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 ...

John Henry Anstice DSO & Bar (25 October 1897 – 10 February 1970) 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 An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

who commanded numerous brigades during

World War II 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 opposing ...

Military career

Anstice was commissioned into the

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 t ...

on 7 April 1916 and from August that year he saw service in France and Belgium until the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. 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 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 am ...

, 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 BrigadeOrders of Battle
/ref> before transferring to command the

7th Armoured Brigade 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

in 1941. As part of the

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 ...

, Brigadier Anstice commanded the Brigade in

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 Medit ...

, Ceylon,

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 explai ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, Palestine and Syria. In 1944, he transferred again to command 8th Armoured Brigade. Later that year, he was made Head Liaison Officer at Headquarters, 21st Army Group in

Northwest Europe Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern and Western Europe. The region can be defined both geographically and ethnographically. Geographic definitions Geographically, Northw ...

and then he became a General Staff Officer for Home Forces. Although he had commanded several brigades, this had been as a temporary brigadier; his substantive rank had been colonel. On 29 August 1948, he was promoted to

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 ...

. Anstice retired on 2 August 1949. His elder daughter Sally Ann Wemyss Anstice (died 2015), former wife of Colonel Fikret Jemal (died 2018), married second Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne in 1959.

References

External links

British Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anstice, John 1897 births 1970 deaths Scottish military personnel 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army brigadiers of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order People from Prestwick Royal Tank Regiment officers