George Brian Sinclair

Major-General George Brian Sinclair (21 July 192817 May 2020) was a British Army officer. After the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Sinclair joined the Royal Engineers in 1948. He served in Korea during the aftermath of the Korean War and was quickly appointed adjutant of his regiment. Sinclair served as adjutant of the British garrison on Kiritimati for the Operation Grapple thermonuclear weapon tests. From 1969 he was Commander Royal Engineers Near East Land Forces, based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and was responsible for recovering buildings from a British training base abandoned in the aftermath of the 1969 Libyan coup d'état.

Sinclair served as head of the general staff of I Corps, British Army of the Rhine in the late 1970s. He was Engineer in Chief (Army) from 1980 to 1983. During this time Sinclair served on the Falkland Islands in the aftermath of the 1982 war and was responsible for persuading the government to construct a new runway (that became RAF Mount Pleasant) rather than improving the existing Stanley airfield. Sinclair retired in 1983 but retained a connection to the military through honorary appointments with the Corps of Royal Engineers, the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons, Royal Engineers (Volunteers) and the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. In civilian life he worked for Tarmac Group on the construction of the Channel Tunnel and was a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers.

Early life and career George Brian Sinclair was born in Shirley, Warwickshire, (now in the West Midlands) on 21 July 1928 to Thomas Stoddart Sinclair, a civil engineer and businessman, and his wife Blanche. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 October 1950 and given command of a troop of 25 Field Squadron, which was then a sub-unit of 27 Field Engineer Regiment with the British Army of the Rhine. Sinclair afterwards served as intelligence and signals officer of the regiment.

Operation Grapple

In 1956 Sinclair was appointed a staff officer to Major-General John Woollett, the chief engineer of Operation Grapple, the first attempted detonation of a British-made thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb). In this role he was responsible for constructing an airfield and air-conditioned bomb-storage facilities at Malden Island in the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The tests in May and June did not reach achieve megaton equivalence and were regarded as failures; a series of additional tests were ordered at Kiritimati, some to the north. In 1969 he was appointed Commander Royal Engineers Near East Land Forces, based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Following the September 1969 Libyan coup d'état in which King Idris was deposed by Colonel Gaddafi, the MoD issued orders to abandon a base in the Libyan desert, which had been intended for use in training British forces. Sinclair argued that the buildings erected at the site were valuable and could be used at other British bases. He flew to the site with Air Marshal Denis Smallwood, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Near East Air Force, and his subsequent report persuaded the MoD to authorise the recovery of 85 Twynham huts, 2 aircraft hangars and a number of storage sheds. He was afterwards appointed as head of the general staff of I Corps, stationed in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine. During this posting Sinclair was attacked by a mugger on Chatham Common and fought off his assailant. His rank was confirmed as substantive on 29 November 1980, with seniority backdated to 1 April 1980.

The Falklands and retirement

Sinclair played an important role in the reconstruction of the Falkland Islands after the 1982 war ended in June and became known among the British forces on the islands as "that Sapper brigadier who solves problems and gets things done". In recognition of his work in the Falklands Sinclair was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1983 New Year Honours.

Sinclair was appointed to the honorary and ceremonial role of colonel commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers on 25 March 1983. On 18 April his appointment as engineer in chief ended and he retired from the army on 13 June. After retirement Sinclair worked for the contractor Tarmac Group, including during the construction of the Channel Tunnel (1988–1994). He was appointed honorary colonel of the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons, Royal Engineers (Volunteers) of the Territorial Army on 1 May 1984. On 23 July 1988 Sinclair was appointed honorary colonel of the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, a unit of civilian experts that provide engineering and logistics advice to the army. His honorary appointment with the Airfield Damage Repair Squadrons ended on 30 November 1988; with the Corps of Royal Engineers on 26 March 1991 and with the renamed Engineer and Transport Staff Corps on 28 October 1993.

Personal life and other interests Sinclair married Margaret Richardson from Armagh, Northern Ireland, in 1953; they had two sons and a daughter together. Margaret died in 2011. From 1990 to 2000 he served as a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and contributed to a documentary about Britain's nuclear programme. Sinclair wrote The Staff Corps: The History of the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps RE which was published by the Royal Engineers Museum in 2001. He collaborated with Colonel D.J. Hindle to produce a second edition in 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of the corps.

Sinclair died on 17 May 2020.