General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Sir (John) Noel Thomas KCB DSO MC (28 February 1915 – 16 March 1983) was a

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 ...

Military career

Thomas was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1936. He served in

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 ...

latterly as Commander Royal Engineers for the

Guards Armoured Division The Guards Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army during the Second World War. The division was created in the United Kingdom on 17 June 1941 during the Second World War from elements of the Guards units, the Grenadier ...

in North West Europe. He was appointed General Officer Commanding 42nd (Lancashire) Division/District of the Territorial Army in 1963 and then became Director of Combat Development (Army) at the Ministry of Defence in 1965. He was appointed Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Operational Requirements) in 1968 and

in 1971; in this capacity he was also a member of the Procurement Executive Organisation formed by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

that year. He retired in 1974. He also served as Colonel 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, in ...

from 1968 to 1976.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Noel 1915 births 1983 deaths British Army generals British Army personnel of World War II Royal Engineers officers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Pioneer Corps officers