Peter Terry
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Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer originating from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an Admir ...
Sir Peter David George Terry, (18 October 1926 – 19 December 2017) was a senior
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
commander who held a number of high-level British and NATO posts. Terry was
Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ...
from 1985 to 1989.


Royal Air Force career

Terry joined the Royal Air Force in the ranks as an
RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by royal warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such ta ...
aircraftman 2nd class on 17 July 1946. His potential for officer service was quickly recognised and Terry was commissioned as a
pilot officer Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countri ...
in the
RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by royal warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such ta ...
on 29 May 1947. Spending the next nine years as a junior officer in the RAF Regiment, serving on LIght Anti-Aircraft sqns in RAF Germany and as Personal Staff Officer to the
Commandant-General of the RAF Regiment The Commandant-General of the RAF Regiment (CG RAF Regt) is the Royal Air Force commander of the RAF Regiment. The post was established in January 1942 immediately prior to the creation of the RAF Regiment. The first two holders of the post we ...
. He transferred to the General Duties Branch in April 1956. During the later 1950s and 1960s, he worked his way up the officer ranks. As a group captain, Terry was station commander of RAF
El Adem Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase () is a Libyan Air Force ( ar, القوات الجوية الليبية, translit=al-Quwwāt al-Ǧawwiyya al-Lībiyya, Berber: Adwas Alibyan Ujnna) base, located about 16 km south of Tobruk. It is believed to on ...
,
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, from 1969 to 1970. He was there in September 1969 when
Colonel Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
overthrew King
Idris of Libya Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi ( ar, إدريس, Idrīs; 13 March 1890 – 25 May 1983) was a Libyan political and religious leader who was Kingdom of Libya, King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his overthrow on 1 September ...
in a coup. Terry oversaw withdrawal of British troops from
El Adem Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase () is a Libyan Air Force ( ar, القوات الجوية الليبية, translit=al-Quwwāt al-Ǧawwiyya al-Lībiyya, Berber: Adwas Alibyan Ujnna) base, located about 16 km south of Tobruk. It is believed to on ...
and
Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...
in March 1970. Terry was appointed the Assistant Chief of Staff in the Plans and Policy Division of the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander ...
in 1975. On returning to the United Kingdom, he took up the post of Vice-Chief of the Air Staff on 25 March 1977. On 30 April 1979, Terry was appointed Commander-in-Chief of
RAF Germany The former Royal Air Force Germany (RAFG) was a command of the Royal Air Force and part of British Forces Germany. It consisted of units located in Germany, initially as part of the occupation following the Second World War, and later as part ...
. Following promotion to
air chief marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer originating from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an Admir ...
, he was appointed Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe at
SHAPE A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material type. A pl ...
on 9 April 1981. Terry remained as Deputy SACEUR until 16 July 1984 and he retired from the RAF several months later.


Governor of Gibraltar

Terry was
Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ...
from 19 November 1985 to December 1989. During his tenure as governor, Terry authorised the
Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
(SAS) to pursue Provisional IRA members as part of Operation Flavius.


IRA shooting

On 18 September 1990 the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
attempted to kill Terry at his home in Main Road,
Milford Milford may refer to: Place names Canada * Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia * Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia * Milford, Ontario England * Milford, Derbyshire * Milford, Devon, a place in Devon * Milford on Sea, Hampshire * Milford, Shro ...
,
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
. The attack took place at 9 pm, while Terry was sitting reading. The shooter(s) opened fire through a window, hitting him at least nine times. His wife, Betty, Lady Terry, was also shot and injured, near her eye. The couple's daughter, Liz, was found suffering from shock. Terry's face had to be rebuilt as the shots shattered his face and two high-velocity bullets lodged a fraction of an inch from his brain. The then prime minister,
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
, said that she "was utterly appalled and deeply grieved" by the shooting.


Honours

In 1983 Terry was made as a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...
. However, there was a long period before one of the 34 stalls set aside for the most senior knights fell vacant.Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry - obituary
/ref> Finally, in 2006, Terry was installed as a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...
.


Later life and death

In later life, Terry and his wife moved to
Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...
in Buckinghamshire.Obituary – Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry
/ref> He was a strong supporter of his local church and also a keen golfer until his old leg wound began to give him trouble and restrict his mobility. Terry died on 19 December 2017, aged 91. He is survived by his wife Betty, daughter Liz, and son Stephen.


References

, - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Peter 1926 births 2017 deaths Royal Air Force Regiment officers Royal Air Force air marshals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Provisional Irish Republican Army actions in England British shooting survivors Governors of Gibraltar People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland) NATO military personnel People from Ramsgate Military personnel from Kent