John Crocker
| Sir John Crocker | |
|---|---|
Crocker, as I Corps commander, in France in August 1944
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Honest John |
| Born |
4 January 1896 Lewisham, London |
| Died | 9 March 1963 (aged 67) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1915–53 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held |
Middle East Land Forces (1947–50) Southern Command (1945–47) I Corps (1943–45) IX Corps (1942–43) XI Corps (1942) 6th Armoured Division (1940–41) 3rd Armoured Brigade (1940) |
| Battles/wars |
First World War |
| Awards |
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Mentioned in Despatches (2) Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands) |
| Other work | Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex |
First World War
Second World War
General Sir John Tredinnick Crocker, GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (4 January 1896 – 9 March 1963) was a senior officer of the British Army who served as a private soldier and junior officer in the First World War, and as a corps commander during the Second World War. After the Second World War he rose to become Adjutant-General to the Forces, the second most senior officer on the Army Council.
As related in Delaney's book 'Corps Commanders';
The son of Mary (Tredinnick) and Isaac Crocker, a secretary with the Champion Reef Gold Mining Company, John Crocker was born on 3 January 1896, one of five siblings who lived in a modest Exbury Road dwelling in Catford, Lewisham. Owing to a respiratory ailment, young John was too sickly to attend public school, so his mother, who had been widowed with five children since John was only four years old, somehow managed to send him instead to a retired parson for instruction. The parson was a voracious reader whose disciplined self-study and rectitude rubbed off on his pupil, as did a certain piety. Crocker remained a deeply religious man his entire life. Under the tutelage of his parson instructor, he also learned to think before speaking, to choose his words carefully, and never to lie. His tutor liked things done properly, something Crocker would always demand of his own charges. One subordinate would later comment that he possessed "a most penetrative insight into character and behaviour. Anyone who tried to hoodwink him was on a forlorn and dangerous path." Odd as it may have been, his unorthodox education served him well in his military career.
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Wikipedia