Montagu Brocas Burrows

Lieutenant-General Montagu Brocas Burrows, (31 October 1894 – 17 January 1967) was a British Army officer who served in both world wars and became Commander-in-Chief of West Africa Command from 1945 to 1946.

Early life Montagu Brocas Burrows was born on 31 October 1894 in Reigate, Surrey, the son of Stephen Montagu Burrows and Isabella Christina (née Cruickshank). He was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford.

Military career Burrows was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 5th Dragoon Guards, British Army in 1914. He served in the First World War and became a prisoner of war during the Great Retreat. and became an instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1922. He was on the General Staff at the War Office from 1935 to 1938, when he became the military attaché in Rome.

Burrows also served in the Second World War, initially still as a military attaché in Italy, before returning to the United Kingdom in May 1940 and, after being promoted to the acting rank of brigadier, was given command of the 1st Motor Machine Gun Brigade, which became the 26th Armoured Brigade in October. During this period he led Brocforce comprising the 9th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, two companies of artillery and a Pioneer battalion. After becoming GOC of the 2nd Armoured Group in South-Eastern Command, he was subsequently GOC 11th Armoured Division from October 1942 to December 1943 before being appointed Head of the British Military Mission to the Soviet Union in 1944.

Burrows died on 17 January 1967 in Marylebone, London.