Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside

The Lord Ironside
Field Marshal The Lord Ironside
Birth name	William Edmund Ironside
Nickname(s)	Tiny
Born	(1880-05-06)6 May 1880 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	22 September 1959(1959-09-22) (aged 79) Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1899–1940
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands held	C-in-C Home Forces (1940) Chief IGS (1939–40) Army Inspector-General (1939) Eastern Command (1936–38) 2nd Division (1926–28) Staff College (1922–26) North Persian Force (1921) 99th Infantry Brigade (1918)
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War North Russia Campaign Second World War
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Knight of the Venerable Order of Saint John Mentioned in Despatches Legion of Honour (France) Croix de guerre (France) Order of St. Vladimir (Russia) Order of the Lion and the Sun (Iran) Order of the Rising Sun (Japan)

Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside GCB, CMG, DSO (6 May 1880 – 22 September 1959) was a senior officer of the British Army, who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War.

Ironside joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1899, and served throughout the Second Boer War, followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of a Regular Army division during the first two years of the First World War, before being appointed on the staff of the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916. In 1918 he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front, but was quickly promoted to command the Allied intervention force in northern Russia in 1919, then an Allied force occupying Turkey, and finally a British force in Persia in 1921. He was offered the post of the commander of British forces in Iraq, but was unable to take up the role due to injuries in a flying accident.

He returned to the Army as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, where he advocated the ideas of J. F. C. Fuller, a proponent of mechanisation. He later commanded a division, and military districts in both Britain and India, but his youth and his blunt approach limited his career prospects, and after being passed over for the role of Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in 1937 he became Governor of Gibraltar, a traditional staging post to retirement. He was recalled from "exile" in mid-1939, being appointed as Inspector-General of Overseas Forces, a role which led most observers to expect he would be given the command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the outbreak of war.