John Swayne

Lieutenant-General Sir John George des Reaux Swayne, (3 July 1890 – 16 December 1964) was a senior British Army officer who served as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South-Eastern Command during the Second World War.

Military career Born the son of William Swayne, the Bishop of Lincoln, Swayne was educated at Charterhouse School and the University of Oxford. He was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry in 1911. He served in the First World War, spending most of it as a prisoner of war.

He was made military assistant to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1930 and GSO1, or chief of staff in modern armed forces, for the International Force for the Saar Plebiscite in Germany in 1934. He was selected to be commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in 1935 and chief instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in 1937.

Swayne served in the Second World War, initially as head of the British Military Mission to the French Grand Quartier Général and then as general officer commanding 4th Division from 1941. He was appointed chief of the general staff for Home Forces in 1942 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Eastern Command in 1942. His final appointment was as chief of the General Staff in India in 1944; he retired in 1946.