John Sydney Lethbridge

Major-General John Sydney Lethbridge CB CBE MC (11 December 1897–11 August 1961) was a British soldier.

Early life

The son of Lt-Col. Sydney Lethbridge, OBE RA, Lethbridge was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Uppingham School, Leicestershire, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Jesus College, Cambridge. [http://www.xreferplus.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=6170382 LETHBRIDGE, Major-General John Sydney] at "Who Was Who 1897-2006" online at xreferplus.com (accessed 4 November 2007)]

Career

He was commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1915 and saw active service on the Western Front from 1916 to 1917 with 123 Field Company, Royal Engineers and 38 (Welsh) Division: Battle of the Somme, 1916; in India, 1917, serving as temporary Captain with a field company of King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners; then served with the Aden Frontier Force for operations in southern Arabia from 1917 to 1918.

He commanded, as acting Major, a Company of King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners in the Third Afghan War, Afghanistan and North West Frontier, India, from 1919 to 1922.

He was an undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge from 1922 to 1924, then served in India, again with King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners, at Roorkee and Rawalpindi; saw active service in the Kajuri Plain, Peshawar, against Afridi raiders, 1930; graduated from Staff College, Quetta, India, 1932, and returned to postings in the UK, including Chatham, Kent, 1933-1935, and General Staff Headquarters Northern Command, York, 1935-1936.

Lethbridge served in the Second World War, first with British Expeditionary Force, France, 1939; commanded 220 Lethbridge Military Mission, to the USA, India, South West Pacific and Australia to study tactics and equipment required to defeat Japan in the Far East, 1943-1944; Chief of Staff, 14 Army, Burma, 1944-1945; Chief of Intelligence, Control Commission for Germany and British Army of the Rhine, 1945-1948; Major General, 1948; Commandant of the Civil Defence Staff College, 1949-1952, and Director of Civil Defence for the South West Region (Bristol), from September 1955 to October 1960.

Lethbridge retired to Bondleigh, near North Tawton, in Devon, but died in August 1961, less than a year after his retirement.

Family

In 1925, Lethbridge married Katharine Greville Maynard, the daughter of Sir John Maynard, KCIE CSI, and they had one son and two daughters.

Honours

*Military Cross, 1919
*CBE, 1942
*Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1946
*Commander, US Legion of Merit, 1946

References

* [http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/lethbridge/le50-0.shtml#BIO Lethbridge biography] at web site of King's College London
* [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=555&inst_id=21 LETHBRIDGE, Maj Gen John Sydney (1897-1961)] at Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives