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Brian Horrocks

Sir Brian Horrocks
Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks commanding XIII Corps in North Africa, 1942
Nickname(s)"Jorrocks"[a]
Born(1895-09-07)7 September 1895
Ranikhet, India
Died4 January 1985(1985-01-04) (aged 89)
Fishbourne, West Sussex, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1913–1949
RankLieutenant-general
Service number5821
UnitMiddlesex Regiment
CommandsBritish Army of the Rhine (1948)
Western Command (1946–48)
XXX Corps (1944–45)
IX Corps (1943)
X Corps (1942–43)
XIII Corps (1942)
9th Armoured Division (1942)
44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division (1941–42)
9th Infantry Brigade (1940–41)
2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (1940)
Battles / warsFirst World War
Russian Civil War
Anglo Irish War
Second World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order
Military Cross
Mentioned in Despatches (3)[2][3][4]
Commander of the Order of George I (Greece)
Knight Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)
Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown with Palm (Belgium)
Croix de Guerre (Belgium)
Commandeur of the Legion of Honour (France)
Croix de Guerre (France)
Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)
Other workBlack Rod
Television presenter
Author

Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks, KCB, KBE, DSO, MC (7 September 1895 – 4 January 1985) was a British Army officer, chiefly remembered as the commander of XXX Corps in Operation Market Garden and other operations during the Second World War. He also served in the First World War and the Russian Civil War, was taken prisoner twice, and competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Later he was a television presenter, wrote books on military history, and was Black Rod in the House of Lords for 14 years.

In 1940 Horrocks commanded a battalion during the Battle of France, the first time he served under Bernard Montgomery, the most prominent British commander of the war. Montgomery later identified Horrocks as one of his most able officers, appointing him to corps commands in both North Africa and Europe. In 1943, Horrocks was seriously wounded and took more than a year to recover before returning to command a corps in Europe. It is likely that this period out of action meant he missed out on promotion;[5] his contemporary corps commanders in North Africa, Oliver Leese and Miles Dempsey, went on to command at army level and above. Horrocks' wound continued to impair his health and led to his early retirement from the army after the war.

Since 1945, Horrocks has been regarded by some as one of the most successful British generals of the war, "a man who really led, a general who talked to everyone, down to the simplest private soldier" and the "beau ideal of a corps commander".[6][7]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Western Europe, called him "the outstanding British general under Montgomery".[8]

  1. ^ Mead 2007, p. 213.
  2. ^ "No. 36065". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 June 1943. p. 2853.
  3. ^ "No. 36994". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 March 1945. p. 1548.
  4. ^ "No. 37213". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 August 1945. p. 4044.
  5. ^ Warner 1984, p. 77.
  6. ^ Granatstein 2005, p. 265.
  7. ^ Mead 2007, p. 210.
  8. ^ Warner 1984, p. 72.


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