Arthur Denaro

Major General Arthur George Denaro, (born 23 March 1948) is a retired British Army officer. He led his regiment, the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars, during the Gulf War and later became Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He commanded the 5th Infantry Division from 2000 to 2003. He was the highest-ranking officer of overseas birth in the British Army at that time.

Early life Denaro was born in Sungei Patani, Malaya, on 23 March 1948, and raised in County Donegal, Ireland. He is the son of Brigadier George Tancred Denaro and of Francesca Violet (Peggy) Denaro (née Garnett). He was educated at Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, England.

Military career

Denaro was commissioned into the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars as a cornet on 2 August 1968. He was promoted to lieutenant on 2 February 1970, to captain on 2 August 1974, and to major on 30 September 1980. Confirmation of his service with the Special Air Service is given by the general himself in a book by Hugh McManners.

Denaro commanded his regiment during the Gulf War. Prior to the war the regiment had just arrived in Fallingbostel as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade (under the command of Brigadier Patrick Cordingley), part of the 1st (UK) Armoured Division, and were engaged in training at Soltau. Denaro was recovering from a polo accident four weeks earlier, when he had broken his skull in four places requiring a metal plate to be inset, but was still taking part in the exercise. As vanguard of the British attack, and "with breathtaking speed", Denaro's regiment hooked round the Iraqi right flank to cut off their line of retreat. His Challenger 1 tank "Churchill" has been preserved at the Tank Museum Bovington in its desert colours and Irish Hussars livery. Both Denaro and his tank are immortalised in the Terence Cuneo painting "The Basrah Road", the original of which hangs in the regimental museum of the Queen's Royal Hussars at Athlone Kaserne in Sennelager.

In 1992 Denaro was appointed commander of the 33rd Armoured Brigade and later that year he became commander of the 20th Armoured Brigade. From 1994 to 1995 he served at the headquarters of UNPROFOR in the former Yugoslavia, as chief of staff of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia, before commanding British forces in Cyprus from 1995 to 1996. He became Middle East Adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence in 1997.

Personal life In 1980, Denaro married Margaret Roney Acworth (Maggi), widow of Major Michael Kealy. Together they have one son (commissioned into the Queen's Royal Hussars in 2008) and one daughter. He also has a step-son and two step-daughters from Maggi's first marriage.