Louis Hargroves had the misfortune to be pitched into the unenviable assignment of command of “Radforce” sent to attempt to subdue the dissident tribes of the Western Aden Protectorate in 1964. He had just taken over command of Aden Garrison but his experience of India’s North-West Frontier qualified him for operations in the mountainous Radfan region, through which ran the only motor route to Dhala, on the Yemeni frontier, which was being ambushed, blocked and mined by dissidents.

He saw the operation as a challenge to his military abilities and, given the adverse circumstances, made a reasonably good fist of it.

Had it not been necessary to keep the road open to Dhala, whose Amir was the supposed ruler of the local tribes, prudence might have suggested leaving the situation alone. The region had been lawless for centuries, but the new British-sponsored Federation of South Arabia had to be perceived as a credible political entity. So, with prescriptive bombing of dissident villages no longer politically acceptable, a ground force had to be sent to demonstrate the federation’s authority.

There was no reliable intelligence on enemy strengths, but it was thought 7,000 tribesmen could be mustered against the hastily assembled brigade of British and federation troops. The tactical skill of the tribesmen on their own ground and their long-range marksmanship had recently been demonstrated during a limited Federal Regular Army (FRA) foray into the region, so a well-thought-out plan was essential. Inclusion of a company of the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (3 Para) may have been the suggestion of Hargroves’s immediate superior, Major-General John Cubbon — the GOC Land Forces Middle East and a former member of Airborne Forces.

There was no doubt that it would greatly facilitate the occupation of the fertile Danaba Basin, where the dissidents were established, if the dominating 3,700ft ridge code-named Cap Badge could be taken first. The 3 Para company was to dropped before dawn with Cap Badge as their objective. This was a high-risk operation that depended on having an already secured and marked dropping zone (DZ). Hargroves decided to send a ten-man troop of 22 Special Air Service Regiment (22 SAS) by helicopter to a forward start point, from where they would march by night to secure and mark the dropping zone.

Delayed and then spotted during the approach march, the SAS party was surrounded and pinned down. The leader and one trooper were killed and the rest escaped largely thanks to a series of ground-attack sorties flown by RAF Hunter aircraft. As the dissidents had occupied the area of the DZ, Hargroves was obliged to abandon the parachute assault on Cap Badge and cobble together a new plan.

He sent 45 Commando Royal Marines and the 3 Para company to take Cap Badge after a night-approach march using routes thought not to be under enemy observation. This was achieved, but not without casualties; holding the ground taken proved difficult with only limited helicopter availability for resupply.

Hargroves had shown resilience and flexibility in difficult circumstances. His initial objectives had been secured but it was recognised that a properly constituted brigade HQ would be required to exploit this success and extend operations deeper into the Radfan. So Hargroves returned to Aden, where terrorists of the National Liberation Front (NLF) were threatening the lives of the expatriate population working in banking and shipping.

The situation in Aden worsened abruptly with the brutal assassination of Sir Arthur Charles, Speaker of the Aden Legislature, in the Crater district in September 1965. The Chief Minister, Abdul Mackawee, refused to condemn the murder, whereupon the British Government dissolved the Aden Assembly. The Federal Council was left in place but from then on it was downhill all the way until the British withdrawal in 1967, leaving the former colony in the hands of the NLF.

Hargroves remained in command of Aden Garrison, renamed Aden Brigade and reinforced, for a further six months, during which he showed a firm grip in dealing with the fast-deteriorating security situation. He was handicapped, moreover, by two limitations. The more serious was the almost complete absence of intelligence on the NLF and Federation for the Liberation of South Yemen

(Flosy), after the systematic murder of all indigenous Special Branch officers, and the insistence by Middle East Command that an attitude of normalcy should be maintained in the form of soldiers on guard duties being dressed in starched khaki drill, with polished boots. Good turnout has its place, but Aden in 1965-66 demanded exclusive attention to operational priorities.

Appointed CBE in 1965 for his command of the Radfan force, Hargroves, on leaving the Colony in 1966, went to an administrative staff job in the Ministry of Defence in London. Invariably positive in outlook, he would explain but not complain of the limited resources made available to him for the Radfan operation nor of the extent to which his scope to deal with the NLF and Flosy in Aden was constrained.

Robert Louis Hargroves was the son of William and Mary Hargroves (née Lalonde). He was educated at St John’s College, Southsea, and commissioned from the Reserve of Officers into the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1938.

He took part in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 with 2nd Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment, a glider-borne unit of 1st Air-landing Brigade. After commanding 1st Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment in the British Army of the Rhine, 1959-61, he served on the staff of RMA Sandhurst as the staff officer responsible for military training, before going to Aden on promotion to brigadier.

He retired from the Army in 1972 to work for the Conservative Party as a fundraiser in the Birmingham area. This work led to a knighthood in 1987. He was Colonel of The Staffordshire Regiment, 1971-77, and a Deputy Lieutenant for Staffordshire from 1974.

He married Eileen Anderson in 1940. She survives him with four daughters.

Brigadier Sir Louis Hargroves, CBE, DL, Commander of “Radforce” in 1964, was born on December 10, 1917. He died on February 22, 2008, aged 90