Tall, handsome and elegant in uniform, Charles Harington proved himself a fine trainer of men and a courageous leader — he had won the DSO and the MC during the Second World War. He was friendly and approachable, with a mind well tuned to the problems he faced.

His last command in the Middle East was undeniably difficult, with conflicting signals of intent from tribal and nationalist groupings all over the region. Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the tri-service Middle East Command in Aden in mid1963, he had responsibility for security of British installations and business interests from the Arabian Gulf to East Africa.

The immediate prospects were not discouraging, however, with plans for independence of the residual colonial territories and treaty states under discussion. Only the Voice of Cairo broadcasting President Nasser’s pan-Arab propaganda disturbed the tranquillity of the view from Aden’s Steamer Point — but the first trouble came from further south.

In January 1964 mutinies in battalions of the former King’s African Rifles in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda led to requests for support from the recently independent governments of those states. Harington responded quickly with support from all three services. Order was restored and African officers replaced the nucleus of British officers who had remained.

Harington was next faced by the rebellion of the Haushabi and Radfan tribes of the Western Aden Protectorate, on which there was poor intelligence about the insurgents’ motives. The revolt was contained, but deployment of British troops into the tribal areas fostered the establishment of the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen, later to establish a brief alliance of convenience with the Marxist orientated National Liberation Front, which concentrated its own campaign of violence in Aden.

Violence flared there as that in the Radfan died down. In September 1965 the Speaker of the embryo National Council, Sir Arthur Charles, was murdered outside his house in Crater and, when the President of the Council, Abdull al-Qawi Mecca-wi, refused to condemn the act, direct British rule was reimposed.

Counterinsurgency operations which followed could do little more than execute a policy of “restoration of law and order”. This became a lost cause as the Aden Police were infiltrated and local Special Branch officers killed.

Harington’s insistence that sentries should wear starched khaki drill reflected a hope that an atmosphere of normality might be maintained. But this was dashed with the decision by the first Harold Wilson Government to abandon Aden and the Protectorates by 1968, whether or not a successor administration could be established. By that time Harington had been appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and it was for a successor to plan an exit.

Charles Henry Pepys Harington was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. Harington and a relation of General Sir Charles “Tim” Harington, who was the Allied C-in-C in Constantino-ple at the time of the 1922 Chanak incident. He was educated at Malvern and RMC Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned into The (22nd) Cheshire Regiment in 1930.

After disbandment of the Machine Gun Corps in 1920, such infantry regiments as the Cheshires, provided the Army’s medium machinegun battalions, one to each infantry division. It was in this role that Harington went to France with the 1st Infantry Division to France in 1939.

During the withdrawal from the River Dyle in Belgium, at the outset of the German offensives of May 1940, his company supported the division’s rear-guard provided by the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and 21st Antitank Regiment RA. He was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the withdrawal to Dunkirk, in the words of the citation, “inflicting many casualties on the enemy and, due to skilful handling of his guns, completed the withdrawal with loss of only one section”.

In March 1944, as the Allied armies in Britain prepared for the Normandy invasion, he was appointed to command the 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment. Circumstances had led to the units being untrained and on the point of being catego-rised unfit to take part in the invasion.

Harington threw himself into training the men and raising their confidence and morale to a pitch that the 1st Manchesters acquitted themselves with great distinction. Harington was awarded the DSO for leadership and gallantry during the first six weeks of the Normandy fighting.

After the end of the war in Europe, he was an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, for two years before being appointed to the staff of the British Military Mission in Greece during the bitter civil war between government forces and communist rebels. He later commanded the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, and was military assistant to two Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff in succession, before joining the planning staff at Nato Supreme Headquarters in Europe.

Advancement followed quickly. He commanded 49th Infantry Brigade in Kenya during the Mau Mau emergency, the School of Infantry at Warmin-ster, the 3rd Division in the United Kingdom Strategic Reserve and the Staff College, Camberley.

After these successes the period as C-in-C Middle East Command seemed, inevitably, a somewhat thorny row to have to hoe. Harington received little decisive political direction after reimposition of direct rule in Aden, and could only stand firm and try to maintain an air of calm. In the upshot nothing would probably have made any difference to the final outcome. Harington was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff in 1966.

His last appointment, in 1968, was Chief of Personnel and Logistics in the Ministry of Defence. In this he argued successfully for introduction of a proper military salary for serv-icemen, a concept that has stood the test of time.

He was Colonel of The Cheshire Regiment, 1962-68; president of the Combined Cadet Force Association, 1971-80; chairman of the Governors of the Star and Garter Home, 1972-80; and president of the Milocarian (Tri-Service) Athletic Club, 1966-99.

Harington married Victoire Marion Williams-Freeman in 1942. She died in 2000, and he is survived by a son and two daughters.

General Sir Charles Harington, GCB, CBE, DSO, MC, Chief of Personnel and Logistics, MoD, 1968-71, was born on January 30, 1910. He died on February 13, 2007, aged 97