1. Brian Horrocks served in the First World War and the Russian Civil War, was taken prisoner twice, and competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
60 Facts About Brian Horrocks
1. 2.
In 1940 Horrocks commanded a battalion during the Battle of France, the first time he served under Bernard Montgomery, the most prominent British commander of the war.
3.
In 1943, Brian Horrocks was seriously wounded and took more than a year to recover before returning to command a corps in Europe.
4.
Brian Horrocks' wound continued to impair his health and led to his early retirement from the army after the war.
5.
Since 1945, Brian Horrocks has been regarded by some as one of the most successful British generals of the war, "a man who really led, a general who talked to everyone, down to the simplest private soldier" and the "beau ideal of a corps commander".
6.
Brian Gwynne Horrocks was the only son of Colonel Sir William Horrocks, a Lancashire born doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and his wife, Minna Horrocks, "who had all the gaiety and charm of the Irish".
7.
Brian Horrocks later wrote that, as his life was devoted almost entirely to sport, he had very little aptitude for hard work.
8.
Brian Horrocks entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in October 1912, "bottom but one".
9.
Brian Horrocks was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Middlesex Regiment, a line infantry regiment of the British Army, on 8 August 1914.
10.
Brian Horrocks' captors refused to change his clothes or sheets, and denied him and a fellow officer basic amenities.
11.
Brian Horrocks was promoted to lieutenant on 18 December 1914, despite being in enemy hands, and often tried to escape, once coming within 500 yards of the Dutch border before being recaptured.
12.
Brian Horrocks was eventually placed in a compound for Russian officers, in the hope that the language barrier would hinder his escape attempts; Horrocks used the time to learn the Russian language.
13.
Brian Horrocks went on sprees in London, spending four years of accumulated back-pay in six weeks.
14.
In 1919 Brian Horrocks was posted to Russia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
15.
The journey took more than a month, and as the only party member fluent in Russian, Brian Horrocks had to deal with many of the difficulties encountered.
16.
Brian Horrocks accepted an invitation to act as a second, but the pair were arrested before the duel could take place.
17.
Brian Horrocks managed to defuse the situation before it came to trial, by claiming his faulty Russian had been the cause of the misunderstanding.
18.
Brian Horrocks found this post frustrating, having to dismiss nearly a third of his initial cadre on medical grounds, and struggling to get supplies and support from the White Army authorities.
19.
The White Army was in retreat, and Brian Horrocks joined them as they fell back to Vladivostok, 3,000 miles away.
20.
Brian Horrocks rejoined the 1st Battalion of his regiment, based in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine.
21.
Brian Horrocks then followed the battalion back to the United Kingdom during the 1921 coal strike, then to Ireland, which was then embroiled in the Anglo-Irish War.
22.
Brian Horrocks's duties included searching for arms and dealing with ambushes and roadblocks, which he called "a most unpleasant form of warfare".
23.
On his return to Britain, Brian Horrocks took up the modern pentathlon.
24.
Brian Horrocks competed successfully in army tournaments, and was picked for the British Olympic team for the 1924 Paris Olympics, where he finished 19th out of 38.
25.
The Territorial Army posting, which Brian Horrocks considered to be among his happiest periods, provided experience in dealing with citizen soldiers, "those truly remarkable people, the British territorials", which would prove highly valuable during the Second World War.
26.
Brian Horrocks received a brevet majority in 1935, and was promoted to substantive major in 1936, and brevet lieutenant colonel in 1937.
27.
In 1928, Brian Horrocks married Nancy Kitchin, daughter of an architect for the Local Government Board.
28.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Brian Horrocks was working as an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, where he had taught since 1938.
29.
Brian Horrocks was promoted to substantive colonel on 28 May 1941.
30.
Brian Horrocks, an infantry soldier with no experience in dealing with cavalry, was an unusual choice for commander of an armoured division.
31.
Brian Horrocks trained the division hard, organising exercises to improve the effectiveness of his troops, and to familiarise himself with armoured warfare.
32.
Brian Horrocks had been in my 3rd Division as a battalion commander; I had got him a brigade and then a division in my corps in England; I now wanted him to have a corps in my Army.
33.
Brian Horrocks prepared for a purely defensive battle, with his armour dug in around the ridge.
34.
The army's defensive success raised morale, and Brian Horrocks was praised by his subordinate, Brigadier Philip Roberts, for his "wonderful knack of inspiring confidence and enthusiasm wherever he goes".
35.
Brian Horrocks refused it, believing that Major-General Herbert Lumsden, a cavalry officer, would be more suited to the role.
36.
Brian Horrocks was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order on 31 December 1942 "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East".
37.
Brian Horrocks carried out a flanking manoeuvre through a pass judged by the Germans to be impenetrable, rendering the Mareth position untenable and forcing the Axis into another retreat.
38.
Brian Horrocks led this corps in the final Allied offensive in Tunisia during April and May 1943, capturing Tunis and accepting the surrender of the remnants of Rommel's Army Group Africa.
39.
Brian Horrocks was given the rank of temporary lieutenant-general and war substantive major-general.
40.
In June 1943, after returning to command of X Corps, Brian Horrocks sustained serious injuries during an air raid at Bizerte, while watching an amphibious rehearsal by the 46th Infantry Division for Operation Avalanche, the Salerno landings.
41.
Brian Horrocks was replaced as GOC of X Corps by Lieutenant-General Sir Richard McCreery.
42.
Brian Horrocks regretted this after the war believing that his corps might have advanced another 100 miles with the fuel available.
43.
The terrain over which Brian Horrocks' men had to move was unsuitable, restricting the vanguard to a single narrow raised highway through flat or flooded countryside.
44.
Brian Horrocks was truly a unique general officer and his qualities of leadership were greater than any I have ever seen.
45.
In lecturing at the American service school I stated frequently that General Brian Horrocks was the finest general officer I met during the war, and the finest corps commander.
46.
Brian Horrocks later said that this had been "the most terrible decision I had ever taken in my life" and that he felt "physically sick" when he saw the bombers overhead.
47.
Brian Horrocks received two further mentions in despatches for his service in north-west Europe on 22 March and 9 August 1945, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 5 July.
48.
Brian Horrocks was honoured by the governments of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and the United States.
49.
On 12 April 1945, Brian Horrocks met with two German officers just outside the town of Winsen during a ceasefire.
50.
Brian Horrocks continued to serve in the armed forces after the war, initially as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command, receiving substantive promotion to lieutenant-general in 1946, with seniority backdated to 29 December 1944.
51.
Brian Horrocks briefly commanded the British Army of the Rhine, until he fell ill in August 1948; he was invalided out of the service early in January 1949 by the lingering effects of the wounds he had received in North Africa.
52.
In 1957, Brian Horrocks had the unusual duty of ordering Vivien Leigh out of the House when she interrupted proceedings to plead that the St James's Theatre be saved from demolition.
53.
On other occasions, because the Black Rod had to remain in place during long debates, Brian Horrocks relieved his boredom by completing football pools coupons.
54.
Brian Horrocks became interested in writing, and submitted articles about military matters to newspapers and magazines including the Picture Post and The Sunday Times.
55.
Brian Horrocks was interviewed extensively for the Thames Television series, The World at War, and, to his embarrassment, appeared on the cover of the BBC's Radio Times magazine.
56.
Brian Horrocks acted as a military consultant for the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, based on Operation Market Garden.
57.
Brian Horrocks was a character in the film, played by Edward Fox.
58.
Brian Horrocks was a very particular type of general and it was important that I play the role correctly.
59.
Brian Horrocks specifically requested a simple ceremony involving no hymns or flowers and just a plain coffin.
60.
Brian Horrocks's body was cremated but his cremated remains were left at the crematorium, near Chichester, until 2022 when the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, a successor to his own Middlesex Regiment, arranged for their private burial at St Paul's Church in Mill Hill.