Richard Nelson Gale

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General Sir Richard Nelson Gale, GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (1896 – 1982) was a British soldier who served in both world wars, rising eventually to be Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

In World War I he was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 whilst serving as a junior officer in the Machine Gun Corps. In World War II he served with 1st Parachute Brigade and then the 6th Airborne Division during the invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in 1944.

[edit] Service biography

• World War I 1915-1918
  • 2nd Lt, Worcestershire Regiment 1915
  • Machine Gun Corps
  • Awarded Military Cross 1918
• Capt, The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry 1930
• Maj, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 1938
• World War II 1939-1945
  • 1 Parachute Brigade
  • 6 Airborne Division, Battle of Normandy 1944
  • Deputy Commander, 1 Allied Airborne Army 1945
  • Commander, 1 British Airborne Corps 1945
• 1 Infantry Div 1946-1947
• General Officer Commanding British Troops, Egypt and Mediterranean Command 1948-1949
• Director General of Military Training, War Office 1949-1952
• Commander-in-Chief, Northern Army Group, Allied Land Forces, Europe and British Army of the Rhine 1952-1957
• Retired 1957
• Re-employed as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe 1958-1960

Source: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

[edit] Publications

• With the 6th Airborne Div in Normandy (Sampson Low, Marston & Co, London, 1948)
• Call to arms. An autobiography (Hutchinson, London, 1968)
• Great battles of biblical history (Hutchinson, London, 1968)
• The Worcestershire Regiment, the 29th and 36th Regiments of foot (Leo Cooper, London, 1970)
• Kings at arms: the use and abuse of power in the great kingdoms of the East (Hutchinson, London, 1971)