Military Figure. John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton received recognition as a highly decorated British military officer serving in World War I and World War II. He fought in Malaya in the Anti–British National Liberation War starting in 1948. Later, he was an advisor of the British government on the response to the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya in 1952. He was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and the professional head of the British Army. In October of 1955, he was appointed the Governor of Cyprus and was there during the controversial Cyprus Emergency. Born Allan Francis Harding, he started to use the name "John" after World War I. After attending King's College London, he started a career with the Post Office but that changed with the onset of World War I. His military career began when he became a part-time reservist, joining the County of London 11th Battalion, Finsbury Rifles of the London Regiment, a unit of the British Army's Territorial Force, being commissioned as a second lieutenant on May 15, 1914. He was attached to the Machine Gun Corps and fought in the bitter Gallipoli campaign in August of 1915. Later, he transferred to the Regular Army as a lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry on March 22, 1917, and was assigned to the Middle Eastern theatre of operations. He took part in the Third Battle of Gaza in November of 1917; for his service, he was awarded the Military Cross. At the end of World War I, his rank was acting lieutenant colonel, a rank he lost after the war but officially regained in 1938. At the beginning of World War II, he commanded the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry in Waziristan, then was on the staff of the Middle East Command in September of 1940. He was a brigadier on the staff in the Western Desert in December of 1940 and took command at one stage, making the decision to hold Tobruk. He was promoted to Colonel on August 9, 1941, and commanded the 7th Armored Division or the "Desert Rats" in September of 1942, taking an active part in leading his forward HQ at El Alamein, where he was seriously wounded in January of 1943 from shell fragments while standing outside of a tank. He subsequently served in Italy as Chief of Staff to General Alexander and was promoted to major-general in July 1944. He was further promoted to lieutenant-general on August 19, 1946, and commanded British forces in the Mediterranean before going on to command in the Far East in 1949. He was there during the Malayan Emergency. By August of 1951, he was Commander-in-Chief of the army on the Rhine. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff, advising the government on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in 1952. He reached the rank of Field Marshal on July 21, 1953, and intended to retire in September of 1955, but instead, he accepted the appointment to Governor of Cyprus in October. In his role as military governor and commander in chief of the British Colony of Cyprus, he faced the ordeal that had started prior on April 1, 1955. A disagreement between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities began warring over who should govern the island. The National Organization of Cypriot Combatants, the guerrilla group known by the initials E.O.K.A., sought union with Greece instead of British rule. The conflict reached a point where an assassination attempt was made on him but failed when the bomb did not explode as planned. With rioting in the streets, his actions to gain law and order included curfews, school closures, concentration camps, death penalties, and finally the deporting the nationalist leader of Archbishop Makarios III, for his participation in the conflict. Critics complained of his treatment of civilians and for the execution by hanging of Michalis Karolis, which gained international attention in the media. Harding resigned from the post on October 22, 1957, with Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon, accepting the appointment as the last British Governor of Cyprus. The Cyprus Emergency ended in March of 1959, with Cyprus gaining its independence. He was created Baron Harding of Petherton in January of 1958. He married Mary Rooke in 1927, and they had one son, John Charles Harding, who became the 2nd Baron Harding upon his father's death. At age 92, he died from the complications of aging. There is a bust of him in his military uniform in the town of Taunton, Somerset. A plaque is posted at the home of his birthplace.