Montagu Stopford


 * Not to be confused with his grandfather, the 19th century admiral Montagu Stopford (admiral).

General Sir Montagu George North Stopford GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (16 November 1892 – 10 March 1971), was a British Lieutenant General during the Second World War and Commander-in-Chief of the South East Asia Command from 1946 to 1947.

Early life
Stopford was the son of Colonel Sir Lionel Arthur Montagu Stopford, and the great-grandson of James Stopford, 3rd Earl of Courtown. His mother was Mabel Georgina Emily, daughter of George Alexander Mackenzie. He was educated at Wellington College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in 1911, serving with the 2nd Battalion of the regiment in India until 1914.

First World War
He fought in the First World War, where he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross, having entered France as a Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade on 6-11-1914 (Medal Index Card, Kew, England), and become G.S.O.3 of the 56th (London) Division, Territorial Force, on 10-6-1916, as a Captain. On 6-12-1916 he became the Brigade-Major of the 56th Division's 167th (Infantry) Brigade, a post which he held thru to 25-3-1918 ('56th Division' by C. Dudley-Ward, Pub. 1921). He ended the war with the substantive rank of Major.

Second World War
Immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War, Stopford was an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley. He commanded the 17th Infantry Brigade, part of the British Expeditionary Force, from 1939 to 1940, leading the brigade during the Defence of Arras. He was General Officer Commanding the 56th (London) Infantry Division from 1940 to 1941 and then became Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley in October 1941. He commanded XII Corps from 1942 to 1943 and XXXIII Indian Corps in Burma from 1943 to 1945. He finally commanded British Twelfth Army, formed in Burma in 1945.

After the war Stopford served as commander of Burma Command (renamed from Twelfth Army) from 1945 to 1946, as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Land Forces in Netherlands East Indies in 1946 and as Commander in Chief of South East Asia Command from 1946 to 1947 before becoming General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Northern Command from 1947 to 1949. He retired from the Army in 1949, with the rank of General. He was also appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Rifle Brigade.

Stopford was awarded the DSO in 1940 and made a CB in 1942. In December 1944 he and his fellow corps commanders Christison and Scoones were knighted and invested as KBE by the viceroy Lord Wavell at a ceremony at Imphal in front of the Scottish, Gurkha and Punjab regiments. Slim was knighted and invested as KCB at the same occasion.

Later life
After the war Stopford was further made KCB in 1947 and a GCB in 1948. In 1962 he held the honorary post of Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire. He lived at Rock Hill House in Chipping Norton. He married Dorothy, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Foulkes Deare, in 1921. They had no children. His wife died in 1982.