Rafael Eitan politician soldier carpenter and farmer: born Tel Adashim Palestine 11 January 1929

Rafael Eitan, politician, soldier, carpenter and farmer: born Tel Adashim, Palestine 11 January 1929; Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army 1978-83; Minister of Agriculture 1990-91; twice married (three daughters, and two sons deceased); died Ashdod, Israel 23 November 2004.
Rafael Eitan, the earthy Chief of Staff who led his troops to a devious war in Lebanon in 1982, was the least complicated of Israel’s generals turned politician. Zeev Schiff, the dean of Tel Aviv military correspondents, wrote in Haaretz after Eitan’s drowning this week that he was “unequalled in his bravery, but naive in his behaviour”. Rafael Eitan, the earthy Chief of Staff who led his troops to a devious war in Lebanon in 1982, was the least complicated of Israel’s generals turned politician. He had a kindness and a degree of selflessness which are rarely encountered in the age in which we live.Kevin Brownlow. He was forever trying to understand another religion, enthusing over another novel or film, his seriousness undermined by subversive jokes. In recent months, he had returned to his true m?er, as a home tutor.Miles Halliwell was one of the finest men I have known.

He worked as a security guard, he delivered pizzas and worked for a survey firm. (He had a small part in The Gathering Storm, 1974.) He seemed too youthful to have retired, yet he lived in an ancient almshouse provided, as a sign of 1619 says, “for eight poor honest old impotent persons”. He’ll get you in the end.” And by “get you” they meant he would turn the rebel into an enthusiast for his subject.When he retired from teaching, he tried to break into professional films but found only extra roles, though he enjoyed these enormously. For many that knew his work, Miles’s great gift was his ability to perform this miracle.Halliwell had an unusual way with discipline At Grafham Grange, a new boy tried to disrupt his class The other pupils said to him, “You’re wasting your time.

With his discipline of gentleness, buttressed by patience and an iron determination not to yield to intimidation or hostility, Miles worked with his colleagues to rebuild the pupils’ lives. If there is a miracle, it is to give life and to give that life hope, opportunity and meaning. One of his Frensham Heights pupils, David Maclean-Thorne (now headmaster and psychologist at Whitstone Head School in Devon), who observed him at Grafham Grange, said: Miles found himself surrounded by young people who had severe difficulty in coping with the demands of daily life. Outside the classroom, his pupils were taken to unforgettable events like a Peter Brook production, a performance by Muddy Waters, an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery or to meet Krishnamurti.Then he joined Grafham Grange, near Guildford, a school for maladjusted children. He thought it would be good for her.”Aged 26 and by then a teacher at a secondary school in London, he met his future wife at a party: In the middle of dancing, he stopped, looked at me closely and asked, “What do you most value?” Though I was very immature, his question shocked out of me the response, “Compassion.” There was a quality in him even at 26 that was disconcerting He decided we should marry.

We lived in a basement flat in Clapham and a leaking houseboat on the Medway.From 1969 until 1974, Miles Halliwell taught at Frensham Heights School. Of another boy, our housemaster said, “You will go to prison and from there to hell”, but not to Miles He was naughty, never unkind or malicious He had house colours in everything except boxing. He hated violence even then.He left Epsom in 1949 and joined Doulton’s pottery in London. Hard to believe for those who knew him, he commuted in a grey suit, bowler hat and rolled umbrella.

The work did not appeal to him, and he joined Eugene Mollo, Andrew’s father, at his firm called Aerocem. “Miles had more and prettier girlfriends than any one else I know,” his brother says. “One rather smart one he took to dinner – at a fish-and-chip shop. William Halliwell says, He continued his career of crime at boarding school, but with a light heart. When we heard him read Winstanley’s words for the narration, they were so moving I knew we had made the right decision.Halliwell’s performance was highly praised – he was particularly touched by the glowing reviews he received when the film was recently re-released in the United States.Miles Halliwell was born in Farnham in 1931. His twin brother, William, remembers him as being “frequently in trouble” and playing truant from their prep school, Barfield: He was never bottom of his class, not quite, yet he was popular with his teachers and was a great athlete.At Epsom College, although his father was a GP, and his brother intended to be a doctor, Miles went on to the Modern Languages side. His natural delivery, on the other hand, conveyed a sincerity which would have been erased by another voice.