Patrick Holberton Man (1913 – 1979)

Patrick Holberton Man by Walter Bird The National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG x186461)

Patrick Holberton Man by Walter Bird © National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG x186461)

Patrick Holberton Man was born on 17 March 1913 in Kent the son of Hubert William and Beryl (Holberton) Man.  He married Barbara Joan Marion Marsh on 29 September1938, at Southsea, Hampshire.  He died on 10 October 1979 at Campse Ashe, near Wickham Market, in Suffolk.

Barbara was born on 7 June 1912 and died on 21 October 2005 at St Theresa’s Residential Care Home, London.  The ashes of both Pat and Barbara were scattered at the White Gates over the River Deben at Campsea Ashe, Suffolk.  Patrick and Barbara belong to Man Generation Ten, their two living children belong to Man Generation Eleven.

MAN, Patrick Holberton (1913-1979), Major General Service biography: Joined Hampshire Regt 1933; World War II 1939-1945; France and Belgium 1939-1940; Staff Capt, 22 Infantry Bde1940-1941; General Staff Officer Grade 2, 4 Infantry Div 1941; General Staff Officer Grade 2, War Office 1941-1942; General Staff Officer Grade 2, Staff College, Camberley 1942-1943; Assistant Quartermaster General, Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia 1943-1944; Director of Administration Planning, Headquarters, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia 1944-1945; RAF Staff College 1946-1947; Assistant Adjutant General, War Office 1947-1950; Middle East 1950-1952; General Staff Officer Grade 1, Imperial Defence College 1952-1953; Malaya 1954-1956; Director of Administration Planning, War Office 1956-1957; Brig, ‘Q’

Operations, War Office 1958-1959; British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) 1959-1963; General Officer Commanding, Aldershot District 1963-1966; Director of Personal Services (Army), Ministry of Defence 1966-1968; retired 1968; Col Commandant Military Provost Staff Corps 1967-1972.

Major General Patrick Holberton Man CB, CBE, DSO, MC (1913 – 10 October 1979) was General Officer Commanding Aldershot District.

Military career — Man was commissioned into the Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1933. He served in World War II initially as a Staff Captain with 22nd Infantry Brigade and then as a General Staff Officer with 4th Infantry Division, with the War Office and then with the Staff College, Camberley. In 1943 he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General at the Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander for South East Asia Command moving on to be Director of Administration Planning there in 1944.

After the War he became Assistant Adjutant General at the War Office before becoming a General Staff Officer at the Imperial Defence College in 1952. He served in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency from 1954 and then became Director of Administration Planning at the War Office in 1956. In 1958 he moved to the War Office and in 1959 he went to the British Army of the Rhine. He was made General Officer Commanding Aldershot District in 1963 and Director of Personal Services (Army) at the Ministry of Defence in 1966; he retired in 1968.

He was also Colonel Commandant of the Military Provost Staff Corps from 1967 to 1972. In retirement he wrote The Great Rebellion of Queen Boudicca, a historical novel about Queen Boudicca. He lived at Wickham Market in Suffolk where he died in 1979.  He retired from the Army in 1968/9

Pat Man Book Cover