Brian Urquhart (28 February 1919-2 January 2021) was a G-2 intelligence officer for the British I Airborne Corps during World War II and Undersecretary-General of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs from 1971 to 1985.
Biography[]
Brain Urquhart was born in Dorset, United Kingdom on 28 February 1919, and he joined the British Army when World War II broke out. He served in the coastal defense forces in Dover during the Battle of Britain, and he was later transferred to the airborne division as an intelligence officer. Urquhart worked in G-2 military intelligence, planning out the airborne assaults on Normandy and the Netherlands in 1944. He attempted to persuade his superiors to modify their plans for Operation Market Garden after the Dutch Resistance made contact with him, but General Frederick Browning ignored his advice, leading to the failure of the operation. Urquhart was depressed after the operation disastrously failed, and he transferred out of the airborne. Urquhart later assisted in the foundation of the United Nations and came to work for the UN, directing peacekeeping forces in the Middle East and Cyprus as Undersecretary-General of the UN for Special Political Affairs from 1971 to 1985. He later wrote biographies of Dag Hammarskjold and Ralph Bunche. Urquhart died in Tyringham, Massachusetts in 2021 at the age of 101.