ARAB LEGION.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Photographic archive documenting the service of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Young, commander of the 9th Regiment. A visual record of a highly decorated senior officer's time in the Arab Legion in the years before the dismissal of Glubb Pasha. Accompanying this album is his keffiyeh, complete with a metal badge with the legion's insignia.Peter Young (1915-1988) was posted to GHQ Middle East Land Forces in November 1951, having served with the British Commandos during the Second World War (during which he was awarded the DSO, the MC, and two bars). In 1953, he was selected to replace Lieutenant-Colonel James Watson as commander of the Arab Legion's 9th Infantry Regiment (raised in 1950). He led the regiment for three years, was awarded the Jordanian Order of Al Istiqla in 1954, and published Bedouin Command, a memoir of his service, in 1956.The centrepiece is a selection of photographs documenting the duties and composition of the regiment. In 1956, it was involved in providing security arrangements for the state opening of parliament and the visit of the Turkish president to Amman. Operating out of headquarters at a police station, Young directed troops sent to safeguard Parliament House and the Turkish embassy from demonstrators. Images show Parliament House, the king's bodyguard, and veteran Circassians, as well as a smiling Sir Patrick Coghill, the legion's director-general of intelligence, and Abdul Rahman Sahen, Iraq's bedouin head of security. Among the regiment's other res

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