General Sir Thomas Pearson obituary (2025)

Interviewed in retirement by a staff member of the Imperial War Museum in London, Tom Pearson was asked what had been his ambition on joining the army in 1934. “Oh, I suppose to own a bit of salmon fishing and a grouse moor,” he replied, reflecting the low chances of promotion in the small regular army of the day. Yet his response had a strand of reality to it: he had caught a record four prize-sized salmon on the Wye in a single day while on leave from Palestine before the Second World War.

As a young officer Pearson had gone to Palestine with 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade (2RB) during the Arab Revolt of 1936-39. While there, he acquired a Hebron shepherd’s sheepskin coat for warmth during cold nights in the hills that would later more than prove its worth.

In February 1941 Pearson, by then a captain, was wearing the same coat as he faced the Italian 10th Army, which was withdrawing south down the coast road from Benghazi to Agedabia on the Gulf of Sirte in Libya. Although having only a motorised rifle company and a handful of anti-tank guns under his command, Pearson was not to be brushed aside. He opened fire on the Italians, blocking any further withdrawal for two days and nights, despite attacks from both flanks and twice being briefly surrounded, until the 4th Armoured Brigade arrived in support across the Libyan desert from Mechili. Still wearing his Hebron coat showing no badges of rank, Pearson went forward to begin negotiations for the Italians’ surrender.

General Sir Thomas Pearson obituary (1)

A Terence Cuneo painting shows Pearson in the foreground looking towards prisoners of war

This audacious stand won him the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in General Richard O’Connor’s rout of the Italians during Operation Compass in north Africa in 1941, bringing the British Army its first victory of the Second World War. Later, the Rifle Brigade commissioned the artist Terrence Cuneo to paint a picture of the event with Pearson in the foreground looking back towards the host of prisoners. On seeing it and noting the absence of his Hebron coat Pearson remarked: “Can’t be me, much too smart.” Meanwhile, the job of feeding 15,000 prisoners became a serious problem and protests elicited only the response: “Rations on the way, meantime avoid being eaten.”

Tall, strong and usually smiling — although the smile would disappear in a flash if displeased — Pearson had no difficulty in winning the confidence of his riflemen for his ability to read the ground, the enemy’s intentions and how to beat them. Above all, he knew instinctively what to do in a crisis, the key to successful leadership.

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By the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942, Pearson had risen to second-in-command of 2RB. He took over command at the age of 28, when the CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Turner, was wounded winning the Victoria Cross during the battalion’s successful stand on Kidney Ridge in Egypt. On May 9-10, 1943 tanks of the 7th Armoured Division were held up by German 88mm guns during the approach to Tunis. In a classic motor-battalion action, Pearson led the way forward under cover of darkness and established positions from where the enemy guns could be observed and neutralised, allowing the 8th Army’s tanks to advance. For this he received a Bar to his DSO.

Another enemy surrender came his way after the battle for Tunis in May 1943. Major-General Fritz Freiherr von Broich, commander of the 10th Panzer Division, gave himself up to Pearson personally. Demanding use of the German’s staff car, Pearson sat in the front as von Broich was driven through British forward positions for interrogation. On arrival at divisional headquarters, Pearson was embarrassed to discover that he had left his pistol at battalion HQ while allowing the German general to keep his personal weapon.

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On giving up command of 2RB after the capture of Tunis, Pearson embarked on two periods on the staff. The first was as chief logistics officer for the special force brigade operating on the Greek islands around Leros. Food was short and Pearson attempted to collect supplies from neutral Turkey, landing on the mainland with false papers. He was arrested, but managed to get away by motorboat. He then went to the Special Operations Executive headquarters in Bari, south Italy, planning and organising operations in northern Italy and the Balkans.

In the autumn of 1943 he was appointed deputy commander of the 2nd Parachute Brigade in Italy. The brigade faced action under command of the 2nd New Zealand Division during the winter of 1943-44 before being withdrawn to Salerno as part of Operation Dragoon, the American-led invasion of the south of France in August 1944. After the communist rising in Greece, Pearson was switched to be deputy commander of 1st Airlanding Brigade. To prevent a communist takeover, in October 1944 the brigade was sent to support a British parachute drop near Athens before the arrival of a two-divisional force from Italy.

Pearson was again engaged in an enemy surrender when, in May 1945, he accompanied the 1st Airborne Division to receive the surrender of the German forces in Norway. There he met Aud Skjelkvale (known as Nutti). They married two years later and had two sons: Johnny, who entered the Royal Green Jackets, into which the Rifle Brigade had been absorbed; and Sherwin, a garden designer. Nutti predeceased him, but both of their sons survive him.

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Thomas Cecil Hook Pearson was born in 1914, the son of Vice-Admiral John Pearson, CMG, and his wife, Phoebe (née Beadon). Educated at Charterhouse, Surrey, and Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in 1934, and qualified for his private pilot licence before joining the 2nd Battalion in India and moving to Malta. He returned to Palestine in 1946 to command the 1st and then 7th Parachute Battalions.

General Sir Thomas Pearson obituary (4)

Pearson learning to fly

He was assigned to command the 16th Parachute Brigade in 1957, later taking it to Amman to pre-empt a coup against King Hussein of Jordan. Subsequently, he was chief of staff to the director of operations in Cyprus during the EOKA terrorist campaign before becoming head of Brixmis, the British military liaison mission in East Germany. This presented a special challenge: avoiding the mission’s Stasi minders. When his son Johnny later joined Brixmis, Pearson Sr was remembered and a Russian staff officer asked: “So do we assume that espionage is a Pearson family business?”

Pearson commanded the 1st Division in the British Army of the Rhine as a major-general during the period after the end of National Service in 1963. As chief of staff of the Northern Army Group, he faced Denis Healey’s dramatic reductions in the army.

Advanced to lieutenant-general in 1967 and appointed GOC Far East Land Forces in Singapore, Pearson was perceived as a future chief of the general staff, but he had differences of opinion with General Michael Carver, the C-in-C Far East. Pearson accepted instead the post of military secretary. He retired in 1974 as C-in-C Nato Allied Forces Northern Europe in Oslo as a four-star general.

He became fisheries member to the Welsh Water Authority in 1980 and a deputy lieutenant of Hereford and Worcester in 1983. He spent many years trying to restore salmon stock — with limited success — to the Wye in Herefordshire, on which he had inherited a fishing right. His family kept a house in Norway, spending many summers there, and although he never owned a grouse moor, he enjoyed pheasant shooting until extreme old age.

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Pearson regularly attended regimental reunions. At the one held to mark his 95th birthday, he was greeted by the band playing the Rifle Brigade’s regimental quick march I’m Ninety-Five, the regiment’s number in the infantry. A Brixmis colleague recalled Pearson as “a great operator, sleeping in the woods, first up and frying the sausages for breakfast while the rest of us were still gathering our thoughts”.
General Sir Thomas Pearson, KCB, CBE, DSO and Bar, C-in-C Nato Forces Northern Europe, 1971-74, was born on July 1, 1914. He died on December 15, 2019, aged 105

General Sir Thomas Pearson obituary (2025)
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