Dick Trant was the Land Forces Deputy to the Commander of the South Atlantic task force during the Falklands Campaign in 1982. At the time, he was Commander South East District, responsible for training and mounting the Army's quick-reaction forces for operations outside the Nato area.

The South Atlantic task force, sent to regain the Islands, was primarily naval, with the Royal Marines providing the Land Force Commander, Major-General Jeremy Moore (obituary, Sept 17 ), who was a military adviser to the C-in-C Fleet, Admiral Sir John (later Lord) Fieldhouse, at Northwood during the early deployment phases of the campaign.

By the time Moore had to leave for the South Atlantic, the Army's involvement had been increased significantly and Fieldhouse, in his capacity as commander of the task force, needed a senior Army adviser at Northwood in Moore's place. Trant was appointed and doubled the role of Land Deputy to Fieldhouse with that of GOC South East District.

Fieldhouse later wrote: “Very quickly after he arrived at Northwood, Trant became a leading member of what was now a tri-Service team. Through wise, and yet tactfully handled advice, he played a most effective role in the general conduct of the campaign, when a heavier hand could well have ruffled feathers.”

Trant's career was remarkable for its variety and for the breadth of experience that he gained and put to fullest use as he emerged as one of the Army's ablest officers, equally at home in command or on the staff.

Richard Brooking Trant was a Cornishman, born in 1928 and educated at Newquay Grammar School. In 1947 he was sent to the Bangalore Officer Training School in India and was given an emergency commission in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, but two years later transferred to the Royal Regiment of Artillery for a regular commission.

His early service was with anti-aircraft units at home, but by 1952 he was with 32nd Medium Regiment in Hong Kong and saw action with 74th Medium Battery in Korea in 1953. On his return from the Far East in 1957 he was already emerging as a high-flier with a reputation for sound practical common sense, intellectual capacity and administrative ability. He earned his “jacket” that year (transfer to the elitist Royal Horse Artillery — although no longer “horsed”) on posting to 1st RHA in the British Army of the Rhine where he served in the Chestnut Troop.

He went back to India in 1961 as a student at the Indian Army Staff College, Wellington, and at the end of the course he was appointed GSO 2 to the Federal Regular Army in the Aden Protectorate. He took up his appointment just as the pro-Nasser revolution occurred in Yemen, and Egyptian agents began stirring up trouble amongst the British protected tribes on the Aden-Yemeni border.

He spent more than two years as principal officer in active operations with this locally raised Arab force in the barren mountainous hinterland, helping to keep the peace between the tribes and to defeat Nasser-inspired dissidents among them. He returned to England and the Joint Services Staff College in 1964, and so was not involved in the distasteful period of the final withdrawal from Aden when the Federal Regular Army's loyalty was tried to the limit.

By the end of 1964 he was back in the European environment for a short spell of regimental duty in Germany, this time commanding C Battery of 3 RHA, whose commanding officer he became in 1968 after instructing at the Staff College, Camberley, for a couple of years. He went back to Camberley as the Colonel GS of a staff college division for a year before taking over the 5th Airportable Brigade at the end of 1972, when it was temporarily deployed to Northern Ireland from Aldershot at the height of the Troubles, during which he showed himself to be a cool, resourceful commander of troops.

5th Brigade still retained its responsibilities for overseas intervention operations, and so he was able to build up his experience of “out-of-area” contingency planning which he was able to exploit ten years later during the Falklands campaign.

Before being promoted major-general, he served for two years as Deputy Military Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. His first two-star appointment was a surprising one for a Gunner: he returned to Northern Ireland as Commander Land Forces from 1977 to 1979, years during which the IRA's terrorist campaign was contained. But this achievement was undermined by the assassination of Earl Mountbatten just after Trant had handed over command.

With his width of operational experience, coupled with his abilities as a meticulous staff officer, he was a natural choice for the important appointment of Director of Army Staff Duties in the Ministry of Defence, responsible for the organisation and executive deployment of the Army worldwide, which he held for three years (1979-82).

It was a period of high tension with John Nott, the Defence Secretary, pursuing his cost-cutting 1981 Defence Review in which the Army's future depended upon the cool heads and persuasive arguments of the General Staff, of which Trant was a key member.

The Army's success in riding the storm reflected favourably on Trant's period as its organisational director during which he developed many of his own ideas for improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness. He was promoted lieutenant-general and appointed GOC South East District just before the Argentine invasion of the Falklands.

After the Falklands campaign, Trant joined the Army Board as Quartermaster-General on the sudden death of Sir Paul Travers in 1983. He brought to its counsels balanced judgment and clarity of vision; and to the Army's Logistic Corps, of which he was the head, respect for and confidence in his leadership.

He ran a happy and efficient ship, correcting logistic weaknesses revealed by the Falklands and laying the foundations of the Army's logistic organisation for the 1990s. He introduced the Army's first information technology strategy, using the very latest techniques from industry. He became a Freeman of the City of London in 1984.

After he retired in 1986 he joined Short Brothers of Belfast as their senior military adviser. Two years later he joined Hunting Engineering, becoming their Chairman within a few months; and in the same year he became deputy chairman of Wilson's Hogg Robinson.

Whether in the Army or in industry, he was enthusiastic about all he undertook. He had a great sense of humour, frequently reducing some fraught situation to laughter with an apt tale. He was much loved in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, whose colonel commandant he became, and especially as honorary colonel of 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.

He was an active member of the Master Gunner's Committee and of the board of directors of the Royal Artillery Museum Project. He was also a colonel commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company, the RAOC, and the RAEC; and a commissioner of the Duke of York's Royal Military School, Dover.

He married Diana (“Tink”) Clare Zachary in 1957. She survives him with a son and two daughters.

General Sir Richard Trant, KCB, Quartermaster-General of the Army 1983-86, was born on March 30, 1928. He died on October 3, 2007, aged 79