David Peel Yates


Sir David Peel Yates KCB CVO DSO OBE was a senior British Army officer who reached high office during the 1960s.

Early life and education

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

Military career

Peel Yates was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's South Wales Borderers, his father's regiment, in 1931. He was deployed on Waziristan operations on the North West Frontier of India in 1937 before becoming adjutant of the 1st Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment in 1939.
He served in the Second World War, initially as brigade major of the 113th Infantry Brigade in 1940. He then went to the Staff College, Camberley before becoming brigade major of the 204th Independent Infantry Brigade in 1941. He served as a general staff officer with the 4th Division and then at First Army Headquarters. He was involved in the fall of Tunis in May 1943. 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. He was a brigadier on the General Staff of General Sir Harold Alexander at Allied Force Headquarters in Italy in 1945.
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. He was an instructor at the NATO Defence College in Paris, France between 1951 and 1953 when he became CO of the 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers. He was appointed Commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade in Hong Kong, China in 1955 and Assistant Commandant at the Staff College, Camberley in 1957. He then became Chief of Staff for Eastern Command in 1960 and Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin in 1962. He was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Eastern Command from 1966 to 1968 when he became GOC-in-C for Southern Command; he retired in 1969.

Family

In 1947, he married Christine Hilary Williams, daughter of Horatio Stanley Williams; they had a son and a daughter.