- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBrian Edward Urquhart
- Brian Urquhart was born on February 28, 1919 in Bridport, Dorset, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001), The Tomorrow Man (2002) and The 20th Century Remembered (1981). He was married to Sidney Damrosch Howard Canfield and Alfreda Huntington. He died on January 2, 2021 in Tyringham, Massachusetts, USA.
- SpousesSidney Damrosch Howard Canfield(1963 - January 2, 2021) (his death, 2 children)Alfreda Huntington(1944 - ?) (divorced, 3 children)
- RelativesJohn Goldwyn(Niece or Nephew)
- Wife, Sidney, is the daughter of famed playwright and screenwriter Sidney Howard and his second wife Leopoldine Blaine Damrosch.
- As an intelligence officer, he advised against Operation Market Garden, the 1944 Allied military assault behind German lines in the Netherlands, which was dramatized in Cornelius Ryan's 1974 book, "A Bridge Too Far," and the subsequent film. He believed that the British command had greatly underestimated the Germans' strength, and ordered an air reconnaissance mission that indicated the presence of two Panzer divisions. His warnings were dismissed by his superiors. The operation was a failure; more than 17,000 Allied forces were killed or wounded.
- At the outbreak of WWII, he left university and enlisted in the British army. In 1942, he fell 1,200 feet into a plowed field when his parachute failed to open completely during training. He spent six months recuperating in the hospital before rejoining his unit. He saw combat in North Africa and Sicily.
- He was a main adviser to five UN secretaries general, and a leading mediator during conflicts in Congo, Cyprus, Kashmir, Namibia and the Middle East. He was one of the few UN officials who was accepted by both Israel and the Palestinians as a mediator.
- Former United Nations diplomat.
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