Lieutenant General Sir Henry Royds Pownall (1887-1961) was Chief of Staff to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), in France and Belgium, until the fall of France in May 1940. He was later moved to command in the Far East, as Chief of Staff to General Archibald Wavell, until the fall of Singapore in 1942, and Chief of Staff to Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1943-4.

Biography

• Born 1887
• Educated at Rugby School and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
• Service with Royal Field Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery , in Britain and India, 1906-1914
  • Lieut., 1909; Captain, 1914
• World War I in France and Belgium, 1914-1918
  • Acting Major, 1916-1917
  • Bde Major, Royal Artillery, 17 Div, France and Belgium, 1917-1919
  • Major, 1917
  • Awarded DSO, 1918
• Bde Major, School of Artillery, Larkhill 1924-1925
• General Staff Officer Grade 2, Staff College, Camberley , 1926-1929
• Brevet Lt-Colonel, 1928
• Operations in North West Frontier , India, 1930-1931
• Military Assistant Secretary, Committee of Imperial Defence , 1933-1935
• Deputy Secretary, Committee of Imperial Defence, 1936
• Commandant, School of Artillery, Larkhill, 1936-1938
• Director of Military Operations and Director of Military Intelligence, War Office, 1938-1939
• World War II, 1939-1945
  • Chief of General Staff, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), France and Belgium, 1939-1940
  • Created KBE, 1940
  • Inspector General, Home Guard, 1940
  • Commander, British Troops, Northern Ireland, 1940-1941
  • Vice Chief of Imperial General Staff, War Office, 1941
  • Commander-in-Chief British Far East Command, 1941-1942
  • Chief of Staff to General Sir Archibald Wavell, ABDACOM, Far East, 1942
  • General Officer Commanding Ceylon, 1942-1943
  • Commander-in-Chief, Persia and Iraq, 1943
  • Chief of Staff to Supreme Allied Commander, Lord Louis Mountbatten, South East Asia Command, 1943-1944
• Retired from army, 1945
• Created KCB, 1945
• Chairman, Friary Meux Limited
• Member of the Committee of Lloyds Bank
• Chief Commissioner, St. John Ambulance Brigade, 1947-1949
• Military consultant to Winston Churchill on the History of the Second World War (Cassell, London, 1948-1954)
• Chancellor, Order of St John, 1951
• Died in 1961

Further reading

Henry Pownall's diaries were published as Chief of Staff. The diaries of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pownall, edited by Brian Bond (Leo Cooper, London, 1972)