Lord Carver dies aged 86

Lord Carver was regarded as a great military thinker

Field Marshal Lord Carver, once Britain's top military officer and a leading critic of nuclear weapons, has died aged 86.

After joining the Royal Tanks Corps in 1935, Michael Carver became a highly decorated World War Two veteran before scaling the heights of the military.

But despite his valour, his progressive ideas about the role of the British military may be his abiding legacy.

After the war, he spent 25 years in senior staff appointments in East Africa, Cyprus and the Far East.

'Catastrophic'

He was made chief of general staff in 1971 and then promoted to field marshal from 1973 to 1976.

In later life, he spent a distinguished time serving in the House of Lords and writing books on the military.

Lord Carver disdained nuclear weapons, which he thought of as blunt and expensive instruments.

In 1996, he said: "The destructiveness of nuclear weapons is so great, and their use so catastrophic, that they have no military utility against a comparably equipped opponent other than the belief that they deter such an opponent from using his nuclear weapons."

Ahead of his time, he favoured cutting Britain's military presence outside Europe, contending that the country could no longer police the Middle and Far East.

Carver: highly decorated

And he preferred military spending to go on a small, skilled Army, rather than conscript a large and unwieldy force.

He was also a critic of Nato, which he regarded as a means for the United States to demonstrate its superiority over the other allied forces.

As chairman of the Lords' science and technology committee, Lord Carver regarded the government as complacent about global warming and called for more research into climate change.

He passed away at home in Hampshire on 9 December, and is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.