Brian Urquhart Sir Brian Urquhart , KCMG , MBE ( born 28 February 1919 ) is a World War II veteran , author and a former Undersecretary - General of the United Nations . Biography . Early life . Born and raised in Dorset , Urquhart was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church , Oxford . After his parents moved to Meopham , Kent , he would visit them regularly there from New York where he now lives . His father was the English painter Murray Urquhart . He abandoned his family in 1921 , when Brian was six years old . World War II . When World War II broke out , Urquhart joined the Army and , after a brief training period , was commissioned as an officer in The Dorset Regiment . The Battle of France ended before his unit could deploy to the Continent , and he and his men were part of the coastal defence forces in and around Dover during the Battle of Britain . He later transferred to the Airborne Division as an Intelligence Officer . In August 1942 , he was severely injured in a training drop , damaging three vertebrae in his lower spine and breaking several bones . He spent months in the hospital , recovering and regaining his strength . After his recovery , Urquhart served in North Africa and the Mediterranean , before returning to England to participate in the planning of airborne operations associated with Operation Overlord . In the autumn , as the 1st Airborne Corps Intelligence Officer , he assisted with the planning for Operation Market Garden , an ambitious airborne operation designed to seize the Dutch bridges over the rivers barring the Allied advance into northern Germany . He became convinced that the plan was critically flawed , and attempted to persuade his superiors to modify or abort their plans in light of crucial information obtained from aerial reconnaissance and the Dutch resistance . The episode was described by Cornelius Ryan in his book on " Market Garden " , " A Bridge Too Far " . ( In the film version , directed by Richard Attenborough , Urquhart ' s character was renamed " Major Fuller " , to avoid confusion with a similarly named British General . ) The subsequent failure of the operation and the heavy casualties that resulted vindicated Urquhart ' s judgment , but he became deeply depressed by his failure to persuade his superiors to halt the operation and requested a transfer out of the airborne forces . After leaving the Airborne Division , he was transferred to T - Force , a unit responsible for searching for Nazi scientists and enemy military technology . Urquhart captured the German nuclear scientist Wilhelm Groth . United Nations . Urquhart was a member of the British diplomatic staff involved in the setting - up of the United Nations in 1945 , assisting the Executive Committee of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in establishing the administrative framework of the organization that had been created by the U . N . Charter . He subsequently became an aide to Trygve Lie , the first Secretary - General of the United Nations . Urquhart helped handle the administrative and logistical challenges involved in getting the U . N . established in New York City . Not particularly well liked by Lie , Urquhart was subsequently moved to a minor U . N . administrative post . However , when Dag Hammarskjöld became the second Secretary - General in 1953 , he appointed Urquhart as one of his main advisors . He loyally served by Hammarskjold ' s side until the latter ' s death in 1961 , admiring him greatly in spite of admittedly never getting to know him very well on a personal level . During the Suez Crisis of 1956 , Urquhart played a critical role in creating what turned out to be the first major U . N . effort towards conflict resolution and peacekeeping . Urquhart , as the only major advisor of Hammarskjold ' s with military experience , took the lead in organizing the first U . N . peacekeeping force , which was designed to separate the Egyptian and Israeli forces then fighting one another in the Sinai Peninsula . To differentiate the peacekeepers from other soldiers , the U . N . wanted to have the soldiers wear blue beret s . When that turned out to take six weeks to make , Urquhart proposed the characteristic blue helmets , which could be converted in a day by painting over regular ones . In the early 1960s , Urquhart served as the main U . N . representative in the Congo , succeeding his friend Ralph Bunche . His efforts to stabilize the war - torn country were hampered by the chaos created by innumerable warring factions . At one point , Urquhart was abducted , brutally beaten , and threatened with death by undisciplined Katangese troops . He only survived after persuading his captors that his death would bring retribution by U . N . Gurkha troops , whom the Katangans greatly feared . As Undersecretary - General , Urquhart ' s main functions were the direction of peacekeeping forces in the Middle East and Cyprus , and negotiations in these two areas ; amongst others , his contributions also included work on the negotiations relating to a Namibia peace settlement , negotiations in Kashmir , Lebanon and work on peaceful uses for nuclear energy . Alongside his autobiography , " A Life in Peace and War " , his work with Erskine B Childers includes several books of methods which he believes would make the United Nations more effective . In " Renewing the United Nations System " , he recommended the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly through Article 22 of the United Nations Charter . His book " Decolonization and World Peace " is based on his 1988 Tom Slick world peace lectures that he gave at the Lyndon B . Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas , Austin . The appendices offer further insight into his views on the peacekeeping potential of the United Nations . Included are his remarks at the Nobel Prize banquet in Norway on the occasion of the award of the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations Peace - Keeping Forces . He also wrote biographies of Dag Hammarskjöld and Ralph Bunche . Lectures . " Reflections on the United Nations : Interviews of Sir Brian Urquhart by Ms . Virginia Morris , Principal Legal Officer Codification Division , United Nations Office of Legal Affairs " in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law