George Brian Sinclair

Major-General George Brian Sinclair CB CBE DL (21 July 1928 – 17 May 2020) was a British Army officer. After the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Sinclair joined the Royal Engineers in 1948. He served in Korea during the aftermath of the Korean War and was quickly appointed adjutant of his regiment. Sinclair served as adjutant of the British garrison on Kiritimati for the Operation Grapple thermonuclear weapon tests. From 1969 he was Commander Royal Engineers Near East Land Forces, based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and was responsible for recovering buildings from a British training base abandoned in the aftermath of the 1969 Libyan coup d'état.

George Brian Sinclair
Nickname(s)Gus
Born21 July 1928
Shirley, Warwickshire
Died17 May 2020(2020-05-17) (aged 91)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1948–83
RankMajor-General
UnitRoyal Engineers
Commands heldEngineer in Chief (Army) (1980–83)
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire (1975)
Companion of the Order of the Bath (1983)

Sinclair served as head of the general staff of I Corps, British Army of the Rhine in the late 1970s. He was Engineer in Chief (Army) from 1980 to 1983. During this time Sinclair served on the Falkland Islands in the aftermath of the 1982 war and was responsible for persuading the government to construct a new runway (that became RAF Mount Pleasant) rather than improving the existing Stanley airfield. Sinclair retired in 1983 but retained a connection to the military through honorary appointments with the Corps of Royal Engineers, the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons, Royal Engineers (Volunteers) and the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. In civilian life he worked for Tarmac Group on the construction of the Channel Tunnel and was a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers.

Early life and career

George Brian Sinclair was born in Shirley, Warwickshire, (now in the West Midlands) on 21 July 1928 to Blanche and Thomas Stoddart Sinclair (a civil engineer and businessman).[1] He attended Christ's College, Finchley, and from 1945 the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to train as a British Army officer.[2][1] Whilst there he acquired the nickname "Gus" in unclear circumstance, but by which he became best known.[1] Sinclair was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 21 October 1948 and spent the next two years in a training regiment.[2][3] He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 October 1950 and given command of a troop of 25 Field Squadron, which was then a sub-unit of 27 Field Engineer Regiment with the British Army of the Rhine.[4][2] Sinclair afterwards served intelligence and signals officer of the regiment.[2]

Sinclair was posted to Korea in 1953, though he questioned his orders as they had been sent after the Korean War had ended with a ceasefire. Upon arrival he found himself unexpected and surplus to requirements and, with no military tasks requiring his attention, was put to work designing a sewerage system for a civilian village.[1] Sinclair found more regular employment after he was appointed adjutant of his unit, 28 Field Engineer Regiment, when the previous incumbent was dismissed for unsuitable behaviour.[1][2] Sinclair was promoted to captain on 21 October 1954 and left Korea the following year.[5][2]

Operation Grapple
Royal Engineers constructing a runway at Kiritimati, November 1956

In 1956 Sinclair was appointed a staff officer to Major-General John Woollett, the chief engineer of Operation Grapple, the first attempted detonation of a British-made thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb). In this role he developed the British facilities on the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Sinclair supervised construction of a modern airfield and air-conditioned buildings to be used to construct and store the bombs. The first series of tests in May and June failed to reach the key megaton threshold and subsequent tests were relocated 400 miles (640 km) north to Kiritimati.[2] Sinclair was sent to the new test location as adjutant of the Royal Engineer regiment supporting the tests .[1] He quickly entered into a dispute with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), whose orders required him to arrange for the island's entire 100-mile (160 km) coastline to be patrolled to prevent the landing of Soviet spies. Sinclair, whose men were mainly engineers and technicians, requested that the MoD send five infantry battalions to carry out the security role. The MoD disputed this and dispatched a Royal Air Force group captain to investigate; this officer agreed with Sinclair's assessment and the patrol orders were subsequently rescinded.[1] Operation Grapple delivered a megaton-level explosion in November.[2]

Sinclair directly witnessed a number of nuclear tests, and twenty years later was asked to provide evidence in the case of a sergeant who died from leukaemia. The sergeant's widow claimed he had contracted the cancer as a result of his official duty, photographing the tests. Sinclair supported the widow and provided evidence that the sergeant had been in close proximity to the test sites. He maintained this support despite pressure to drop the matter from a permanent under-secretary at the MoD.[1]

Senior roles

Sinclair was promoted to major on 21 October 1961 and to lieutenant colonel 30 June 1967.[6][7] In 1969 he was appointed Commander Royal Engineers Near East Land Forces, based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, and was soon arguing against orders issued by the MoD. Following the September 1969 Libyan coup d'état in which King Idris was deposed by Colonel Gaddafi, the ministry issued orders to abandon a base in the Libyan desert, intended for use in training British forces. Sinclair argued that the buildings erected at the site were valuable and in need on other British bases. He flew to the site with Air Marshal Denis Smallwood, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Near East Air Force, and his subsequent report persuaded the MoD to authorise the recovery of 85 Twynham huts, 2 aircraft hangars and a number of storage sheds.[1] Sinclair returned from Cyprus in 1971.[2]

Sinclair was promoted colonel on 30 June 1972 and by 1 January 1975, when he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1975 New Year Honours, held a position at the MoD.[8][9] He was afterwards posted as head of the general staff at the headquarters of I Corps, stationed in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine.[1][2] Sinclair was promoted to brigadier on 30 June 1975 and the following year became commandant of the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham.[10] During this posting Sinclair was attacked by a mugger on Chatham Common and fought off his assailant.[1] Sinclair was appointed Engineer in Chief (Army) on 1 July 1980 and granted the acting rank of major general.[11] His rank was confirmed as substantive on 29 November 1980, with seniority backdated to 1 April 1980.[12]

The Falklands and retirement
Map shows Port Stanley Airport and surrounding area.

Sinclair played an important role in the reconstruction of the Falkland Islands after the 1982 war.[1] He became known on the islands as "that Sapper brigadier who solves problems and gets things done" and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 31 December 1982 in the 1983 New Year Honours.[13][1] A key task was to get the runway at Stanley airfield repaired and improved to allow use by Phantom fighter jets for air defence. This would allow the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers to return to home waters. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was keen for the army to carry out the necessary works so that the money would come from the defence budget and not the government's general funds. Sinclair, under intense political pressure to find a solution, found that the necessary work could not take place while the runway was in use for other traffic. He recommended instead that a new runway be built elsewhere, though this would have required extensive resources from the Royal Engineers. This was not acceptable to the government and Sinclair came close to resigning. The January 1983 replacement of John Nott as defence secretary by Michael Heseltine changed the situation. Heseltine allowed a compromise solution: Sinclair would clear the runway of landmines and install metal matting to improve the surface. This allowed for use by the Phantoms of No. 23 Squadron RAF and Hercules transport aircraft within a month.[1] Work on a replacement military airfield, RAF Mount Pleasant, began later in 1983 by civilian contractors.[14]

Sinclair was appointed to the honorary and ceremonial role of colonel commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers on 25 March 1983.[15] On 18 April his appointment as engineer in chief ended and he retired from the army on 13 June.[16][17] After retirement Sinclair worked for the contractor Tarmac Group, including during the construction of the Channel Tunnel (1988–94).[1] He was appointed honorary colonel of the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons, Royal Engineers (Volunteers) of the Territorial Army on 1 May 1984.[18] On 23 July 1988 Sinclair was appointed honorary colonel of the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, a unit manned by volunteer engineers from civilian industry who advised the British Army.[19] His honorary appointment with the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons ended on 30 November 1988; of the Corps of Royal Engineers on 26 March 1991 and of the renamed Engineer and Transport Staff Corps on 28 October 1993.[20][21][22]

Personal life and other interests

Sinclair married Margaret Richardson from Armagh, Northern Ireland, in 1953; they had two sons and a daughter together. Margaret died in 2011.[1] In retirement Sinclair lived at St Boswells in the Scottish Borders where he enjoyed walking.[2]

Sinclair was admitted as a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a dining and discussion group, in 1985.[23] From 1990 to 2000 he served as a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and contributed to a documentary about Britain's nuclear programme.[2] Sinclair also worked at the Staff College, Camberley where he organised battlefield tours for the students.[2] On 1 March 1996 he was appointed deputy lieutenant for the county of Kent.[24]Sinclair wrote The Staff Corps: The History of the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps RE which was published by the Royal Engineers Museum in 2001.[25] He collaborated with Colonel D.J. Hindle to enable the Staff Corps to publish a second edition in 2015 to mark their 150th anniversary.[26]

Sinclair died on 17 May 2020.[2]

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gollark: It means it's a bot, obviously?
gollark: Oh wait, this is the right one.
gollark: ↑ palaiologos (political compass)
gollark: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/426116061415342080/949026483307962398/unknown.png

References
  1. "Major-General 'Gus' Sinclair obituary". The Times. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. "Major General Gus Sinclair, staff officer who helped to prepare for Britain's H-Bomb tests – obituary". Telegraph. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  3. "No. 38465". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 November 1948. p. 6180.
  4. "No. 39046". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 October 1950. p. 5234.
  5. "No. 40307". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 October 1954. p. 6042.
  6. "No. 42491". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 October 1961. p. 7580.
  7. "No. 44357". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 June 1967. p. 7383.
  8. "No. 45718". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 July 1972. p. 7976.
  9. "No. 46444". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1974. p. 6.
  10. "No. 46621". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 June 1975. p. 8369.
  11. "No. 48245". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 July 1980. p. 9714.
  12. "No. 48490". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 January 1981. p. 462.
  13. "No. 49212". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1982. p. 3.
  14. "Falkland Islands (Strategic Airfield) (Hansard, 27 June 1983)". House of Commons debate 27 June 1983 vol 44 cc345-51. Hansard. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  15. "No. 49314". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 April 1983. p. 4947.
  16. "No. 49322". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 April 1983. p. 5310.
  17. "No. 49392". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 June 1983. p. 8191.
  18. "No. 49787". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 June 1984. p. 8743.
  19. "No. 51441". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 August 1988. p. 9270.
  20. "No. 51650". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 February 1989. p. 2176.
  21. "No. 52542". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1991. p. 8197.
  22. "No. 53472". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 November 1993. p. 17533.
  23. Watson, Garth (1989). The Smeatonians: The Society of Civil Engineers. Thomas Telford. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-7277-1526-5.
  24. "No. 54334". The London Gazette. 1 March 1996. p. 3180.
  25. "The Staff Corps: The History of the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps RE Hardcover – 15 Aug. 2001". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  26. Sinclair, G.B.; Hindle, D.J. (Ed.) (May 2015). The Staff Corps: The History of the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps RE (V) (2nd 150-year Anniversary ed.). ISBN 978-0993267406.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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