Lieutenant General Sir Napier Crookenden KCB DSO OBE DL (31 August 1915 − 31 October 2002) was a British Army General who reached high office in the 1960s.
Sir Napier Crookenden | |
|---|---|
 Lt. Col. Napier Crookenden (extreme right) with Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery | |
| Born | 31 August 1915 Chester, Cheshire, England[1] |
| Died | 31 October 2002 (aged 87) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1935−1972 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Service number | 66121 |
| Unit | Cheshire Regiment |
| Commands | 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion 16th Parachute Brigade Royal Military College of Science Western Command |
| Battles / wars | Second World War Malayan Emergency |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Officer of the Order of the British Empire |
Military career
editEducated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[2] Crookenden was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment in August 1935.[3][4][5]
He served in the Second World War as a brigade major in the 6th Airlanding Brigade in 1943 planning and implementing glider assaults to secure bridges over the River Orne on the day of the Normandy landings.[2] He served as commanding officer of 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion between 1944 and 1946[4] leading his regiment in the Battle of the Bulge and then the crossing of the River Rhine.[2]
He was Director of Operations during the Malayan Emergency between 1952 and 1954 and served as Commander of 16th Parachute Brigade from 1960 to 1961.[4] He went to the Imperial Defence College in 1962.[4] He was appointed Director of Land/Air Warfare at the Ministry of Defence in 1964 and then Commandant at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham in 1967.[4] He became the last General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command in 1969 and retired in 1972.[4]
Retirement
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In retirement he became a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent.[2] He was also a lecturer on military history on the P&O steamship SS Uganda.[2]
Family
editIn 1948 he married Patricia Nassau, daughter of Hugh Kindersley, 2nd Baron Kindersley, and they went on to have two sons and two daughters.[2]
Notable works
edit- Crookenden, Napier (1978). Airborne at War. Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0771-0.
- Crookenden, Napier (1980). Battle of the Bulge 1944. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-16614-8.
- Crookenden, Napier (1976). Dropzone Normandy. The Story Of The American And British Airborne Assault On D Day 1944. Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0660-7.
Bibliography
edit- Dover, Major Victor (1981). The Sky Generals. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-30480-8.
- Harclerode, Peter (2005). Wings Of War — Airborne Warfare 1918–1945. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-36730-3.
- Otway, Lieutenant-Colonel T.B.H. (1990). The Second World War 1939–1945 Army — Airborne Forces. Imperial War Museum. ISBN 0-901627-57-7.
- Saunders, Hilary St. George (1972). The Red Beret — The Story Of The Parachute Regiment 1940–1945. White Lion Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-85617-823-3.
- Thompson, Major-General Julian (1990). Ready for Anything: The Parachute Regiment at War. Fontana. ISBN 0-00-637505-7.
- Tugwell, Maurice (1971). Airborne To Battle — A History Of Airborne Warfare 1918–1971. William Kimber & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-7183-0262-1.
References
edit- ^ "Napier Crookenden | ParaData". www.paradata.org.uk.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Times – Obituary: Lt. General Sir Napier Crookenden". 1 November 2002. Retrieved 5 October 2009.[dead link]
- ^ "No. 34194". The London Gazette. 30 August 1935. p. 5533.
- ^ a b c d e f "Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives - Napier Crookenden". 1 November 2002. Retrieved 5 October 2009.
- ^ "Paradata – Obituary for Napier Crookenden". Retrieved 29 November 2009.
External links
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