Brigadier Charles Deane Steel (29 May 1901 − 7 February 1993) was a British Army officer and

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

Military career

Charles Steel was the son of Dr Gerard Steel, JP (1865-1937) and was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

between 1912 and 1919. He attended the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

between 1919 and 1921, at which he was awarded the Prize Cadetship (1919) and the Armstrong Memorial Prize (1921). He was commissioned into the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

on 13 July 1921. Between 1924 and 1919 he served in India with the Bengal Sappers and Miners. He was promoted to the rank of captain on 13 July 1932 and attended the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...

(1936-7), being promoted to the rank of major on 1 August 1938. During the Second World War he served in East Africa and Abyssinia between 1941 and 1942. He was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the 1941 New Year Honours. Steel was deployed to the Western Desert where he was

Mentioned in Dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

on 24 June 1943. He was captured later that year, but subsequently escaped to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He was Mentioned in Dispatches for a second time for "services in the field" on 8 November 1945. Between 1945 and 1949 Steel was Deputy Head of the British Military Mission to Greece and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1947. Between 1952 and 1964 he worked as Head of the Conference and Supply Department at the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

and he was invested as a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

in 1957.''The London Gazette'' (13 June 1957) https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41089/supplement/3371/data.pdf He was made an honorary brigadier on 15 February 1952 and retired from the Regular Army Reserve of Officers in 1961. Steel was Head of the Accommodation Department in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service between 1965 and 1967. On 9 April 1932 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Lawrence Chenevix-Trench and Winifred Ross Tootal, and together they had two sons.

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British Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Charles Deane 1901 births 1993 deaths British Army personnel of World War II British civil servants Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Bedford School Royal Engineers officers British Army brigadiers British World War II prisoners of war Military personnel from Herefordshire