Ouvry Lindfield Roberts

General Sir Ouvry Lindfield Roberts, (3 April 1898 – 16 March 1986) was a senior officer of the British Army and the British Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars.

Military career Educated at Cheltenham College, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and King's College, Cambridge, Ouvry Roberts was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 6 June 1917. He served on the North West Frontier of India during the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 and in Waziristan 1919–21.

Roberts played first-class cricket for the University of Cambridge in 1925, and for the Free Foresters in 1926. After attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1934 to 1935, he served as Deputy Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in India from 17 September 1939 to 28 January 1941.

Roberts commanded what became known as the "Habbaniya Brigade" and, on 19 May 1941, participated in the successful capture of Fallujah. The Habbaniya Brigade was formed in the week following the end of the Iraqi siege of the British garrison at Habbaniya. Roberts formed the brigade by grouping the infantry reinforcements from Basra (2/4 Gurkha) and from Kingcol (1 Essex). Roberts returned to 10th Indian Division after completing what his divisional commander, Major General William Slim, later described as "one of the best single-handed jobs any officer of his then rank had performed in the war".

As chief staff officer, Roberts played an important role in the 10th Indian Division's involvement in the Euphrates expedition during the Syria–Lebanon campaign in July 1941 and the Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran a month later, earning him promotion to Commanding Officer of the division's 20th Indian Infantry Brigade in Iraq in January 1942.

From 1 July 1942 until 24 January 1943, Roberts was the Commanding Officer of the 16th Infantry Brigade in Ceylon. the sister of Lincoln innovative architect Sam Scorer, in the King Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey. They had a son on 25 January 1957.