Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir John Guise Cowley, (20 August 1905 – 7 January 1993) 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 and

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, has been ...

recipient who reached high rank in the 1950s.

Military career

Cowley was born at

Mussoorie Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill st ...

, North

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 ...

, the son of an army chaplain. Returning to England as a baby, his early years were spent in a Dorset village, where his father was the rector. Educated at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

, Cowley was commissioned into the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

on 3 September 1925.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He was promoted to lieutenant on 3 September 1927. Posted to India, by 1935 Cowley was attached to the 16th Army Troops Company, 2nd Queen Victoria's Own Madras Sappers and Miners (now the

Madras Engineer Group Madras Engineer Group (MEG), informally known as the Madras Sappers, is an engineer group of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The Madras Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Madras Presidency army of the British Raj. This ...

of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

) in

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...

. Here he was awarded the Albert Medal, subsequently exchanged for the

, for his actions in rescuing survivors from the ruins of a collapsed hospital during the Quetta earthquake of May 1935. Cowley was promoted to captain on 3 September 1936. From 16 November 1936 to 17 December 1938, he was an instructor at Woolwich. He 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 ...

in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, Italy and North West Europe. He was promoted to major on 3 September 1942, and ended the war as a war-substantive lieutenant colonel and temporary brigadier, with promotion to colonel on 10 March 1949. In 1953 he became

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

at Headquarters Eastern Command, advancing to major-general in January 1954. He was then appointed Vice Quartermaster-General in 1956, Controller of Munitions at the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...

in 1957 on promotion to lieutenant-general, and appointment to

Master-General of the Ordnance The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...

in 1960; he retired in 1962. Cowley's honours included appointment as an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in 1943 and Commander (CBE) in 1946; Knight Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1947;

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

(CB) in 1954; and promotion to

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(KBE) in 1958. He exchanged his Albert Medal for the George Cross in 1971. He was also Colonel Commandant of the

Royal Pioneer Corps The Royal Pioneer Corps was a British Army combatant corps used for light engineering tasks. It was formed in 1939, and amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. Pioneer units performed a wide variety of tasks in all theatres of war, inc ...

from 1961 to 1968. In retirement, Cowley served as a director of a number of companies; as president of the New Forest Preservation Society and as chairman of the governors of Wellington College. He died of heart disease aged 87 on 7 January 1993 at

Brockenhurst Brockenhurst is the largest village by population within the New Forest in Hampshire, England. The nearest city is Southampton some to the North East, while Bournemouth is also nearby, South West. Surrounding towns and villages include Beaul ...

, Hampshire.

Family

In 1941 Cowley married Irene Sybil Millen and together they had one son and three daughters.

References

External links

The Papers of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cowley
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

Generals of World War II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowley, John 1905 births 1993 deaths British Army lieutenant generals British Army brigadiers of World War II Royal Engineers officers Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Bath Grand Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Recipients of the Albert Medal (lifesaving) Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Academics of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Military personnel of British India British recipients of the George Cross British people in colonial India