Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

John Francis Metcalfe, (30 June 1908 – 11 June 1975) was a

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 ...

officer who served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and later became General Officer Commanding Aldershot District.

Military career

Educated at Radley College 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 infantry a ...

,Queen's Royal Surreys (Archived)
/ref> Metcalfe was commissioned into the

Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

in 1928.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> By the outbreak of the

in September 1939, Metcalfe was attending the Staff College, Quetta, later becoming an instructor at the college, in 1942. He was appointed

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment in 1944 and brigadier responsible for maintenance at Headquarters Allied Land Forces in South East Asia in 1945. After the war Metcalfe became colonel in charge of administration for the South Wales District from 1946, then an instructor at the Joint Services Staff College from 1947. He was appointed commanding officer of the 1st Battalion the

East Surrey Regiment The East Surrey Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, the 70th ...

in 1949 and then became a brigadier on the General Staff at Western Command in 1951. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1954. He was made commander of the 2nd Federation Infantry Brigade in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

in 1955 and Director of Personnel Administration at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in 1958. He was appointed General Officer Commanding Aldershot District in 1961 and retired in 1963. Metcalfe was also Colonel of the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment from 1959 to 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metcalfe, John 1908 births 1975 deaths Academics of the Staff College, Quetta Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta People educated at Radley College Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire East Surrey Regiment officers British Army major generals Queen's Royal Regiment officers British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst British Army brigadiers of World War II