David Peel Yates

British Army general (1911–1978)

Sir David Peel Yates

Born| (1911-07-10)10 July 1911
Gillingham, Kent, England
Died| 8 October 1978(1978-10-08) (aged 67)
Denver, Colorado, United States
Allegiance| United Kingdom
Service/branch| British Army
Years of service| 1931–1969
Rank| Lieutenant General
Service number| 52733
Unit| South Wales Borderers
Commands| Southern Command
Eastern Command
British Forces in Berlin
27th Infantry Brigade
1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers
6th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
Battles/wars| North West Frontier
Second World War
Awards| Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Distinguished Service Order
Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Lieutenant General Sir David Peel Yates, KCB, CVO, DSO, OBE (10 July 1911 – 8 October 1978) was a senior British Army officer who served in the Second World War and reached high office during the 1960s.[1]

## Early life and education

[edit]

Peel Yates was the son of Hubert Peel Yates and the brother of Captain Colin Peel Yates of the Royal Navy. He was educated at Haileybury College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[1]

## Military career

[edit]

Yates was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the South Wales Borderers, a line infantry regiment of the British Army, in which his father had served, in 1931.[2] He was deployed on Waziristan operations on the North West Frontier of India in 1937 before becoming adjutant of the 1st Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment, a Territorial Army unit, in 1939.[2]

Yates served in the Second World War, initially as brigade major of the 113th Infantry Brigade in 1940.[2] He then went to the Staff College, Camberley, before becoming brigade major of the 204th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home) in 1941.[2] He served as a general staff officer with the 4th Division and then at First Army Headquarters.[2] He was involved in the fall of Tunis in May 1943.[2] He was appointed commanding officer of the 6th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, which was deployed to the Italian Front in 1943 before he returned to the 4th Division later that year.[2] He was a brigadier on the General Staff of General Sir Harold Alexander at Allied Force Headquarters in Italy in 1945.[2]

After the war, Peel Yates became an instructor at the Joint Services Staff College in 1946 and then assistant adjutant and quartermaster general at the War Office in 1949.[2] He was an instructor at the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Defence College in Paris between 1951 and 1953 when he became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers.[2] He was appointed commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade in Hong Kong in 1955 and Assistant Commandant at the Staff College, Camberley in 1957.[2] He then became chief of staff for Eastern Command in 1960 and Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin in 1962.[2] During the visit of John F. Kennedy to West Berlin in June 1963, Yates explained to the U.S. president the Cold War topography of the city, marked by the Berlin Wall, while both were standing on an observation platform facing the Brandenburg Gate.[3] He was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) for Eastern Command from 1966 to 1968, when he became GOC-in-C for Southern Command. He retired in 1969.[2]

## Family

[edit]

In 1947, Yates married Christine Hilary Williams, daughter of Horatio Stanley Williams; they had a son and a daughter.[1]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "Obituary: General Sir David Peel Yates – Former GOC Berlin". The Times. 11 October 1978. p. 18.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m David Peel Yates Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
3. ^ Andreas Daum, Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-85824-3, p. 134.

Military offices

Preceded by

Claude Dunbar

|  Commandant, British Sector in Berlin
1962–1966  | Succeeded by

Sir John Nelson

Preceded by

Sir George Cole

|  GOC-in-C Eastern Command
1966–1968  | Post disbanded
Preceded by

Sir John Mogg

|  GOC-in-C Southern Command
1968–1969  | Succeeded by

Sir Michael Carver

Honorary titles
Preceded by

Francis Matthews

|  Colonel of the South Wales Borderers
1961–1969  | Post disbanded, became Royal Regiment of Wales
New post |  Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Wales
1969–1977  | Succeeded by

Alexander Harrod

* v
* t
* e

Commandants of Berlin Sectors

American sector|

* Floyd L. Parks (1945)
* James M. Gavin (1945)
* Ray W. Barker (1945–46)
* Frank A. Keating (1946–47)
* Cornelius E. Ryan (1947)
* William Hesketh (1947)
* Frank L. Howley (1947–49)
* Maxwell D. Taylor (1949–51)
* Lemuel Mathewson (1951–53)
* Thomas S. Timberman (1953–54)
* George B. Honnen (1954–55)
* Charles L. Dasher (1955–57)
* Barksdale Hamlett (1957–59)
* Ralph Osborne (1959–61)
* Albert Watson II (1961–63)
* James H. Polk (1963–64)
* John F. Franklin, Jr. (1964–67)
* Robert G. Fergusson (1967–70)
* George M. Seignious (1970–71)
* William W. Cobb (1971–74)
* Sam S. Walker (1974–75)
* Joseph C. McDonough (1975–78)
* Calvert P. Benedict (1978–81)
* James G. Boatner (1981–84)
* John H. Mitchell (1984–88)
* Raymond E. Haddock (1988–90)

British sector|

* Lewis Lyne (1945)
* Eric Nares (1945–47)
* Otway Herbert (1947–49)
* Geoffrey Bourne (1949–51)
* Charles Coleman (1951–54)
* William Oliver (1954–55)
* Robert Cottrell-Hill (1955–56)
* Francis Rome (1956–59)
* Rohan Delacombe (1959–62)
* Claude Dunbar (1962)
* David Peel Yates (1962–66)
* John Nelson (1966–68)
* James Bowes-Lyon (1968–70)
* Lord Cathcart (1970–73)
* David Scott-Barrett (1973–75)
* Roy Redgrave (1975–78)
* Robert Richardson (1978–80)
* David Mostyn (1980–83)
* Bernard Gordon Lennox (1983–85)
* Patrick Brooking (1985–89)
* Robert Corbett (1989–90)

French sector|

* Geoffroi du Bois de Beauchesne (1945–46)
* Charles Lançon (1946)
* Jean Ganeval [fr] (1946–50)
* Pierre Carolet (1950–52)
* Pierre Manceaux-Démiau (1953–54)
* Amédée J.B. Gèze (1955–58)
* Jean Lacomme (1958–62)
* Edouard K. Toulouse (1962–64)
* François Binoche [fr] (1964–67)
* Bertrand Huchet de Quénétain [fr] (1967–70)
* Maurice Routier (1970–73)
* Camille Metzler (1973–75)
* Jacques Mangin (1975–77)
* Bernard d'Astorg [fr] (1977–80)
* Jean P. Liron (1980–84)
* Olivier Le Taillendier de Gabory (1984–85)
* Paul Cavarrot (1985–87)
* François Cann [fr] (1987–90)

Soviet sector|

| Soviet Commandants|

* Nikolai Berzarin (1945)‡
* Alexander Gorbatov (1945)§
* Dmitry Smirnov [ru] (1945–46)
* Aleksandr Kotikov [ru] (1946–50)
* Sergey Dengin (1950–53)
* Pyotr Dibrova [ru] (1953–56)
* Andrey Chamov (1956–58)
* Matvei Zakharov (1958–61)
* Andrey Soloviev (1961–62)

|

East German Commandants|

* Helmut Poppe [de] (1962–71)
* Arthur Kunath [de] (1971–78)
* Karl-Heinz Drews [de] (1978–89)
* Wolfgang Dombrowski [de] (1990)
* Detlef Wendorf (1990)

* ‡ Commandant of the entire city; appointed during the Battle of Berlin
* § Commandant of the entire city until July 1945

Authority control databases |

* NARA

|

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