John Nichols (British Army officer)

Major General John Sebastian Nichols, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (1896–1954) was a senior British Army officer who, during the Second World War, commanded the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division.

Military career

He was educated at Eton College and later the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.^[1] He served with the 5th Battalion on the Western Front, earning the nickname of "Crasher", and being awarded the Military Cross (MC).^[2] He the served in the Waziristan campaign, where he was awarded a Bar to his MC for operations with the Waziristan Field Force in 1921.^[3]

Nichols stayed in the army during the interwar period, and later later transferred to the Border Regiment. From 1937 to 1940, he was a member of the British military mission to Egypt.^[4]

During the Second World War he commanded the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, and later a mixed formation known as Habforce, the 151st Infantry Brigade during the Battle of Gazala and the 10th Indian Infantry Division. From July 1942 he commanded the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, leading it in the First Battle of El Alamein, the Second Battle of El Alamein and in the Tunisia Campaign at the Battle of the Mareth Line. He was relieved of his command in March 1943 by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the Eighth Army commander, and later became commander of the 182nd Infantry Brigade in the United Kingdom from November 1943 until late March 1945, in August taking command of the 114th Infantry Brigade (formerly the 211th Infantry Brigade). He also commanded the Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force.^[4]

References

Bibliography

• Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War, Nick Smart. ISBN 1-84415-049-6.