Field Marshal Lord Inge
Head of the Armed Forces who resisted defence cuts and fought for Britain’s status within Nato
FIELD MARSHAL LORD INGE, who has died aged 86, was Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, between 1992 and 1994, and Chief of the Defence Staff from 1994 to 1997.
Inge was appointed head of the Armed Forces in March 1994. The circumstances could hardly have been more difficult. His predecessor, Sir Peter Harding, had just resigned over a matter of personal conduct. The Conservative government, keen to claim the “peace dividend” after the end of the Cold War, was demanding further reductions in defence expenditure and the situation in Bosnia was deteriorating.
Harding’s resignation was a considerable blow, but Inge had the qualities that were needed to rebuild confidence. He had a first-class mind, he was positive and he carried authority. With the underlying steeliness went a nice blend of humour and he enjoyed a considerable rapport with his soldiers.
While representing the Army during the previous two years, Inge had twice successfully rebuffed government proposals for manpower cuts, and he made every effort to mitigate the effects of these on the services. “Since 1945,” he was keen to point out, “there has been only one year when a British serviceman has not been killed on operations somewhere throughout the world.”
One of Inge’s greatest achievements was to realise that experience at the higher level of command was essential if Britain was to hold its corner in future coalition negotiations with America. To that end, he lobbied hard for Britain to establish and run the ACE Rapid Reaction Corps with some of the subordinate divisions drawn from elsewhere in Nato.
As Chief of the Defence Staff, he found himself as the British strategic commander for the UN and then Nato interventions in the Balkans. He was a deft hand at dealing with No 10 and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and he got on well with his fellow Nato chiefs of staff.
Peter Anthony Inge, the son of Raymond Albert Inge and Grace Maud Caroline Inge (née Du Rose), was born on August 5 1935. He attended Summer Fields School, Oxford, and Wrekin College, Shropshire, before entering the Army as a National Serviceman in September 1953.
He went to Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School before attending the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment), in 1956. Promoted to lieutenant in 1958, he served with the 1st Battalion The Green Howards (1GH) in Hong Kong. During this period, he was attached to the Rifle Brigade for operational service in Malaya.
In 1959 he served with his battalion at Iserlohn, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), and the following year he was appointed ADC to the GOC 4th Division. In 1963, he was made adjutant of the 1st Battalion. After a period of regimental duty in Libya, he attended Staff College, followed by a spell at the MOD. On returning to his battalion as a company commander in early 1969, he saw operational service in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
An appointment as brigade major of 11th Armoured Brigade and a move to Staff College as an instructor followed and, in 1974, he took command of 1GH. In the course of the next two years, the battalion undertook two operational tours in Northern Ireland.
He had a tough, no-nonsense approach, but he was always fair and often with a twinkle. Notably, two of the junior officers he trained followed him to the highest ranks as Chief of the General Staff and Chief of the Defence Staff.
In 1979 Inge was given command of Task Force “C” (later 4th Armoured Brigade) in BAOR and he stayed in Germany as Chief of Staff 1 (British Corps) until 1983, when he became GOC North Eastern District and Commander 2nd Infantry Division. After a return to the MOD as Director General, Logistics Policy (Army), in 1987 he assumed command of 1 (British) Corps. He was knighted the following year.
In November 1989 he became the commander of Nato’s Northern Army Group and C-in-c BAOR. Having become ADC General to the Queen in 1991, he was made Chief of the General Staff the following year and, in 1994, Chief of the Defence Staff, in the rank of field marshal.
During the conflict in Bosnia, he was initially averse to British military involvement on the ground, but when it became inevitable he argued successfully that given the scale of the fighting there, British troops should deploy with fully protected armoured vehicles.
He retired from the Army in 1997 and was created a life peer as Baron Inge of Richmond, Yorkshire. In 2001, he became a Knight of the Garter. Three years later, he was appointed to a five-member committee attached to the Butler Review which was set up to examine the intelligence on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. Chaired by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the inquiry concluded that the intelligence was flawed and unreliable.
Inge also expressed unease at the way members of the security services had been thrust into the media spotlight. “They were asked to do things that I don’t think they should have been doing,” he said. “I think that intelligence and public relations need to be kept separate.”
He was a severe critic of the handling of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 he reportedly told a private meeting of experts that in his view there was no clear strategy for either campaign, adding that he “feared we had lost the ability to think strategically”.
In retirement he took on a range of appointments. He was a non-executive director of Racal Electronics, commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, trustee of the Historic Royal Palaces, president of the Army Benevolent Fund and a member of the advisory board of Aegis Defence Services.
He was Colonel, The Green Howards, from 1982 to 1994 and Colonel Commandant The Corps of Royal Military Police from 1987 to 1992.
Inge was a member of the MCC, Boodle’s, the Beefsteak, the Army and Navy Club and the Travellers Club. He enjoyed watching cricket, walking, reading and listening to music.
He married, in 1960, Letitia Thornton-berry. She predeceased him and he is survived by their two daughters.
Field Marshal Lord Inge, born August 5 1935, died July 20 2022