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Field-Marshal Michael Carver
Field Marshal Richard Michael Power Carver, Baron Carver, GCB, CBE, DSO & Bar, MC (24 April 1915 - 9 December 2001) was a decorated senior British Army officer. Lord Carver served as the Chief of t...view moreField Marshal Richard Michael Power Carver, Baron Carver, GCB, CBE, DSO & Bar, MC (24 April 1915 - 9 December 2001) was a decorated senior British Army officer. Lord Carver served as the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army, and then as the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), the professional head of the British Armed Forces. He served during the Second World War and organised the administration of British forces deployed in response to the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya and later in his career provided advice to the British government on the response to the early stages of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Born in Bletchingley, Surrey and educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Tank Corps in 1935. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1938. He served in WWII initially organising logistics at the Headquarters of 7th Armoured Division which was engaged in fighting the Italians in North Africa. He was promoted to captain in 1943. He was then given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel, and appointed Commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment in April 1943, leading them in North Africa. He was appointed Commander of 4th Armoured Brigade in 1944, leading them in the campaign in North West Europe. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1945.
After WWII, Carver continued to rise through the ranks over the years. He was promoted to field marshal in July 1973 and became Chief of the Defence Staff in October 1973, before retiring in 1976. In July 1977 became a life peer as Baron Carver, of Shackleford in the County of Surrey.
He died in 2001 in Fareham, Hampshire, aged 86.view less