Carver, Richard Michael Power Carver, Baron

▪ 2002

      British field marshal (b. April 24, 1915, Bletchingley, Surrey, Eng.—d. Dec. 9, 2001, Fareham, Hampshire, Eng.), rose steadily through the military ranks from 1935, when he graduated from Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Corps, until he was promoted to field marshal and made chief of the defense staff in 1973. During the intervening years he saw action in the World War II campaigns in North Africa and Europe and held a series of prominent military posts, notably chief of staff (1955) in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, head (1964) of the UN peacekeeping forces on Cyprus, and commander (1967–69) of all British troops in the Far East. After retiring in 1976, Carver spent a year (1977–78) in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) as the British resident commissioner. Having been knighted in 1966, he was made a life peer in 1977 and served in the House of Lords, where he was openly critical of NATO and the concept of nuclear deterrence. Carver also wrote a dozen books, including several volumes on military strategy and an autobiography, Out of Step (1989).

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