Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces was a senior officer in the

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 Gurkha ...

during the First and

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 opposi ...

s. The role of the appointment was firstly to oversee the

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and

equipment Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tools or other objects commonly used to achieve a particular objective. Different job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and ...

of formations in preparation for their deployment overseas, and secondly, to command the forces required to defend the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

against an enemy incursion or invasion.

The First World War

The post was created for

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

John French, 1st Earl of Ypres Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, (28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925), known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer. Born in Kent t ...

in December 1915, after his enforced resignation as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in the aftermath of the

Battle of Loos The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...

. Bitterly disappointed, Lord French regarded the appointment as a demotion. Despite this, he energetically restructured the system of military training, drew up plans to defend the country against a German invasion and devised the first British air defence system, so that incoming

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

s and bombers could be tracked and countered by fighters and

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

Commanders-in-Chief, Home Forces, 1915 to 1921

* Field Marshal Lord French – December 1915 to May 1918 * Field Marshal Sir William Robertson – 1918 to 1919 * Field Marshal Lord Haig – 1919 to 1921

The Second World War

The post of Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces was resurrected for Sir Walter Kirke on 3 September 1939. He devised the first anti-invasion plan of the war in October, known as Operation Julius Caesar. His successor, Sir Edmund Ironside was replaced by Sir

Alan Brooke Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, (23 July 1883 – 17 June 1963), was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, during the Sec ...

in July 1940. The headquarters was established at Kneller Hall in late 1939 but moved out to St Paul's School in July 1940.

Commanders-in-Chief, Home Forces, 1939 to 1945

* General Sir Walter Kirke – September 1939 to May 1940 * General Sir Edmund Ironside – May to July 1940 * General Sir

– July 1940 to December 1941 * General Sir Bernard Paget – December 1941 to January 1944 * General Sir

Harold Franklyn General Sir Harold Edmund Franklyn, (28 November 1885 − 31 March 1963) was a British Army officer who fought in both the First and the Second World Wars. He is most notable for his command of the 5th Infantry Division during the Battle of F ...

– January 1944 to 1945Place, 2000, p. 6

References

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