (Security) at the Tower of London.
After retiring from the Tower aged 65 he took up a new career as a speaker and lecturer, working principally with the Natural History Museums of the United States (notably the Smithsonian) and the English-speaking Unions of Britain and America. His specialist subjects were historic diamonds and coloured gemstones, the British crown jewels, the Russian crown jewels and the Tower of London.
At 75 he finally retired, but continued to travel widely. As a younger man, he had been an excellent horseman and a good skier and hockey player.
Ken Mears married, in 1957, Elizabeth Barker, who survives him.
Kenneth Mears, born January 19 1924, died August 2 2019