Thomas Haddon Brigadier Thomas ( ' Tommy ' ) Haddon CBE ( 1913 – 1993 ) was a British career soldier who , following the Second World War , raised the Singapore Military Forces and served as Chief of Staff of Hong Kong Land Forces . Life . The son of Major J . T . Haddon of the Cameronians ( Scottish Rifles ) , Thomas Haddon was born 19 February 1913 . He was educated at Hamilton Academy , described by the Cambridge University Press as " one of the finest schools in Scotland " , from which he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , being commissioned into the Border Regiment in 1933 . With the 2nd battalion of that Regiment , he served in India , seeing active service on the North - West Frontier in 1937 . Second World War service . In 1939 he transferred to the 1st battalion with which , as a Major commanding B Company , he served in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force . Subsequently , as Adjutant with the 1st Border battalion , Haddon was involved in the rearguard action towards Dunkirk in May 1940 , from where they were eventually evacuated . Later that year Haddon left the 1st Border battalion for Staff College , later being appointed Assistant Secretary to the Joint Intelligence Sub - Committee of the War Cabinet . Haddon was duty officer on the night of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the U . S . fleet on 7 December ; it was he who passed the news on to Downing Street , leading Prime Minister Winston Churchill to immediately contact U . S . President Franklin D . Roosevelt . On 27 January 1943 , Haddon , now as Second - in - Command , returned to the now glider - borne 1st Border battalion . Seeing action in Sicily and North Africa , Haddon was promoted Lieutenant - Colonel in command of the 1st battalion of the Border Regiment forming part of the British 1st Airborne Division that , in " Operation Market Garden " attempted to take and hold the Arnhem Bridge , the last bridge across the Rhine , the taking of which would have allowed the Allies to enter Germany before the winter of 1944 / 1945 . However , Haddon was destined to play little part in the Battle of Arnhem . On Sunday 17 September 1944 , the first day of " Operation Market Garden " , Haddon ' s glider took off on the first lift from Broadwell airfield , but had to make a forced landing while still over Oxfordshire . On the second glider lift , the next day , 18 September , Haddon ' s glider had a wing shot off near Antwerp and was forced to make a crash landing , 75 miles from Arnhem and behind enemy lines , so while the 1st Border battalion was fighting for the bridgehead at Arnhem , its Commanding Officer was proceeding overland , having met up with a battalion of the Dorset Regiment . Haddon eventually managed to reach the Oosterbeek area alone late on the following Sunday , 24 September , but was taken prisoner by the Germans the next morning while attempting to find his unit . Haddon was to spend the remainder of the war as a prisoner at Oflag XIIB camp , near Hadamar . Repatriated , Haddon returned to a staff post with the Chief of Staff Committee , in July 1945 attending the Potsdam Conference and in 1948 returning , as Second - in - Command , to the 1st Border battalion then stationed in Palestine ; later in East Africa . Transferred back to the War Office in 1951 , in December 1955 , and for the second time as its Commanding Officer , Haddon returned again to the 1st Border battalion , stationed at Göttingen and Berlin as part of the British Army of the Rhine . Singapore and Hong Kong . Promoted to Brigadier in 1958 , Haddon raised the Singapore Military Forces ( which became in 1961 , the Singapore Armed Forces ) and was subsequently appointed Chief of Staff , Hong Kong Land Forces . Haddon was awarded an OBE in 1951 , a CBE in 1961 , and appointed an aide - de - camp to Queen Elizabeth II , holding that post from 1962 until his retirement in 1968 . He maintained association with the Border Regiment as President of the Border Regiment Association in 1966 , and Vice - President Border Affairs in the King ' s Own Royal Border Regimental Association in 1975 . Brigadier Haddon died aged 80 during Easter weekend , 1993 .