Gwilym Ivor Thomas

General Sir Gwilym Ivor Thomas, (23 July 1893 – 29 August 1972) was a senior British Army officer who saw active service in both World Wars. He is most notable for commanding the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division throughout the campaign in Western Europe from June 1944 until Victory in Europe Day in May 1945, and later rose to become Quartermaster-General to the Forces.

Early life and military career Born in Marylebone, London, on 23 July 1893, Ivor Thomas was the son of John Thomas, the harpist to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII and Joan Francis, the youngest daughter of William Denny. He attended Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire and later the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery on 20 December 1912.

Thomas fought in the First World War, arriving on the Western Front from India with II Battery, XIII Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, part of the 7th (Meerut) Division, in October 1914. Still a second lieutenant when war began, Thomas rose rapidly in rank, being made a lieutenant on 9 June 1915, a temporary captain on 12 January 1916 (made permanent on 20 December 1916, four years since he was commissioned), and an acting major on 10 April 1917, which he held for only five days, but he regained the rank on 15 June, which he held until 2 October, when he again reverted to his permanent rank of captain. He remained on the Western Front throughout the conflict, was wounded twice, awarded the Military Cross in January 1917 (and Bar, awarded in September 1917) and Mentioned in Despatches in 1917, and, in January 1918, received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). The citation for the medal reads:

Quote|For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When his battery was being relieved the position was shelled by an intense bombardment, which lasted for over two hours and caused many casualties in both batteries. The pits and ammunition of one section caught fire, and he succeeded in extinguishing this. Later, the telephone pit and mess shelter were wrecked, and he immediately led the way to the rescue of wounded men inside. The camouflage nets of three more guns were then set alight, and the ammunition began to catch fire. This he also saved by tearing down the burning camouflage and smothering the smouldering ammunition, some of which had already begun to explode. Not until all the fires had been extinguished, and he had seen every man, both wounded and unwounded, clear of the position, did he seek cover for himself. His great gallantry and exceptional coolness throughout the whole of this time were worthy of the highest praise.

In 1931 Thomas served at the Royal Artillery depot at Woolwich, Kent, before in January 1932 becoming a General staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) to General Sir David Campbell, the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta. After being promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 1 July 1933, he returned to England and attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in 1934. This was followed by serving as a GSO2 at the War Office and later GSO1, being promoted to colonel on 12 May 1938 (with seniority dating back to 1 July 1937). he was appointed Deputy Director for Recruiting and Organisation at the War Office, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, and then he was Director of Organisation at the War Office in 1940, by which time the war had begun. and became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, his first time in charge of a large formation of infantry, succeeding Major General Charles Allfrey, another artilleryman. In September 1943, however, the experiment with "mixed" divisions was abandoned and, with the arrival of Brigadier Hubert Essame's 214th Infantry Brigade, formerly an independent unit, the division reverted to being a standard infantry division. By this time Thomas's division had been selected to participate in the Allied invasion of Normandy, then scheduled to take place in May 1944, as part of the newly formed British Second Army (initially under Lieutenant General Sir Kenneth Anderson but later replaced in January 1944 by Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey), and training in all-arms co-operation, already at a very high standard due to Thomas's energetic and ruthless methods, intensified, and he demanded only the very highest standards.

From 27 December 1944 until 28 January 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge in which the 43rd Division played no part, Thomas was temporarily given command of XXX Corps by Montgomery, while Horrocks, the GOC, was away in England to rest.

The division's next role was in Operation Blackcock. Again part of XXX Corps, which was now transferred from Dempsey's British Second Army to General Harry Crerar's First Canadian Army, the 43rd Division's next role was a major one in Operation Veritable.

Postwar After the war he was appointed GOC I Corps District within the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in 1945 and then Administrator for the Polish Armed Forces in the West under British Command in 1947. He became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Anti-Aircraft Command in 1948 and Quartermaster-General to the Forces in 1950; he retired in 1952.