Maverick military man who led Omani forces

• Last Updated: November 07. 2009 11:03AM UAE / November 7. 2009 7:03AM GMT

Major Gen Ken Perkins was born on August 15, 1926, and died on October 23. News Group Newspapers Ltd

Within the conventional world of the British army, Major Gen Ken Perkins, who has died aged 83, was regarded as something of a maverick. His military career peaked during the 1970s when he took command of the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces in the Dhofar Rebellion, but thereafter failed to reach new heights.

He served in Korea and Malaya as a young man – becoming the most decorated soldier of his generation – but later preferred the role of informed observer. For Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper he reported from war-torn Bosnia and Kosovo and the Gulf, dispensing tips to “our boys”, including the invaluable advice that they favour brown camouflage in Iraq, over green, as it might be more effective in the desert sands.

His second marriage to Celia Sandys, the granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, propelled Perkins into the sort of London society circles far removed from the circumstances of his birth. The only child of a working-class couple in Sussex, he entered military service after a six-month wartime short course at New College, Oxford. In 1952, he qualified as a pilot and was rewarded for the dangerous missions he undertook in the Korean War with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Chosen to attend the Pakistan Staff College at Quetta, he served in Germany and later became an instructor at the Staff College in Camberley.

When he was sent to Oman in 1975, it was as a major general. He entered a conflict that had originated in 1962 during the reign of Sultan Said bin Taimur when rebels in Dhofar, southern Oman, to agitate for greater autonomy and a move toward modernisation to alleviate the chronic poverty that afflicted the region. By the time Sultan Qaboos came to the throne in 1970, Dhofar’s neighbour, the newly formed People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, had entered the fray, politicising the rebellion with its communist-inspired ideology and providing the Dhofar rebels with arms and recruits. The ultimate goals were now to overthrow the sultan and remove all British involvement in the Gulf.

One of Britain’s former ambassadors to Abu Dhabi, who met Perkins in Muscat on several occasions during the mid-1970s, recalled: “He prided himself on being a blunt-speaking soldier, but he was far more sophisticated than that. He’d come from humble origins. He was clever, adept at using his physical presence and subtle in the use of his authority. He clearly enjoyed being in command, but had enough political peripheral vision to make himself accessible to, and well-liked by, more junior folk. He was untypically approachable.”

While Perkins was neither an Arabist nor known for an extensive knowledge of the region, in contrast with a number of soldiers who served in Oman, he was enthusiastic and keen to learn and enjoyed his time there. From a military perspective, he was a great success, as he brought the rebellion to its conclusion.

A British Army officer who served with him suggested that “perhaps only hardened BAOR (British Army on the Rhine) veterans were available and someone less conventional was needed. Perkins had a reputation for speaking his mind. Whereas some people cannot get away with this if they edge too close to perceived boundaries, Perkins could because he had a wealth of operational experience. This counted in his favour and balanced his lack of time in the Ministry of Defence. When he did finally reach the MoD, he found he was not suited to the work and therefore was not able to stand out among the other major generals vying for promotion to lieutenant general.”

Instead, he took the position of director of military assistance overseas and later worked as a military adviser to British Aerospace, a position that, by all accounts, he found unfulfilling.

Major Gen Ken Perkins was born on August 15, 1926, and died on October 23.

His first marriage, to Anne Barry, was dissolved in 1984. He is survived by his second wife, together with their son and daughter, and three daughters from his first marriage.

* The National