Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir Terence Sydney Airey (9 July 1900 – 26 March 1983) was an officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Family and education

Airey was the son of Sydney Airey. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

. Airey was married on 1 November 1933 in Egypt to Constance Hedley, who bore him a son named John Francis St George Airey. This marriage was dissolved in 1947, when he married secondly Bridget Georgiana Vesey, a daughter of Colonel the Hon. Thomas Eustace Vesey and Lady Cecilia Kathleen Browne, daughter of the 5th

Earl of Kenmare The title of Earl of Kenmare was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1801. It became extinct upon the death of the 7th Earl in 1952. All of the Earls bore the subsidiary titles of Viscount Castlerosse (1801), Viscount Kenmare (1798), and Baron ...

. Lady Airey died in 2006.

Military career

Before the Second World War

After

passing out Passing may refer to: Social identity * Passing (sociology), presenting oneself as a member of another sociological group ** Passing (gender), presenting oneself as being cisgender ** Passing (racial identity), presenting oneself as a member of ...

from Sandhurst, Airey received a commission in the

Durham Light Infantry The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and t ...

on 16 July 1919, over eight months after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

had ended.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He later went on to serve as a staff officer in the Sudan in 1929 and on the British Military Mission to the Egyptian Army. Returning to England, he attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1935 to 1936.

Second World War

Airey was still involved in military affairs at the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, by which time he was a lieutenant colonel. In 1941, he was serving under General Sir William Platt in

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

, after which he returned to General Headquarters in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

: there he was appointed Director of Special Operations and later Director of Military Intelligence. During the latter part of the

Tunisian campaign The Tunisian campaign (also known as the Battle of Tunisia) was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces from 17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943. Th ...

, Airey served as a

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

(General Staff) in the 18th Army Group. In June 1944, Airey was promoted

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

and was later appointed Assistant Chief of Staff to General

Harold Alexander Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, (10 December 1891 – 16 June 1969) was a senior British Army officer who served with distinction in both the First and the Second World War and, afterwards, as Governor G ...

. In this capacity, he flew to Switzerland with

Lyman Lemnitzer Lyman Louis Lemnitzer (August 29, 1899 – November 12, 1988) was a United States Army general who served as the fourth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1960 to 1962. He then served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1 ...

, both disguised as Irish businessmen, to meet Allen Dulles. Airey's cover was as a ''Mr MacNeilly'' who claimed to be on a business trip to buy a German dachshund called Fritzel. The three met the SS General

Karl Wolff Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff (13 May 1900 – 17 July 1984) was a German SS functionary who served as Chief of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler) and an SS liaison to Adolf Hitler during World War II. He ended the war as the Supre ...

, with Airey trying to negotiate a meeting between Wolff and General Alexander to discuss the surrender of German forces in Italy. He did not, however succeed in arranging the meeting, and when the Soviets found out, the United States and United Kingdom were accused of going behind their allies' backs. Wolff was later protected by Dulles and Lemnitzer, much to Airey's disdain. The Karl Wolff affair would later be known as Operation Sunrise, but at the time was codenamed Operation ''Fritzel''.

Postwar service

After the war, Airey served for a year as Chief of Staff to Commander-in-Chief of Central Mediterranean Forces and was for a time Acting Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theatre. In 1947, he was appointed Commander and Military Governor of the Anglo-American Zone,

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

, which was later handed over to the Italians and

Yugoslavs Yugoslavs or Yugoslavians ( Bosnian and Croatian: ''Jugoslaveni'', Serbian and Macedonian ''Jugosloveni''/Југословени; sl, Jugoslovani) is an identity that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slavic people. It has b ...

. The position was originally intended to be only temporary, but Airey continued in it until 1951. He helped restore stability to a war-battered area, particularly in the harbour and in re-opening trade routes. Before Airey arrived, the area had been under the power of a Communist 'shadow government' which assassinated its political opponents. He is said to have been dearly missed by the people of Trieste. After his service at Trieste, Airey was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, to General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

at Supreme Allied Headquarters. His last military appointment was as Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong from February 1952 to 1954. He retired from military service in 1954, and served as honorary Colonel of the Regiment of the Durham Light Infantry until 1956.

Retirement

In August 1956, he was appointed delegate-general of the European Foundation of Culture, which sought to revive the idea of Europe as a single cultural community. Airey is known to have attended early meetings of the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...

and was a member of the Group's European Steering Committee. He lived in Fritton in South Norfolk.Allen W. Dulles Papers - Princeton University Library Digital Initiatives
Retrieved 2018-01-17.

References

Bibliography

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Airey, Terence 1900 births 1983 deaths British Army generals of World War II Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Durham Light Infantry officers Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Officers of the Legion of Merit People educated at Gresham's School People from King's Lynn People from Morningthorpe Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Military personnel from Norfolk British Army lieutenant generals