Charles Harington was educated at Malvern College and later the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Cheshire Regiment on 30 January 1930, being immediately posted to the regiment's 2nd Battalion.[2][3] Promoted on 30 January 1933,[4] he excelled at athletics, holding the British Army record for the 440 yard hurdles and competing for the Army against the other services. He was captain of the 2nd Battalion's athletics team, winning the Army Inter-Unit Team Athletic Championship in 1937, 1938 and 1939. He succeeded Thomas Brodie as the adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, then commanded by Lieutenant-ColonelEric Nares, from 1936 to 1939, and on 1 August 1938 he was promoted to captain.[5] During this time the battalion was deployed to Palestine during the Arab revolt, where it remained trying to keep the peace between the Jews and the Arabs, until 1938 when it returned to Aldershot, Hampshire.
He spent most of the war on a variety of staff appointments, and married Victoire Marion Williams-Freeman in 1942. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he was appointed as Commanding Officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment, in March 1944.[3] The battalion (formerly the 6th Battalion, a Territorial Army before being redesignated as 1st Battalion in May 1942), serving as the machine gun battalion of the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, a first-line TA formation commanded by Major-General Robert Ross, was poorly trained and virtually unfit for duty, but Harington quickly brought it to full combat readiness. The battalion, along with its parent division, landed in Normandy, France, in late June, three weeks after the Normandy landings, and was engaged in severe fighting throughout the Battle of Normandy, and most of the subsequent fighting in Western Europe, until Harington relinquished command in mid-September 1944, when he became a General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) with the 53rd Division HQ. He retained this post until May 1945.[1] For his services as CO of the 1st Manchesters, Harington was awarded the Distinguished Service Order DSO in early 1945.[1]
Sir Arthur Charles, the Speaker of the nascent National Council, was murdered outside his house in Crater in September 1965. Direct British rule was reimposed when the president of the council, Abdull al-Qawi Mecca-wi, refused to condemn the killing. The subsequent counterinsurgency operations failed: the Aden Police were infiltrated, and officers in the local Special Branch were killed. In 1966, the British government, led by Harold Wilson, decided to withdraw British forces from Aden and the Protectorates by 1968, by which time Harington had returned to the UK.
In retirement, Harington was president of the Combined Cadet Force Association from 1971 to 1980 and also from 1972 to 1980 chairman of the Governors of the Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond, for disabled ex-servicemen. He was a vice-president of Battersea Dogs' Home and from 1966 to 1999 president of the Milocarian (Tri-Service) Athletic Club. He also enjoyed sailing, and was president of the Hurlingham Club for over twenty-five years.
Harington's wife died in 2000, and he himself died in 2007, to be survived by a son and two daughters.
Awards and decorations
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1969), previously Knight Commander (1964), and Companion (1961)[1]
United Kingdom
British Army