Noel Irwin
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Lieutenant-General Noel Mackintosh Stuart Irwin (1892 – 1972) was a British soldier, who played a prominent role in the British Army after the Dunkirk evacuation, and in the Burma Campaign. He was also instrumental in some reforms to the training and equipment of British soldiers after the defeat in France in 1940, intended to meet the demands of modern warfare.
During the later years of the First World War, Irwin saw action in France, serving as the commanding officer of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Lincolnshire Regiment and the 8th Battalion of the Leicester Regiment.
Following the wars end, Irwin attended British Army Staff College, Camberley as well as served in regimental and depot duties between 1920 and 1932. In 1933, Irwin was appointed as Chief Instructor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst serving for three years. Briefly stationed in China as a General Staff Officer for a year, Irwin headed the British 6th Infantry Brigade upon the start of the Second World War as well as commanding the 2nd Division until the fall of France in May 1940.
While preparing for the anticipated German invasion, Irwin commanded the 38th Division and later the XI Corps until his transfer to the Middle East in 1942. Initially in command of the of IV Corps in Iraq, Irwin was placed in charge of IV Corps and later of Eastern Army in India organising the eastern frontier defences of India after the fall of Burma in 1942. After the failed First Arakan Campaign of 1943, he was relieved of his command.
Recalled to Great Britain in 1944, he was made the district commanding officer of the East Scotland District until the end of the war. After three years as commander-in-chief of British forces of the West Africa Command, he retired to private life in 1948.
[edit] Further reading
- Latimer, Jon, Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, 2004. ISBN 978-0719565762
- Liddell Hart, Basil, and Constance Kritzberg, Henry, A History of th Second World War. New York: Putnam, 1971. ISBN 0-306-80912-5
- Kane, Thomas M. Military Logistics and Strategic Performance. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-7146-5161-3
- Malkasian, Carter. A History of Modern Wars of Attrition. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-275-97379-4
