Bernard Paget

General Sir Bernard Charles Tolver Paget, (15 September 1887 – 16 February 1961) was a British Army officer who served with distinction in the First World War, and then later during the Second World War, when he commanded the 21st Army Group from June to December 1943 and was Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Middle East Command from January 1944 to October 1946. He was the senior serving general in the British Army and, in Richard Mead's words, "he was possibly the most talented and well-qualified senior British general never to have held a top active service field command, but his contribution to the development of the Army during the War was nevertheless immense." Early life and First World War Paget was born in Oxford, the son of the Right Reverend Francis Paget, second son of Sir James Paget, 1st Baronet, and was educated at Shrewsbury School from 1901 to 1906 and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst from 1906–1907. Paget was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Oxfordshire Light Infantry on 13 November 1907, which became the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (or shortened to OBLI or Ox and Bucks) in 1908. Paget was posted on 15 December 1907 to the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry (52nd) at Tidworth, Wiltshire. On 5 February 1908 he transferred to the 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry (43rd) at Lucknow, India. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910. On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 he was appointed adjutant of the new 5th (Service) Battalion of the Ox and Bucks stationed at Aldershot, composed mainly of volunteers for Kitchener's Army. After several months of training, Paget went with the battalion to the Western Front in May 1915. He was promoted to captain on 10 June 1915. The battalion was serving as part of the 42nd Brigade, itself part of the 14th (Light) Division. On 25 September 1915, Paget and his battalion took part in the Battle of Loos; he was one of only two officers in the battalion to survive the battle, out of a strength of seventeen, while out of 767 other ranks 180 returned. The other surviving officer was the battalion's commanding officer (CO), Lieutenant Colonel V. T. Bailey, who had been Paget's company commander at Sandhurst some years earlier. On 30 September 1915 he took over temporary command of the battalion while Bailey went on leave. He left the battalion to become the 42nd Brigade's brigade major on 20 November 1915.