Lieutenant-ColonelSir Julian Tolver Paget, 4th Baronet,CVO (11 July 1921 – 25 September 2016) was aBritish army officer andmilitary historian who was the author of many books.
He was born inLondon and was the eldest son of General SirBernard Paget. He was educated atRadley College,Oxfordshire and read medicine atChrist Church, Oxford.[1][2]
Paget was commissioned into theColdstream Guards in March 1940 and from August 1942 served with the 5th Battalion, Coldstream Guards, part of theGuards Armoured Division. He served in NW Europe during theSecond World War, including in the battle forNormandy, in the Liberation ofBrussels and in the attempt to reach the British1st Airborne Division atArnhem in September 1944. At the end of the War he was atCuxhaven, northernGermany. His younger brother Lieutenant Tony Paget DSO served with the 1st Battalion,Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (the 43rd) and was killed during theBattle of the Reichswald in March 1945.[citation needed]
Following the Second World War he served inPalestine with 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards. He attended theStaff College, Camberley in 1950. He also served atthe Pentagon, inWashington DC and inAden. Paget was promoted tolieutenant colonel and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards inKenya from 1960 to 1962, taking large parties of guardsmen up Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak. He commanded the Queen's Birthday Parade in June 1962, before being posted as the head of the security secretariat at Aden. In 1967 he published his account of the fightingCounter-Insurgency campaigning in both Britain and America. When he retired from the Army in 1969,Last Post Aden, 1964-7 described the campaign and withdrawal from the former British colony.[citation needed]
Paget joined a Public relations consultancy on leaving the army, and settled down to write more military history. In 1971 he was appointed editor ofThe Guards Magazine, where he worked until 1993. Works followed in rapid succession:The Story of the Guards (1976),The Pageantry of Britain (1979), andWellington's Peninsula War (1990) a huge work that took years of research and study to complete, which was shortly followed by a history of the greatest battle,Hougoument: The Key to Victory at Waterloo (1992). He editedSecond to None The History of the Coldstream Guards (1650-2000) (2000) and his final book was a biography of his father:The Crusading General: The Life of General Sir Bernard Paget GCB DSO MC (2008), commander of Home Forces solely responsible to Churchill for the defence of Britain during the dark days of 1940.[citation needed]
He led battlefield tours specialising in theBattle of Waterloo, thePeninsula War, theCrimean War and theGallipoli Campaign.[citation needed]
He was aGentleman Usher to the Queen from 1971 to 1991. Paget was chief usher at the wedding of thePrince of Wales in 1981 and also at the wedding of theDuke of York in 1986. He inherited the title 4th Baronet from his Uncle Sir James Paget, 3rd Baronet in 1972 and was appointedCVO in 1984. For many years he was involved with the Paget Association, who researchPaget's disease, discovered by his famous ancestorJames Paget. Aged 92 he was asked to a celebration atJames Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth marking the bicentenary of James Paget's birth. The old soldier died ofsepticaemia at the age of 95.[citation needed]
He had married in 1954, an American Diana Frances, daughter of Frederick Farmer, whom he met while working in the Pentagon. They had a son and a daughter. They lived inLymington,Hampshire, before Diana died in 2004. Daughter, Olivia had a distinguished career at the Foreign Office before retiring in 2016. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Sir Henry Paget, 5th Baronet, a merchant banker withSt James's Place, wealth management company.[citation needed]
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by James Paget | Baronet (of Harewood Place) 1972–2016 | Succeeded by Henry Paget |
