Henry Curtis (British Army officer)

Major-General Henry Osborne Curtis CB, DSO, MC, DL (18 November 1888 – 28 January 1964) was a British Army officer who saw service in both World War I and World War II. During the latter, he commanded the 46th Infantry Division during the Battle of France in 1940, and later the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division during the Occupation of Iceland from 1940–1942.

Early life
Curtis was born 18 November 1888. He was the son of Osborne Sargent Curtis, an American-born graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Frances Henrietta Gandy. His paternal uncle was the artist Ralph Wormeley Curtis (1854–1922) and his grandfather was the American lawyer and banker, Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825-1908).

Military career
Curtis was commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1908. He saw First World War service in France, Salonika and in Palestine. Mentioned in dispatches three times and wounded three times, he was awarded the MC in 1917, and the DSO in 1919.

He commanded the 3rd Infantry Brigade, part of Major General Sir Harold Alexander's 1st Infantry Division, from 1938–1939. Handing over the brigade to Brigadier Thomas Wilson, a fellow KRRC officer, he was sent home from France in December 1939 and promoted to acting major general on 21 December (with seniority backdated to 18 July 1938), to assume command of the 46th Division. Curtis rejoined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) with his division in April 1940. Evacuated from Dunkirk, he was appointed to command the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division in June 1940 which, at a reduced establishment, was detailed to occupy Iceland. Curtis spent the next two years nominally in charge of his division based in Scotland from his office in Reykjavik. Made commander of Salisbury Plain District 1943, he was appointed commander of the Hampshire District in 1944 and the Dorset District in 1945. He retired from the army in 1946.

Personal life
Curtis was married to Jean Mackenzie Low (1894–1977), the daughter of John L. Low of Butterstone, Perthshire. He was the father of four sons, two of whom were killed in action, Richard Osborne Curtis (d. 1944) and Philip Evelyn Curtis (d. 1943).