John Anstice
Brigadier John Henry Anstice DSO & Bar (25 October 1897 – 10 February 1970) was a British Army officer who commanded numerous brigades during World War II. Military career Anstice was commissioned into the Royal Tank Corps on 7 April 1916 and from August that year he saw service in France and Belgium until the end of the First World War. In October 1922, he was transferred to the 5th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Between January 1934 and September 1937, Anstice was adjutant of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry, a Scots Territorial Army unit. In 1939, he returned to the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, this time as Commanding Officer, taking the unit to France. In 1940, Anstice was appointed commander of 30th Armoured Brigade before transferring to command the 7th Armoured Brigade in 1941. As part of the Persia and Iraq Command, Brigadier Anstice commanded the Brigade in Egypt, Ceylon, Burma, India, Iraq, Palestine and Syria. In 1944, he transferred again t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prestwick
Prestwick ( gd, Preastabhaig) is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about south, and the small village of Monkton, Ayrshire, Monkton to the north. It had a population of 14,901 at the 2011 census. The town is served by Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which serves many European destinations as well as transatlantic and other international cargo flights. The town was the first home of The Open Championship, the Open Golf Championship, which was played on the Prestwick Golf Club, Prestwick Old Course from 1860 to 1872. History Prestwick's name comes from the Old English for, ''priest's farm'': ''preost'' meaning "priest" and ''wic'' meaning "farm". The town was originally an outlying farm of a religious house. George T. Flom suggested that the name was of Old Norse origin. In this case, it would mean "priest's bay". From ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. Since 1993 it has been awarded specifically for 'highly successful command and leadership during active operations', with all ranks being eligible. History Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria in a royal warrant published in ''The London Gazette'' on 9 November, the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886. The order was established to reward individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It was a military order, until recently for officers only and typically awarded to officers ranked major (or equivalent) or higher, with awards to ranks below this usually for a high degree of gallantry, just short of deserving the Victoria Cross. Whilst normally given for service un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explains, the English spellings of both Myanmar and Burma assume a non-rhotic variety of English, in which the letter r before a consonant or finally serves merely to indicate a long vowel: mjænmɑː, ˈbɜːmə So the pronunciation of the last syllable of Myanmar as ɑːror of Burma as ɜːrməby some speakers in the UK and most speakers in North America is in fact a spelling pronunciation based on a misunderstanding of non-rhotic spelling conventions. The final ''r'' in ''Myanmar'' was not intended for pronunciation and is there to ensure that the final a is pronounced with the broad ''ah'' () in "father". If the Burmese name my, မြန်မာ, label=none were spelled "Myanma" in English, this would be pronounced at the end by all ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long established groups include the Moors, the Burghers, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, ur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Persia And Iraq Command
The Persia and Iraq Command was a command of the British Army established during the Second World War in September 1942 in Baghdad. Its primary role was to secure from land and air attack the oilfields and oil installations in Persia (officially Iran) and Iraq. Its further role was to ensure the transport of supplies from Persian Gulf ports through Iraq and Persia to the Soviet Union. Background During the rebellion in Iraq the command of land forces in the country was passed from GHQ India to Middle East Command, as the latter was the only formation that could send effective support for operations in northern Iraq and also because air operations were controlled by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Middle East.Playfair, p. 128 In June 1941 following the conclusion of fighting in Iraq command was passed back to the Commander-in-Chief, India (C-in-C, India). The British Chiefs of Staff wished to return control of land forces in Iraq back to Middle East Command but d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Territorial Army (United Kingdom)
The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. The Army Reserve was known as the Territorial Force from 1908 to 1921, the Territorial Army (TA) from 1921 to 1967, the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) from 1967 to 1979, and again the Territorial Army (TA) from 1979 to 2014. The Army Reserve was created as the Territorial Force in 1908 by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane, when the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 combined the previously civilian-administered Volunteer Force, with the mounted Yeomanry (at the same time the Militia was renamed the Special Reserve). Haldane planned a volunteer "Territorial Force", to provide a second line for the six divisions of the Expeditionary Force which he was establishing as the centerpiece of the Regular Army. The Territorial Force was to be comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lanarkshire Yeomanry
The Lanarkshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1819, which served as a dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two field artillery regiments in the Second World War, before being amalgamated into The Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956. Its lineage was revived by B (Lanarkshire and Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry) Squadron, the Scottish Yeomanry in 1992 until that unit was disbanded in 1999. History Formation and early history The units which would become the regiment were first raised in 1819, as independent troops of yeomanry around Lanarkshire. The five existing troops were regimented in 1848 as the Upper Ward and Airdrie Corps of Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, later retitled as the Lanarkshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry. Second Boer War The Yeomanry was not intended to serve overseas, but due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December 1899, the British government realized they were going to need ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Adjutant
Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commissioned officer rank similar to a staff sergeant or warrant officer but is not equivalent to the role or appointment of an adjutant. An adjutant general is commander of an army's administrative services. Etymology Adjutant comes from the Latin ''adiutāns'', present participle of the verb ''adiūtāre'', frequentative form of ''adiuvāre'' 'to help'; the Romans actually used ''adiūtor'' for the noun. Military and paramilitary appointment In various uniformed hierarchies, the term is used for number of functions, but generally as a principal aide to a commanding officer. A regimental adjutant, garrison adjutant etc. is a staff officer who assists the commanding officer of a regiment, battalion or garrison in the details of regimental, g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. It served in the Second World War and the Korean War. In August 1992, as a consequence of the Options for Change defence cuts, the regiment was amalgamated with the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards to form the Royal Dragoon Guards. History Formation The regiment was formed in 1922, as the 5th/6th Dragoons, at Cairo, Egypt by the amalgamation of the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. In 1923, the regiment was deployed to Risalpur, India. In 1927, the regiment discarded the "6th" and inserted Inniskilling into its title, thereby becoming the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. In the following year, the regiment moved to the UK for the first time, as the 5th Dragoon Guards. In 1935, it gained the Royal accolade to become ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Tank Corps
The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, it is part of the Royal Armoured Corps. History First World War The formation of the Royal Tank Regiment followed the invention of the tank. Tanks were first used at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. They were at first considered artillery, and crews received artillery pay. At that time the six tank companies were grouped as the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps (MGC). In November 1916 the eight companies then in existence were each expanded to form battalions (still identified by the letters A to H) and designated the Heavy Branch MGC; another seven battalions, I to O, were formed by January 1918, when all the battalions ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Officer (armed Forces)
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contextual qualification, the term typically refers only to a force's ''commissioned officers'', the more senior members who derive their authority from a commission from the head of state. Numbers The proportion of officers varies greatly. Commissioned officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel. In 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13.7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, and about 17.2% of the United States armed forces. Historically, however, armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers (partly ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |