Major General D S Gordon CB CBE DSO
(The Green Howard’s)
Commanded 1/7th Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment from April 1943 to July 1944.
Desmond Spencer Gordon was born on 25th December 1911 and educated at Haileybury and the RMC Sandhurst. He was commissioned in The Green Howards in January 1932 and served with that Regiment in India and in 1940 in Norway.
He then held some staff appointments and was appointed to command 1/7th Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment in April 1943 at the Mareth Line in North Africa. Immediately before that he had been Brigade Major of 131st (Queen's) Brigade. He led the Battalion in Italy and in Normandy.
In July 1.944 he was promoted to command 151st Infantry Brigade of 50th Division in succession to Brigadier R H Senior whom he had succeeded in command of the 1/7th Battalion. He was awarded the DSO and Mentioned in Despatches for his services in the Middle East. After the 1939-45 War he held a number of staff appointments including Deputy Director of Infantry at the War Office and Assistant Commandant at the RMA Sandhurst.
From 1952 to 1955 he commanded the 16th Independent Parachute Brigade Group and from 1959 to 1961 was GOG 4th Division. From 1962 to 1964 he was Chief Army Instructor at the Imperial Defence College and in August 1964 was appointed Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (General) MOD.
He retired from the Army on 30th April 1966. He was Colonel of The Green Howards from 1965 to 1974.
He was made a CBE in 1952 and a CB in 1961. He was also appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of Orange Nassau with Swords.
See J M A Tamplin's The Lambeth and Southwark Volunteers page 297.
Died 4th November 1997
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