Wyndham Deedes Sir Wyndham Henry Deedes , CMG , DSO ( 10 March 1883 – 2 September 1956 ) was a British Brigadier General and was also the Chief secretary to the British High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine . Early life . Deedes was born on 10 March 1883 in Kent , England . He was the youngest son of East Kent gentry , Colonel Herbert George Deedes and Rose Elinor Barrow , whose family had owned the land between Hythe and Ashford for four centuries . He was educated at Eton College , an all - boys public boarding school in Eton , Berkshire . Military career . On 4 February 1901 , Deedes was commissioned into the 9th Battalion , King ' s Royal Rifle Corps as a second lieutenant . He was posted to South Africa where he fought in the Second Boer War . On 22 January 1906 , Deedes was promoted to lieutenant and seconded to the Colonial Office . During this time he learned Turkish . By 1910 he had enough of a command of the language to satisfy a posting to Constantinople . On 8 May 1910 , Deedes was seconded for service under the Foreign Office . During World War I , Deedes saw service in Gallipoli , where he took part in the Gallipoli Campaign . On 27 April 1915 , the then Captain Deedes was appointed as a General Staff Officer ( 2nd Class ) . Deedes was promoted to Major on 14 September 1916 . On 1 January 1916 , he was appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) " for distinguished service in the field " . In October 1916 , he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle , 4th Class ( with Swords ) by King Peter I of Serbia . On 21 March 1917 , Deedes was promoted to temporary Lieutenant Colonel upon appointment as a General Staff Officer ( 1st Class ) in the General Staff . On 3 June 1917 , Deedes was awarded the rank of Brevet Colonel " for distinguished service in the field " . During the war , he was honoured by the French Republic with the appointment to the Legion of Honour as a Chevalier . After the war he was posted to Istanbul , Turkey , as a military attaché . He was posted to Cairo , Egypt , which was at that time a British protectorate , as public security director . Here he helped to set up the Palestine Police Force . From 1920 to 1922 , Deedes served as chief secretary to the then British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel in Palestine . Palestine was then under British mandate following the League of Nations decision in 1920 to hand it over to Britain control from 1923 onwards . Although Deedes had pro - Zionist sympathies , he played an active part in promoting the Supreme Muslim Council as an Arab counterweight to the Jewish Agency . He retired from the British Army on 27 June 1923 , with the honorary rank of Brigadier General . Later life . Upon returning to England , Deedes did not take up his heritage as a country squire , but moved to London and chose to do unpaid social work in one of the poorest quarters of the city . Between 1931 and the end of World War II in 1945 , he shared a house in Bethnal Green with his nephew William Deedes . During this time he became a local councillor , served on the education committee and became chairman of the London Council of Social Service . He was also vice chairman of the National Council of Social Services . When the London Turkish House ( Halkevi ) was set up during World War II to help foster Anglo - Turkish relations , Deedes was its Chairman , with Lady Dorina Neave in charge of its social side . During the War , Deedes also became chief Air Raid Warden of his borough . In 1946 , severe illness forced him to retire from his work in the London East End . He returned to Hythe to live his years in a single room . In 1949 , one year after the state of Israel was formed , he set up the Anglo - Israel Association . He died in 1956 . Personal life . Deedes was a strict Christian . He never married nor had any children . His older brother , Herbert William Deedes ( born 27 October 1881 ) , married Melesina Gladys Chenevix Trench on 3 July 1912 . They had three children , with one of whom , William Deedes , he shared a home from 1931 to 1939 . Translations . Deedes translated three major Turkish literary works into English : two novels by Reşat Nuri Güntekin and a memoir by Mahmut Makal :