William Pike (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir William Gregory Huddleston Pike KCB, CBE, DSO (24 June 1905 − 10 March 1993) was a senior British Army officer who served as Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1960 to 1963.

Sir William Pike
Born(1905-06-24)24 June 1905
Scarborough, Yorkshire, England
Died10 March 1993(1993-03-10) (aged 87)
Alton, Hampshire, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1925−1963
RankLieutenant General
Service number31590
UnitRoyal Artillery
Commands held59th Army Group Royal Artillery
77th (Highland) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Battles/warsSecond World War
Korean War
Suez Crisis
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order

Military career

Pike entered Bedford School in 1914, and was further educated at Marlborough College.[1]

The grave of Lieutenant-General Sir William Pike in Bentley, Hampshire.

After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Pike was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 28 January 1925.[2][3] He served with the British Indian Army until 1936[3] and fought in the Second World War taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation and commanding the 77th (Highland) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery during the landings in Morocco and Algeria in March 1943. On 11 March 1944, Pike was promoted to brigadier and appointed to command 59th Army Group Royal Artillery, a headquarters that was about to embark for the Far East. On arrival at the Ranchi training area, 59 AGRA and the artillery regiments placed under Pike's command prepared for an amphibious assault on the coast of Malaya, which was called off after the Surrender of Japan.[4]

Pike later served in the Korean War as Divisional Commander, Royal Artillery for 1st Commonwealth Division.[3] He was appointed Director of Staff Duties at the War Office in 1954 - a post he held during the Suez Crisis,[5] Chief of Staff for Far East Land Forces in 1957 and Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1960[6] before retiring in 1963.[3] He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1962 to 1970.[3]

Family

He married Josephine 'Josie' Tompson; their son is Lieutenant General Sir Hew Pike. His brother was Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Thomas Pike.[7]

References
  1. 'PIKE, Lt-Gen. Sir William (Gregory Huddleston)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014
  2. "No. 33015". The London Gazette. 27 January 1925. p. 593.
  3. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  4. 59 AGRA War Diary, February–December 1945, The National Archives (TNA), Kew file WO 172/7515.
  5. Obituary: Lieutenant General Sir William Pike The Independent, 18 March 1993
  6. "Army commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  7. "Sir Thomas Geoffrey Pike". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31548. Retrieved 14 July 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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