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 Roderick William McLeod, (15 January 1905 – 6 December 1980) 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 Gur ...

officer who achieved high office in the 1950s.

Military career

Educated at Wellington College 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 Si ...

, McLeod was commissioned into the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

on 28 January 1925.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He saw service during the Khajuri Plains operations on the North West Frontier of India between 1930 and 1932. McLeod 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and was

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latit ...

of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment,

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and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in 1943, moving on to be Deputy Commander

1st Parachute Brigade The 1st Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade formed by the British Army during the Second World War. As its name indicates, the unit was the first Paratrooper, parachute infantry brigade formation in the British Army. Formed from thre ...

later that year. He was then made the first commander of the

Special Air Service Brigade The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-t ...

from 1944 to 1945. After the war McLeod became Director of Military Operations in India from 1945 to 1947. He was appointed Assistant Commandant at the Staff College in 1948 and then Commander

for 7th Armoured Division, which was then part of

British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility locate ...

in 1950. He went on to be Director of Military Operations at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (MoD ...

in 1951 and then General Officer Commanding

6th Armoured Division The 6th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, created in September 1940 during the Second World War and re-formed in May 1951 in the UK. History The division was formed in the United Kingdom under Northern Command on ...

in 1955. He was made Chief Army Instructor at the

Imperial Defence College The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest level ...

in 1957 and

Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff The Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff is a senior United Kingdom, British military officer who reports to the Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of the Defence Staff and Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Vice-Chief of ...

at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

later that year. He became Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong in 1960. McLeod was also General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Eastern Command from 1962; during his time at Eastern Command he chaired the

McLeod Reorganisation of Army Logistics The McLeod Reorganisation of Army Logistics was a major reorganisation of the British Army in the 1960s, principally affecting the Royal Engineers (RE), Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC). Its principal outcome wa ...

Committee which recommended re-organisation of the Logistic Services of the British Army: this led to the formation of the

Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider Defence community. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and ...

in 1965. He retired in 1965. McLeod lived at

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

in Surrey and from 1966 to his death was Chairman of the Hockering Residents' Association.

Family

In 1933 McLeod married Camilla Rachel Hunter Fell, who died in 1942. Then in 1946 he married Mary Vavasour Lloyd Thomas MBE, daughter of Dr Henry Lloyd Driver and his wife Amy Vavasour Berridge. She was the widow of Captain Henry Cecil Augustus Heyman, who died at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alde ...

in 1935, and of Major Robert Jocelyn Henry Thomas MVO, killed in action at

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near t ...

in 1941. She was born in 1909 and died in 2000 in Surrey.

References

External links

Generals of World War II
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McLeod, Roderick 1905 births 1980 deaths British Army generals Royal Artillery officers Special Air Service officers Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich British Army brigadiers of World War II Academics of the Staff College, Camberley