JohnBooth Brian Urquhart in New York in 2005. Photograph: John Chapple/REX/Shutterstock Brian Urquhart in New York in 2005. Photograph: John Chapple/REX/Shutterstock Tue 2 Feb 2021 12.36 EST Last modified on Tue 2 Feb 2021 20.05 EST In his autobiography, Brian Urquhart reflected on his failure in 1944 as chief intelligence officer of the British Airborne Division to prevent what he saw would be the disaster of the allied operation at Arnhem, in the Netherlands. He accepted that as a young man he could not expect to change a plan approved by political leaders and the military top brass, trusting too much that a rational argument supported by facts would carry the day.