Francis Nosworthy

Lieutenant-General Sir Francis Poitiers Nosworthy, (21 September 1887 – 9 July 1971) was a British Army officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of West Africa Command during the Second World War.

Military career Educated at Exeter School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Nosworthy was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907.

He took part in the Abor and Mishmi expedition to India in 1912 and served in the First World War as a General Staff Officer in France.

After taking part in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, he attended the Staff College, Quetta from 1919 to 1920, and was appointed second-in-command of the Sudan Defence Force in 1926, followed by attendance at the Imperial Defence College in 1931, he commanded the 5th Infantry Brigade at Aldershot Command in 1935. He commanded the brigade until 12 January 1938 when he relinquished command and was placed on half-pay. He became Deputy Chief of the General Staff at Army Headquarters in India in 1938. After the Norwegian campaign ended, the corps commanded most of the armoured reserves preparing to face the proposed German invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion), while the other corps headquarters that had been evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo was reorganised. Under Nosworthy's command IV Corps was envisaged as a counter-attack force. He continued as GOC IX Corps in Tunisia from 1942 and as Commander-in-Chief of West Africa Command from 1943.