ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Sir Robert John Swan Corbett KCVO CB (* 16). May 1940 in Hove, Sussex is a retired British officer and Major General of the Army, historian and author. He was Chief of Staff during the Falklands War in 1984 and Commanding General in the London District in the early 1990s. Between 1989 and 1990 he was the 21st and last commander of the British Sector of Berlin and thus one of the Allied city commanders. His term of office saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a result of which he was adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Berlin issues in preparation for German unity. In 1994, Corbett was elevated to the nobility by Queen Elizabeth II.

Beginning of military career
Born in England, he first graduated and in 1953 moved to Shrewsbury School in the West Midlands region, which he graduated in 1958. His grandfather and father were already graduates of Shrewsbury School. In the same year he entered the military service at the age of 18 and graduated from the officer school in Aldershot. Following a family tradition, he was employed as a member of the Irish Guards, one of the five Royal Body Regiments, and after graduation as a train driver.

During the Cold War, Corbett led a reconnaissance unit as a young lieutenant from 1961 and was transferred to the Rhine Army in Berlin. Shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall, he was to reach Berlin with his unit via the assigned transit route. This resulted in a confrontation with GDR police officers who tried for no reason to arrest one of the soldiers from Corbett’s group, which almost led to the use of firearms. Ultimately, Corbett managed to reach the city with his men, albeit with a 14-hour delay.

As usual for every soldier who was deployed in Berlin for the first time, a visit to the burnt-out Reichstag building was one of Corbett’s first stops.

For seven more years, Corbett was a member of an airborne unit and was deployed in France, Cyprus, Kenya, Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Norway, Northern Ireland, the Persian Gulf, Belgium, Canada, Oman and the United States of America. In 1962 Corbett was promoted to Captain, in 1968 to Major.

Robert Corbett graduated from the Royal Military College of Science and the Personal College Camberley (1971 to 1973) and the United States Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk (1980).

After his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, he joined in 1980 as a staff officer before returning to Germany in 1981 as battalion commander in the 4th Panzer Brigade to the Rhine Army.

In 1984, Robert Corbett was promoted to colonel and, in the midst of the Falkland War, chief of staff and deputy commander of the British troops there. A year later, he was simultaneously