VISCOUNT MONTGOMERY WILL BE WELCOMED BY WANGANUI TOMORROW

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 July 1947, Page 4

VISCOUNT MONTGOMERY WILL BE WELCOMED BY WANGANUI TOMORROW

Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery, of Alamein, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, will pay a brief visit to Wanganli to-morrow afternoon.

He is scheduled to arrive at 3.30 p.m. from Ohakea and will leave again al 1.15 p.m. for Palmerston North. If fine there will be a civic reception on Cook’s Gardens, if wet in the Opera House. NAME A LEGEND. Viscount Montgomery became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in June. 1946 At the age of 59, his name had become a legend In Britain. Attributing to this was an unbroken run of success In battle, a personality blessed with more than a touch of eccentricity, and a gift for catching the confidence and imaginations, not only of his men, but of British people everywhere. These things made Montgomery a figure of legend. His name ranks now with Wellington's and Marlborough's In the history of British arms." In the year 1887. Bernard lan Montgomery was born in a vicarage overlooking the Oval, at Kennington. At Ihe age of two. he left England with his parents, who emigrated to Tasmania, only to return to England in 19G1.. Educated at St. Paul’s Sciicol (Hammersmith) Montgomery, >vhen 18 years of age, graduated to Sar.ohurst, and emerged as a secondlieutenant, after which he was posted to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In April. 1910, he was promoted to first lieutenant, while serving on the north-west frontier of India, at Peshawar. WORLD W AR I. In the first World War, Montgomery received the D. 5.0., and was promoted to captain. At 27, he was a brigade-major, and in 1916, was back on the Somme In France. Early in 1917. he was General Staff Officer, grade 11. of the 33rd. Division. Later in the year, he became G.S.O. 2 of the Ninth Corps. His promotion to GS.O. 1 cf the 47th. London Division, with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel (brevet major) came in July, 1918. CAMBERLEY. As a major with the rank ot G.S.O. 2, Montgomery went into Germany with the British forces of ocupatiOii, and in 192(1, he was selected to go to the Staff College at Camberley 1923 saw Major Montgomery posted to (lie 49th. West Riding Diviskn. stalioned in Yorkshire, and three years later he was instructing at Cambcrley. A year later he was married. With the rank of lieutenanteoljriel. Montgomery assumed command of a battalion of the Warwicks in 1930. soon to sad for Palestine. It was whiie he was in the Middle East that he received the sad news of his father's death. Early in 1937, after a pexiod of three years at Quetta, Montgomery was posted to the command of the 9th Infantry Brigade at Portsmouth, with the rank of brigadier. In October, his wife died. Between 1938 and 1942, Montgomery moved in a nattern of adventure, until he assumed command of the 3rd. Division-ki own as "The Iron Division" during the First World War—in 1939. SUCCESSIVE COMMANDS. On May 10. 1940, Mongomery s 3rd. Division gained contact with the B.E.F. in France, and the evacuation of Dunkirk began. General Montgomery .was then promoted to the Fifth Corps, and in 1941, to the Twelfth Corps, and finally in 1942 to the command of the South-Eastern Army with the rank of lieutenantgeneral

In August, 1942, Lieut.-Gcncral Monlgornery became commander of the Eighth Army. A few days after Christmas, 1943, Montgomery, who had returned to the Italian front, left again for England to a special command under General Eisenhower. Montgomery crossed t) Normandy in June, 1944, and in 194 G. elevated to field-marshal, he was the controller of the British Zone of Occupation, and British member of ine Allied Control C t.,;i.ission in B : rJi.t In the 1946 NJw Year’s Honour* Lis'. Montgomery was raised to the peerage, taking the title of Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, of Hindhead, in the county of Surrey. A few weeks later, he became Chief of the Imperial General Staff.