25 Facts About Michael Harbottle

Brigadier Michael Neale Harbottle, OBE was a senior British Army officer who was chief of staff of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus from 1966 to 1968, a peace campaigner and amateur cricketer.

Michael Harbottle was rejected by the Navy because he suffered from bunions but he was accepted by the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he studied from 1935 to 1937.

Michael Harbottle was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in August 1937.

Michael Harbottle was a left-handed batsman who bowled slow left-arm orthodox.

Michael Harbottle was a talented player at Marlborough, and captained the Sandhurst XI.

Michael Harbottle played a first-class cricket match for the Army in 1937 against Oxford University.

Michael Harbottle had considerable success in the match, scoring 156 runs in his only first-class innings, before being dismissed by Desmond Eagar.

Michael Harbottle played for Dorset at a Minor counties level from 1937 to 1956, although infrequently due to his military commitments.

Michael Harbottle played cricket for the army until 1959 and captained the team in that year.

Michael Harbottle is the only English cricketer to score a century in his only first-class innings.

Michael Harbottle served in Italy during the Second World War as a company commander.

Michael Harbottle was wounded and in 1944 received a Mention in Despatches.

Michael Harbottle commanded the 1st Green Jackets at Knook Camp, near Warminster, Wiltshire, from 1959 to 1962 and was garrison commander in Aden from 1962 to 1964.

Michael Harbottle commanded 129 Infantry Brigade, TA, at Oxford, from 1964 to 1966.

Michael Harbottle was chief of staff of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus from 1966 to 1968.

Michael Harbottle became chief security officer for a British-owned mining subsidiary of the Consolidated African Selection Trust in Sierra Leone.

Michael Harbottle wrote a book in 1976 titled The Knaves of Diamonds in which he provided his account of events in Sierra Leone during his time there.

Michael Harbottle was vice president of the International Peace Academy from 1971 to 1973.

Michael Harbottle was appointed to a position in the University of Bradford's Department of Peace Studies by Professor Adam Curle soon after the department's founding in 1973.

Michael Harbottle was vice president of the United Nations Association UK from 1974, and general secretary of the World Disarmament Campaign from 1980 to 1982.

Michael Harbottle took part in setting up Generals for Peace and Disarmament in 1981.

In 1983, he and his wife Eirwen Michael Harbottle set up the Centre for International Peacebuilding.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 led to Michael Harbottle becoming the coordinator for the Worldwide Consultative Association of Retired Generals and Admirals from 1991.

Michael Harbottle was the author and coauthor of a number of books on the United Nations, Peacekeeping and Disarmament.

Michael Harbottle married Alison Humfress in 1940, with whom he was to have one son and one daughter.