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 ...

Ronald Walton Urquhart CB DSO (26 March 1906 – 19 April 1968) 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 became Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Early life

Urquhart was the son of W. L. A. W. Urquhart, Esq, of

Montevideo, Uruguay Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. He was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

and at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. He then attended 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 ...

, earning the rank of Senior Under Officer. He was also awarded the Sword of Honour. He finished his young officer coursework at Chatham and at Pembroke College.

Military career

He 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 ...

in 1925.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> 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 ...

he served in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and North West Europe, being awarded the DSO for his services in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. After the War he became Director of Combined Operations and then, from 1953, Commander of 35th Infantry Brigade. He went on to be Chief of Staff at Western Command in 1956 and Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst between 1957 and 1960.

Personal life

He married Jean Moir in 1945 and had children David and Jane. He died on 19 April 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urquart, Ronald 1906 births 1968 deaths British Army major generals People educated at Bedford School Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers Companions of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Commandants of Sandhurst British Army personnel of World War II