Gerard Bucknall
Lieutenant General Gerard Corfield Bucknall, CB, MC & Bar, DL (14 September 1894 – 7 December 1980) was a senior British Army officer who served in both the First and Second World Wars.[10][6][11] During the interwar period Bucknall served initially with his old battalion in Germany, the Egyptian Army[5] (Egypt was then de facto part of the British Empire).[5][1] He was only with the battalion for a few short months, however, before receiving promotion to colonel on 1 August (with seniority backdating to 1 January 1939) and being made an Assistant Quartermaster-General at the War Office.[6] The division was then fighting in Sicily, which had been invaded the month before by the Allies, and was serving as part of the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, who had been one of Bucknall's instructors at the Staff College.[5] Montgomery conceded that it had been a mistake to appoint him and, in November 1944, Bucknall revert to his permanent rank of major general and was given command of Northern Ireland, a post he held until his retirement from the army on 4 March 1948.