Английская Википедия:George Styles (British Army officer)

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Шаблон:For Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Use British English Шаблон:Infobox military person Lieutenant Colonel Stephen George Styles, GC (16 March 1928 – 1 August 2006), usually known as George Styles, was a British Army officer and a bomb disposal expert in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC). He received the George Cross for his service in defusing terrorist bombs in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Early life

Styles was born in Crawley, where his father was a bricklayer. He was educated at Collyers Grammar School, Horsham (aka College of Richard Collyer). He was called for national service in 1946, and, after officer cadet training, received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant and was posted to the central ammunition depot at Kineton.

Army career

On 31 December 1948, Styles received a short-service commission in the RAOC. He was granted a regular commission on 18 May 1949 and was retroactively promoted to lieutenant with effect from 16 March; he was subsequently seconded to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry He served with the 1st Battalion as a temporary captain in the Malayan Emergency and was mentioned in dispatches. Promoted to the substantive rank of captain on 5 May 1955, he studied at the Royal Military College of Science, obtaining an engineering degree. He returned to Malaya, commanding the 28th Commonwealth Brigade Ordnance Field Park Regiment, based at Taiping, then served with the 1st British Corps of the British Army of the Rhine in Germany. Шаблон:Citation needed

Promoted to major on 16 March 1962, he was posted to Northern Ireland in 1969. In 1971, he was a major in the RAOC, serving as deputy assistant director of ordnance services and senior ammunition technical officer in Northern Ireland and commanding the Explosive Ordnance and Disposal Team.

George Cross

On 20 October 1971, one month after a bomb killed one of his colleagues at Castlerobin, County Antrim, Styles was called to defuse a similar bomb left in a telephone booth in the bar of the oft-bombed Europa Hotel in Belfast, the main hotel used by journalists posted to Northern Ireland to report on the Troubles. Шаблон:Citation needed

From a sample of the IED in question, Styles knew that the box containing the explosive would be booby-trapped, with micro switches at the top or bottom which would set off the bomb if the container was tilted or the lid removed, aiming to kill the bomb disposal experts. He built a mock-up of the bomb to work out his method. X-rays showed that the bomb contained approximately 15 lb of explosives. He and two colleagues, Alan Clouter and Captain Roger Mendham, took seven hours to disable its electrical circuits, after which the explosive was hauled onto the pavement outside the hotel and destroyed in a controlled explosion. Two days later, he was recalled to the same hotel to deal with a second bomb, this time containing 40 lb of explosives. Extra wiring, micro switches, and many redundant circuits had been added to confuse the bomb disposal experts. The second bomb took nine hours to disarm. In all, Styles and his team defused more than 1,000 bombs. Шаблон:Citation needed

It was announced on 11 January 1972 that Styles had been awarded the George Cross. The citation for the award was printed in the London Gazette on 10 January 1972, reading:

He received his medal from Queen Elizabeth II at an investiture at Buckingham Palace two months later, on 28 March 1972. The uniform he wore while defusing bombs in Northern Ireland is on display at the Imperial War Museum. After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Styles was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 30 June 1973. He became chief ammunition technical officer, with responsibility for all RAOC bomb disposal teams in the UK and overseas.

Retirement and post-army career

Styles retired from the army on 16 October 1974, and became an adviser for various companies on anti-terrorist techniques. He wrote Bombs Have No Pity in 1975. He was featured in the Thames Television programme, Death on the Rock, in 1988, in which he commented on various aspects of a counter-terrorism operation in Gibraltar in which three PIRA members had been killed earlier that year.

Personal life

Styles married Mary Rose Woolgar in 1952; the couple had a son and two daughters. He enjoyed rifle and game shooting, and collected rare cartridges.

Styles died on 1 August 2006, and is buried with his parents at Snell Hatch Cemetery, Crawley, West Sussex.

References

• Obituary, The Times, 2 August 2006
• Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2006Шаблон:Dead linkШаблон:Cbignore
• Obituary, The Independent, 12 August 2006
• Obituary, The Guardian, 16 August 2006
• Death on the Rock on Google Video