Douglas Brownrigg

Brownrigg was educated at Mulgrave Castle and later entered and then graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the 1st Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters in 1905.{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=47}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/BROWNRIGG1.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925025747/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/BROWNRIGG1.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 September 2012 |title=Brownrigg, Douglas|publisher=Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives|access-date=20 June 2020}} He became adjutant of his regiment in 1910.

He served in the First World War with the 13th (Western) Division and fought at Gallipoli in 1915 and then in the Mesopotamian campaign during the remaining years of the war. In November 1915 he became the division's assistant adjutant and quartermaster general and was to have the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel while employed in this role.{{London Gazette|issue=29468|page=1565|date=8 February 1916|supp=y}} He was promoted to brevet major, "for Distinguished Service in the Field", in February 1916{{London Gazette|issue=29460|page=1336|date=1 February 1916|supp=y}} although this was later antedated back to January.{{London Gazette|issue=29489|page=2110|date=25 February 1916}} He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order later that year. He ended the war in 1918 as a lieutenant colonel, and had also been mentioned in dispatches six times.{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=47}}

After the War he became deputy assistant adjutant general at the War Office and, after attending the Staff College, Camberley, from 1920 to 1921, then became an instructor at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=47}} He returned to the War Office as a general service officer in 1923 and, promoted in July 1925 to brevet colonel,{{London Gazette|issue=33064|page=4530|date=7 July 1925}} became assistant adjutant and quartermaster general for the Shanghai Defence Force in China in 1927. He was placed in charge of Administration for the North China Command in 1928. He was promoted to major general in March 1931, shortly after being placed on half-pay.{{London Gazette|issue=33695|page=1451|date=3 March 1931}} He was appointed commander of the 159th (Welsh Border) Infantry Brigade in 1933 and general officer commanding 51st (Highland) Division in 1935.

He became Military Secretary in 1938 and director general of the Territorial Army in 1939.

He took part in World War II as adjutant-general of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939. He was subjected to some criticism for his erratic orders during the defence of Calais,{{cite book|first=Airey |last=Neave|title=The Flames of Calais|publisher=Holder and Stoughton|year=1972}} and was involuntarily retired in 1940. In January 1941 he succeeded Major General Sir Frederick Maurice as colonel of the Sherwood Foresters.{{London Gazette|issue=35047|page=402|date=17 January 1941}}

He was a sector and zone commander for the Home Guard for the rest of the war. In late 1942, Brownrigg was employed as the military advisor for the British film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The film was about an officer called Major-General Wynne-Candy, whose fictional career was rather similar to Brownrigg's, as he had served with distinction in the First World War, was forcibly retired after Dunkirk and then had taken a senior role in the Home Guard.{{cite book |last1=Penny |first1=Summerfield |last2=Peniston-Bird |first2=Corinna |date= 2007|title=Contesting Home Defense: Men, Women, and the Home Guard in the Second World War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYVky27WosAC&pg=PA138 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=138 |isbn=978-0719062025 }}

In 1919 he married Mona Jeffreys.{{cite web|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_B05.html |title=Douglas Brownrigg |publisher=Unit Histories|access-date=20 June 2020}} Sir Douglas and Lady Brownrigg were keen dog breeders who imported two of the first Shih Tzus into the United Kingdom from China.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bakalo.com/early_days_w_lady_brownrigg.htm |title=Early days with Lady Brownrigg |access-date=3 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525033103/http://www.bakalo.com/early_days_w_lady_brownrigg.htm |archive-date=25 May 2010 |url-status=dead }} His memoirs; Unexpected (a book of memories), were published in 1942.{{cite book|first=Douglas |last=Brownrigg|title=Unexpected (A Book of Memories)|publisher=Hutchinson|year=1942}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book| first=Nick| last=Smart| title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War| isbn=1844150496| year=2005| location=Barnesley| publisher=Pen & Sword}}

• [https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_B05.html#Brownrigg_WDS British Army Officers 1939−1945]
• [https://generals.dk/general/Brownrigg/Wellesley_Douglass_Studholme/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]

{{S-start}}

{{s-mil}}

{{s-bef|before=Sir James Burnett}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC 51st (Highland) Division|years=1935–1938}}

{{s-aft|after=Victor Fortune}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Viscount Gort}}

{{s-ttl|title=Military Secretary|years=1938−1939}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir George Giffard}}

{{end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownrigg, Douglas}}

Category:1886 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:Sherwood Foresters officers

Category:British Army generals of World War II

Category:British Home Guard officers

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath

Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Category:War Office personnel in World War II

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Academics of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley

Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:People from Chelsea, London

Category:British Army lieutenant generals