Brigadier Maurice A J Tugwell CBE

Brigadier Maurice Arthur John Tugwell served in the ranks for over a year during World War II prior to his emergency commission with The Parachute Regiment on 17 June 1944.

He subsequently served as a platoon commander with 8th Parachute Battalion in the latter stages of World War II including Operation Varsity, the Rhine Crossing.

He remained in the Army after World War II and transferred to The Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment (RWK) on 24 June 1946, although in practice he continued to serve at the Airborne Forces Depot, latterly as a Captain on the P Company staff, until 1949.

From 1949 to1951 he served as a Captain with the RWK and from 1951 to 1952 worked as a General Staff Officer (Grade 3), firstly in General Headquarters Far Eastern Land Forces and latterly at HQ Malaya, during the Emergency.

He returned to the UK in December 1952 and briefly worked as an instructor, and The Parachute Regiment representative, at Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School. However, this posting was cut short at the request of the RWK who posted him as Adjutant to 1st Battalion, RWK.

A further staff officer posting to the War Office was followed by a return to the Royal West Kents and then a tour as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at HQ Cyprus from June 1957 to April 1959.

Promoted to substantive major in June 1959 he worked as Officer Commanding (OC) Recruit Company at Depot The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces, and remained on the Regiment’s nominal roll with the establishment of a permanent officer cadre. In 1960 he transferred to 1 PARA and in June 1961 became a Brigade Major in Germany.

Maurice Tugwell was a keen film maker and photographer and around this time he made two recruiting films Challenge and Self Portrait, the latter being in colour. Challenge was awarded the prize as the best documentary film in the Scottish Amateur Film Festival 1961, and was also the subject of a special article in the Amateur Photographer.

Later in 1963 he attended the Joint Services Staff College before his appointment as second in command of 1 PARA.

On his promotion to Lt Col on 20 September 1965 he was appointed as Commanding Officer of Depot The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces. This was followed by an appointment as Assistant Adjutant General at the Ministry of Defence on 11 April 1968 and Assistant Adjutant and Quarter Master General on 16 December 1970.

He was appointed acting colonel in September 1971 to head up the Information Policy Unit at HQ Northern Ireland and in March 1973 began a year’s appointment as an instructor at the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces Staff College in Tehran.

In 1975 he was promoted to brigadier and appointed to Eastern District, headquartered at Nottingham, from 1 March 1975 to 15 September 1976. He then took up a defence fellowship at King’s College Londonand was subsequently awarded a PhD.

He retired from the Army on 23 April 1978 and moved to Canada in 1979, where he helped to establish the Centre for Conflict Studies in New Brunswick before founding the Mackenzie Institute in 1986.

He was a published author of several books including:
Airborne to Battle: A History of Airborne Warfare 1918-1971 ( Published by William Kimber 1971)
Arnhem: A Case Study (Published by Thornton Cox 1975)

Maurice Tugwell died in October 2010.