Horace Birks

Major General Horace Leslie Birks CB DSO (7 May 1897 – 25 March 1985) was a British Army officer who commanded 10th Armoured Division during World War II.

Military career
Educated at University College School, Birks enlisted in the London Rifle Brigade in 1915 and, after serving in France, was commissioned into the Machine Gun Corps Heavy Branch in 1917 and fought at the Battle of Cambrai later that year. He was appointed an Instructor at the Royal Tank Corps Schools in 1919 and, after service in India and then as a General Staff Officer back in the UK, he became an Instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in 1937. He took part in World War II as Second in Command of 4th Armoured Brigade in Egypt from 1940, as Commander of 126th Infantry Brigade from September 1941 and as Commander of 11th Armoured Brigade from November 1941 (leading his brigade at the Battle of Tobruk). He went on to be General Officer Commanding 10th Armoured Division in North Africa in January 1943 and Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps for the Central Mediterranean Force in Italy in 1944 before retiring in 1946.