Clarence Bird

Lieutenant-General Sir Clarence August Bird, (5 February 1885 – 30 July 1986) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator, who served as Chairman of Rhodesia Railways, and who lived to the age of 101.

Early life Bird was born in Whalley, Lancashire, and educated at Cheltenham College, before attending the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

Military career He commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 12 December 1904. Between 1907 and 1913 he served in India, before going to France with the Indian Expeditionary Force upon the outbreak of the First World War. In 1917, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and returned to India. He attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1921 but otherwise remained in India until 1925. He retired from the army in July 1944.

Later years and death From 1944 to 1945, Bird was a Regional Commissioner in the Department of Food, Government of India. He was a Special Commissioner from 1945 to 1947 and then worked at the Ministry of Food until 1948. Between 1948 and 1953 he was Chairman of the Rhodesia Railways.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He settled in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he died on 30 July 1986, at the age of 101, making him the oldest British general of the Second World War to reach that age, only Philip Christison, who lived to 100, being younger.