Michael Harbottle

Source: Cricinfo, 2 June 2011

Brigadier Michael Neale Harbottle, OBE (7 February 1917 – 30 April 1997) was a senior British Army officer who was Chief of Staff of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus from 1966 to 1968 and a peace campaigner.

Michael Harbottle was born in Littlehampton, Sussex and educated at Marlborough College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1937. A left-handed batsman who bowled slow left-arm orthodox, he played a first-class cricket match for the Army in 1937 against Oxford University. He had considerable success in the match, scoring 156 runs in his only first-class innings, before being dismissed by Desmond Eagar. He also played for Dorset at a Minor counties level from 1937 to 1956, although infrequently due to his military commitments. He served in the Second World War, commanded the 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) at Warminster, Wiltshire from 1959 to 1962 and was Garrison Commander in Aden from 1962 to 1964. He commanded 129 Infantry Brigade, TA from 1964 to 1966. He was Chief of Staff of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus from 1966 to 1968. He retired from the Army in 1968.

He was Vice President of the International Peace Academy from 1971 to 1973. Harbottle was Visiting Senior Lecturer (Peace Studies) at Bradford University from 1974 to 1979. He was Vice President of the United Nations Association UK from 1974, and General Secretary of the World Disarmament Campaign from 1980 to 1982. He took part in setting up Generals (Retired) for Peace and Disarmament in 1981. In 1983, he and his wife Eirwen Harbottle set up the Centre for International Peacebuilding. He was the coordinator for the Worldwide Consultative Association of Retired Generals and Admirals from 1991. Harbottle was the author and coauthor of a number of books on the United Nations, Peacekeeping and Disarmament. He lived in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. He was appointed OBE in 1959.

Harbottle married Alison Humfress in 1940 with whom he was to have one son and one daughter. He married Eirwen Simonds in 1972.

Brigadier Michael Harbottle OBE died on 30 April 1997.