Napier Crookenden

Sir Napier Crookenden
Lt. Col. Napier Crookenden (extreme right) with Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery
Born	31 August 1915
Died	31 October 2002 (aged 87)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Cheshire Regiment
Commands held	9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion 16th Parachute Brigade Western Command
Battles/wars	Second World War Malayan Emergency
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Lieutenant General Sir Napier Crookenden, KCB, DSO, OBE, DL (31 August 1915 – 31 October 2002) was a British Army General who reached high office in the 1960s.

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Crookenden was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment in 1935.

He served in the Second World War as a Brigade Major in the 6th Airlanding Brigade in 1943 planning and implementing glider assaults to secure bridges over the River Orne on the day of the Normandy Landings. He served as Commanding Officer of 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion between 1944 and 1946 leading his Regiment in the Battle of the Bulge and then the crossing of the River Rhine.

He was Director of Operations during the Malayan Emergency between 1952 and 1954 and served as Commander of 16th Parachute Brigade from 1960 to 1961. He went to the Imperial Defence College in 1962. He was appointed Director of Land/Air Warfare at the Ministry of Defence in 1964 and then Commandant at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham in 1967. He became the last General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command in 1969 and retired in 1972.