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Rob Lockhart

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British Army general (1893–1981)

Sir Rob Lockhart
1st Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army
In office
15 August 1947 – 31 December 1947
MonarchGeorge VI
Governor GeneralLord Mountbatten
Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byF. R. Roy Bucher
Personal details
Born23 June 1893
Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland
Died11 September 1981 (aged 88)
Kent, England
Awards Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire
Military Cross
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
 British India
 India
Branch/service British Army
 British Indian Army
 Indian Army
Years of service1913–1948
1951–1952
RankGeneral
Commands Southern Command
1st Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment
Indian Army
Battles/warsFirst World War
Second World War

General Sir Rob McGregor MacDonald Lockhart KCB CIE MC (23 June 1893 – 11 September 1981) was a senior British Army officer during the Second World War and later the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army upon India's independence.

In retirement he was a leading member of the Scout Association.

Family

Lockhart was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. His mother was Florence Stuart Macgregor, while other ancestors included Bruces, Hamiltons, Cummings, Wallaces and Douglases. His brother, the diplomat and writer R. H. Bruce Lockhart, claimed that "There is no drop of English blood in my veins." Another brother, J. H. Bruce Lockhart, was headmaster of Sedbergh School, while his nephews Rab Bruce Lockhart and Logie Bruce Lockhart went on to become headmasters of Loretto and Gresham's. Another nephew, J. M. Bruce Lockhart, was an intelligence officer.

Military career

Lockhart was born 23 June 1893 and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned onto the Unattached List for the Indian Army as a second lieutenant on 22 January 1913. He joined the 51st Sikhs on 8 March 1914 and in the First World War served in Egypt, Aden, and Mesopotamia. He was promoted to lieutenant on 22 April 1915, to acting captain on 13 April 1916, again on 7 October 1916, and to captain on 22 January 1917. On 1 January 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross.

Attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1926 to 1927, he was promoted to major 22 January 1931, Lockhart was brevetted as a lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1933 and appointed as military attache to the Kingdom of Afghanistan from 10 March 1934 to 1 December 1935. He was Promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 8 November 1936, and was given command of the 1st battalion, the 12th Frontier Force Regiment. He was promoted to colonel on 1 February 1939 (with seniority from 1 January 1936), and appointed Deputy Director of Staff Duties in the India Office. from 1 February 1939 to 19 December 1939.

Promoted to temporary brigadier on 20 December 1939, Lockhart served in the Second World War as Director of Staff Duties in the India Office from 20 December 1939 to 14 December 1941, when he became Military Secretary to the India Office, a position he filled until 9 July 1943. He was promoted to acting major-general on 28 April 1941, to temporary major-general on 28 April 1942, and to the permanent rank of major-general on 24 October 1942. Promoted to acting lieutenant-general on 15 April 1945, he was appointed General Officer Commanding Southern Command in India that year, and was promoted to lieutenant-general on 23 November (with seniority from 3 April 1944). On 19 June 1947, with the independence of India and Pakistan imminent, he was appointed as acting Governor of the North West Frontier Province.

On 15 August 1947, the day British India was partitioned into two independent Dominions, Lockhart was appointed as Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army, with the acting rank of general. He was promoted to general on 1 September (with seniority from 1 July 1945). He retired on 1 October 1948, but was recalled to the British forces as Director of Operations during the Malaya Emergency between 1951 and 1952.

Retiring in 1951, he served as deputy chief scout for the Boy Scouts Association from 1951 to 1961. He also served on the World Scout Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1953 to 1959, and in 1961 was awarded the Bronze Wolf Award, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting.

Personal life

On 2 September 1918, in Mussoorie, a hill station in India, Lockhart married Margaret Amy Campbell, a daughter of Sir Robert Neil Campbell, commander of the Bengal Medical Service. Their daughter Mary Mavora Lockhart was born in 1919, and a son, Norman Neil Campbell Lockhart, born in 1925. Their son was named after Rob Lockhart's favourite brother, Norman Douglas Steward Bruce Lockhart, who was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915; he went on to be commissioned into his uncle's regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, and served in the Malaya Emergency. They had two further daughters, Elizabeth Winifred, who married Major E. P. Woods, Welsh Guards, and Phyllis Margaret, who married Lt. Cmdr James Mcnie Whyte R.N.

Lockhart died on 11 September 1981, leaving property valued at £4504. His address at death was Gainsborough Nursing Home, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

References

  1. R. H. Bruce Lockhart, My Scottish Youth (B&W Publishing, Edinburgh, 1993), ISBN 1 873631 26 X, pp 313–353
  2. London Gazette 21 January 1913
  3. "No. 28849". The London Gazette. 14 July 1914. p. 5455.
  4. January 1941 Indian Army List supplement
  5. "No. 29186". The London Gazette. 8 June 1915. p. 5526.
  6. "No. 30453". The London Gazette. 1 January 1918. p. 163.
  7. "No. 30084". The London Gazette. 22 May 1917. p. 4946.
  8. "No. 30563". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 March 1918. p. 2974.
  9. ^ Half Yearly Army List January 1946 p.50
  10. ^ Sir Robert Lockhart at Generals.dk
  11. "No. 33899". The London Gazette. 3 January 1933. p. 51.
  12. "No. 34360". The London Gazette. 15 January 1937. p. 343.
  13. January 1937 Indian Army List
  14. "No. 34620". The London Gazette. 28 April 1939. p. 2826.
  15. "No. 34858". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 May 1940. p. 3175.
  16. Half Yearly Army List January 1946 p.126
  17. "No. 35883". The London Gazette. 29 January 1943. p. 559.
  18. "No. 35844". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1942. p. 79.
  19. "No. 37118". The London Gazette. 8 June 1945. p. 2908.
  20. "No. 37462". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 February 1946. p. 895.
  21. "No. 38007". The London Gazette. 4 July 1947. p. 3074.
  22. "No. 38041". The London Gazette. 8 August 1947. p. 3739.
  23. "No. 38134". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 November 1947. p. 5636.
  24. "No. 38431". The London Gazette. 15 October 1948. p. 5447.
  25. ^ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage (1963), p. 2810
  26. "Sir Rob Lockhart" in Janet Podell, ed., Annual Obituary, 1981 (1982), p. 582
  27. Norman Douglas Stewart Bruce Lockhart at forces-war-records.co.uk
  28. The London Gazette, 27 August 1946, Issue 37706 (Supplement), p. 4351
  29. "LOCKHART sir Rob Mcgregor Macdonald of Gainsborough Nursing Home 4 Nevill Pk Tunbridge Wells Kent... £4504" in Wills and Administrations 1981 (England and Wales) (1982), p. 5386

Bibliography

  • Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844150496.

External links

Military offices
Preceded bySir Sydney Muspratt Military Secretary to the India Office
1941–1943 		Succeeded byGeorge Molesworth
Preceded bySir Noel Beresford-Peirse GOC-in-C, Southern Command, India
1945 – 1947 		Succeeded byPost disbanded
Preceded byNew position.
Replaced the Chief of the General Staff (India) 		Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army
1947 		Succeeded bySir Roy Bucher
Political offices
Preceded bySir Olaf Kirkpatrick Caroe Governor of the North-West Frontier Province
1947 		Succeeded bySir George Cunningham
Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces
Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee
(1947–2019)
Chief of Defence Staff and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee
(2020–2021)		Bipin Rawat
Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee
(2021–2022)		M. M. Naravane (acting)
Chief of Defence Staff and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee
(2022–)
(**Seconded from the British Armed Forces)
Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army
Commander-in-Chief,
Indian Army (1947–1948)
Chief of the Army Staff and
Commander-in-Chief,
Indian Army (1948–1955)
Chief of the Army Staff
(1955–present)
(**Seconded from the British Army)
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