Sleeping bag issued during the Malayan Emergency to Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, 1952 (c)

In February 1952, following the assassination of the local High Commissioner, he was sent to Malaya to assume control of both the civil government and military operations. There he faced a communist insurgency led by the Malayan Races Liberation Army. Templer combined vigorous military operations against the insurgents' jungle bases with political reforms designed to win 'hearts and minds' (Templer is credited with coining this phrase) of the Malayan community. The campaign was a striking success, and it is still studied today as model of how such operations should be conducted. When he relinquished his post in October 1954, government control over most of the country had been re-established. Templer was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1955, and created a field marshal in 1956.