Noel Holmes

British Army officer and tennis player

Noel Galway Holmes
Major General Holmes in 1944.
Born	25 December 1891 Galway, Ireland
Died	24 December 1982 (aged 90)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1912–1946
Rank	Major general
Service number	4842
Unit	Royal Irish Regiment East Yorkshire Regiment
Commands held	1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment Aldershot District
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War
Awards	KBE CB MC^[1]

Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes KBE CB MC (25 December 1891 – 24 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer during the Second World War and Davis Cup tennis player for Ireland.^[2]^[3]

Biography

Born in Galway, Ireland, on 25 December 1891, Noel Holmes attended and was educated at Bedford School. He joined the Royal Irish Regiment in 1912^[4] and served in India between 1912 and 1914. During the First World War he served in France.

He served in Upper Silesia between 1921 and 1922. In 1922 he joined the East Yorkshire Regiment and, after attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1926 to 1927, served in India between 1933 and 1937.

During the Second World War he was Director of Movements at the War Office, between 1939 and 1943. He attended the conferences of allied war leaders in Casablanca, Washington, D.C., Quebec City, Cairo, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam. He was Deputy Quartermaster General at the War Office between 1943 and 1946^[5] and, briefly, General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command from September 1946 to November 1946.^[6]

Major General Sir Noel Holmes was invested as a Companion of the Order of the British Empire in 1940, as a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1943,^[7] and as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1946.^[8] He married Mary Clifford, daughter of Sir Hugh Clifford, on 19 June 1920 and they had two children.^{[citation needed]} He retired from the British Army in 1946 and died on 24 December 1982.

References

^ "No. 30111". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1917. p. 5480.
^ "Maj.Gen Sir Noel Galway Holmes". The Daily Telegraph. 29 December 1982.
^ Smart 2005, pp. 156–157.
^ "No. 28610". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 May 1912. p. 3687.
^ Who's Who
^ "Army Commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
^ "No. 36033". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1943. p. 2419.
^ "No. 37407". The London Gazette. 1 January 1946. p. 17.