Major General Denis Redman, who joined the Army after becoming bored with installing electric power circuits, has died shortly after his 99th birthday.

Major Redman was born in Rochester, Kent, to Captain Arthur Redman of the Royal Engineers and his wife Vera. After leaving Wellington College he studied electrical engineering at London University.

His first job was as an apprentice with the Midland Electric Light and Power Company, converting domestic houses from gas to electric lighting.

But this soon palled and in 1934 he was commissioned into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps as an ordnance mechanical engineer.

He became Officer Commanding Light Aid Detachment to 6 Royal Tank Corps in Palestine and was mentioned in dispatches. He went on to command the Recovery Company of the Desert Rats.

After attending staff college in Haifa he was appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at GHQ Middle East Land Forces. He was again mentioned in dispatches in 1941 and was awarded the OBE in 1942.

In 1943 he became an Assistant Quartermaster General at the War Office and was made a Brigadier at the early age of 34.

Also in 1943 he married his fiance Penny, spending a few days in Cornwall before returning to war duties.

The couple had two children, Anne, born in 1944 and Jeremy, born in 1949.

General Redman had an illustrious military career, much of it with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), before retiring in 1968.

In civilian life he was military adviser to Sperry Gyroscope for three years, then served as chairman of Civil Service selection boards for professional engineers and as General Commissioner of Income Tax.

He and Mrs Redman moved to Ramsbury in 1980 and General Redman was president of the local branch of the Royal British Legion from 1984 to 1995.

He was a connoisseur of antique clocks and watches and in retirement studied, restored and repaired them.