Twice Maligned, Once Vindicated
What a life! Major Sir Brian Edward Urquhart’s real-life accomplishments are impressive yet, a fictionalized version cements his story. In the film, A Bridge Too Far, Urquhart is an intelligence officer who breaks down due to stress during World War Two. Decades later, he raised a similar incident producing questions and inquiry.
Born in 1919, Urquhart’s father left the family when Brian was six. His mother got him admitted to the Badminton School in Bristol, an all-girls school where he was the one male out of 200 female students. When World War II broke out, Urquhart joined the British Army and was commissioned an officer at the tender age of 21.
He joined the 1st Airborne Division in Intelligence. Urquhart was severely injured in a training drop, damaging vertebrae and breaking several bones. The loss of mobility could have been permanent, but he regained his strength. Urquhart served in North Africa and the Mediterranean, before returning to England to participate in Operations Overlord and Market Garden.
The latter was the basis for the movie. It was a huge hit starring James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Laurence Olivier, and Ryan O’Neal. In real life, Urquhart was convinced Market Garden was flawed, and attempted to persuade superiors to modify or abort. In the film, Urquhart’s character was vindicated but in real life was called a liar, a depressive, and a fake.
After leaving the airborne forces due to shame, he transferred to T-Force, a unit responsible for searching for German scientists and military innovations. Urquhart was the first allied officer to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp which caused him PTSD. This experience spurred him to help create the United Nations.
Urquhart served under five UN secretary generals. During the Suez Crisis, he organized the first UN peacekeeping force. As representative in the Congo, he was abducted and brutally beaten by undisciplined Katangese troops. Urquhart worked for the UN for forty years. Honors followed and he wrote many books.
In 2018, Urquhart contacted reporters claiming to be privy to a NATO operation that lasted for years. According to his reports, businesspeople from Western nations were enlisted to spy on nations they visited for work. He revealed the operation after several of these people broke down from stress. Some attempted to tell their tall but were humiliated as he once was. Nothing has come of these claims.
Twice married, he died at his home in Tyringham, Massachusetts, at the age of 101 in 2021. His second wife, Lady Sidney Urquhart, died the day after he did. A long, just life though tough as hell.
