Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

Gerald Ernest Thubron DSO OBE (13 July 1903 – 6 September 1992) was an officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Biography

Born the son of Olympic boatsman Emile Thubron in London, Gerald Thubron was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

and was given a commission in the

North Staffordshire Regiment The North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was created on 21 April 1758 from the 2nd Battalio ...

in 1924. In 1942 he fought with the First British Infantry Division in the Tunisian campaign and in January 1944 was General Staff Officer of the division which spearheaded the Allied landing at Anzio. He was awarded an OBE in 1944, followed by a DSO in 1945 as commander of the North Staffordshires in the ensuing Italian campaign, and by the end of the war had been promoted Brigade commander. After the war he served as Commandant of the Senior Officers' School for two years and was then Senior Army Liaison Officer in Canada. He retired as Deputy Director of Military Training at the War Office in 1956. He was given the colonelcy of the North Staffordshires in 1958 until the amalgamation with the

South Staffordshire Regiment The South Staffordshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for only 68 years. The regiment was created in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot an ...

in 1959. He returned in 1961 to serve as Colonel of the resultant

Staffordshire Regiment The Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales') (or simply "Staffords" for short) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. The regiment was formed in 1959 by the amalgamation of the South Staffordshire Re ...

until 1966. He died in Piltdown, East Sussex in 1992. He had married Eve Dryden and had two children; his son is the writer

Colin Thubron Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron, FRAS (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'',

References

External links

Generals of World War II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thubron, Gerald 1903 births 1992 deaths British Army brigadiers of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst North Staffordshire Regiment officers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Lancing College Military personnel from London Staffordshire Regiment officers Commandants of the Senior Officers' School, Sheerness