Lieutenant-General Sir Derek Boorman (13 September 1930 – 25 April 2025) was a British Army officer.
Military career Educated at Wolstanton Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,Debrett's People of Today 1994 Boorman was commissioned into the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1950. He was Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General at Headquarters 48th Gurkha Infantry Brigade and subsequently Commander of 51st Brigade in Hong Kong.
He was appointed Director of Military Operations at the Ministry of Defence in 1980 and Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong in 1982. He went on to be Chief of Defence Intelligence in 1985: in that capacity he took the view that Mikhail Gorbachev's proposals for internal reform and deep cuts in missile stocks were genuine.Obituary: Sir Antony Duff The Guardian, 18 August 2000 He retired from the British Army in 1988.
He was also Colonel of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles from 1983 to 1988 and Colonel of the Staffordshire Regiment from 1985 to 1990.
Boorman was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London in 1989, holding office until 1992.
Boorman was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1982 Birthday Honours, and promoted to Knight Commander of the Order (KCB) in the 1986 New Year Honours.
Retirement and death In October 1992 he was appointed a Member of the Government's Security Commission and in 1996 he accused Government Ministers of being untruthful in their evidence to the Arms to Iraq Inquiry.Intelligence chief accuses ministers over Scott report The Independent, 10 February 1996 He retired from the Security Commission in 1998.Butlerslossed
In 1994 he became Chairman of the Royal Hospitals Trust – a post he held until 1998.Bats, the General and the Fat Controller British Medical Journal, 1995 Then in 2000 he became a Deputy Pro-Chancellor of the University of Kent.University of Kent
Boorman died on 25 April 2025, at the age of 94.Boorman The Telegraph
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