 After commanding the 1st Welsh Guards in Aden and the Western Protectorate, he found the job in the Ministry of Defence tedious and was thinking of leaving the Army when, out of the blue, he was appointed Commander Land Forces, Gulf, as a Brigadier, in 1969.By then the Aden base had been abandoned and the British Headquarters in the Middle East shifted to Bahrain.Abandonment of Aden and the Protectorate sheikhs caused the Gulf State rulers to look to their own guarantees from Britain and – especially those newly rich with oil – to a greater independence in their foreign affairs.