British officer whose career in the Middle East included training the National Guard in Saudi Arabia
Nigel Bromage was among a number of British military officers fascinated by Arab societies who chose to make adventurous careers among them. Their lives marked an era of political turbulence and oil-based opulence as Arab states emerged from the shade of imperial tutelage.
Thomas Nigel Bromage was born in Ootacamund, India in 1927, and educated at Ampleforth. He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1945 and posted to the 3rd Battalion in Palestine, still governed by Britain under League of Nations mandate. His duties included training supernumerary officers for the Palestine police at Ramle, for which he was appointed MBE. Later, while waiting to appear before his commanding officer for involvement in the Quartermaster’s forbidden poker school, he noticed an Army Order stating that applications for secondment to the Arab Legion may not be withheld. He volunteered at once — with his CO’s blessing.
He commanded a Jordanian armoured car unit of the Legion that took part in skirmishes with Israeli forces during the fighting following the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. The same year he was wounded by a grenade at the battle of Latroun and subsequently awarded the Jordanian gallantry medal by King Hussein. His ability to improvise and seize the initiative in a number of operations won him the lasting respect of his Arab comrades.
He attended Staff College at Camberley in 1954, after which he married and returned to the 3rd Grenadiers. This took him and his wife Pamela to Cyprus during the Eoka insurrection where they rented a converted carob store in Kyrenia Harbour. A spell in London on public duties with the Queen’s Company and training on Salisbury Plain followed, serving only to stimulate his thirst for adventure.
When the young King Faisal of Iraq, his family and leading figures were assassinated during the Abdul Karim Qassim military coup in 1958, King Hussein of Jordan considered asking for the return of General Sir John Glubb whom he had dismissed to placate other Arab leaders. Glubb let it be known that he was too old, adding, “Bromage is the man”. Bromage agreed to go on condition he could take his wife, soldier servant, spaniel and shotguns.
After three years as assistant military attaché in Jordan, in 1963 Bromage was sent to Saudi Arabia to set up the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The British team was instrumental in turning a force of tribal irregulars into a functioning army. Using his links in the former Arab Legion, he recruited a number of Jordanian officers to bring experience to the expanding Saudi Arabian force.
His knowledge of the Arabic language was extensive, especially of the various Bedouin dialects. He was often able to confound his Saudi hosts with this knowledge not only of their language but also of the fauna and flora of their country, to mutual delight. He was advanced to OBE for his service to the National Guard and stayed in the Arabian Peninsula for the rest of his career. He was an adviser to the Kuwait liaison team and finally military adviser to the United Arab Emirates. He retired in 1978.
After his military service he was retained by Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a friend of the Kingdom. His official position was adviser to the National Guard office in London, but his role extended well beyond this and he became a trusted confidant of Prince Abdullah’s family.
In a typically understated way, Bromage played an integral role in Saudi-British relations and in 2010 he received the Rawabi Holding Award for lifetime services from the Saudi-British Society. His personal memoir, A Soldier in Arabia, was published in 2012.
He married Pamela Kaye in 1956. She survives him with their son and daughter.
Colonel Nigel Bromage, OBE, solider, was born on April 14, 1927. He died on April 14, 2013, aged 86
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
