Frederick Browning

Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning
Browning as General Officer Commanding, 1st Airborne Division, October 1942
Nickname(s)	Boy Tommy
Born	(1896-12-20)20 December 1896 Kensington, London
Died	14 March 1965(1965-03-14) (aged 68) Menabilly, Cornwall
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1915–1948
Rank	Lieutenant General
Service number	22588
Unit	Grenadier Guards
Commands held	I Airborne Corps (1943–44) 1st Airborne Division (1941–43) 24th Guards Brigade Group (1941) 128th Infantry Brigade (1940–41) Small Arms School (1939–40) 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards (1936–39)
Battles/wars	First World War Third Battle of Ypres Battle of Cambrai Spring Offensive Hundred Days Offensive Second World War North African Campaign Operation Market Garden Burma Campaign 1944–45
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (2) Croix de Guerre (France) Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland) Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)
Spouse(s)	Dame Daphne du Maurier (1932–1965; his death)
Relations	Montague Browning (uncle)
Other work	Treasurer to the Duke of Edinburgh Comptroller to Princess Elizabeth

First World War

Second World War

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague "Boy" Browning, GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO (20 December 1896 – 14 March 1965) was a senior officer of the British Army who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was the commander of I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he memorably said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Dame Daphne du Maurier.

Educated at Eton College and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Browning was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards in 1915. During the First World War, he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In September 1918, he became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson. After the war, he competed in the bobsleigh at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in which his team finished tenth. He married Daphne du Maurier in July 1932.