William Duthie Morgan

General Sir William Duthie Morgan, (15 December 1891 – 13 May 1977) was a British Army officer. During the Second World War, he served as Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Harold Alexander, and later succeeded him as Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations.

Early life and military career Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Morgan was the son of Alexander Morgan and his wife Isobel Duthie. The family initially lived at 63 Warrender Park Road in the Marchmont district then moved to 1 Midmar Gardens in the south-west.

Morgan was educated at George Watson's College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from which he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Artillery in January 1913. He served in the First World War, winning the Distinguished Service Order at the Battle of Le Cateau in 1914 and later the Military Cross, and was mentioned in despatches four times throughout the war.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the King of Belgium in April 1918.

Between the wars During the interwar period, Morgan's postings included active service in Waziristan and a period as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 at the War Office. In 1929 he was appointed military attaché at the British Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, where he remained until 1931. In 1933 he was posted as a major to the 19th Field Brigade, Royal Artillery in Bordon and in 1934 he became Chief Instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. initially commanded the 10th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery with the British Expeditionary Force, before succeeding Richard McCreery as the General Staff Officer Grade 1 with the 1st Infantry Division in France. he was appointed acting major general and appointed General officer commanding (GOC) of the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division in June. In October 1941 he was injured,

Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Lieutenant General William Morgan pose with Brigadier Ronald Senior and the staff of the 151st Infantry Brigade, 29 May 1944.

Returned to fitness, in September 1942 Morgan was appointed an acting lieutenant general to be Chief of the General Staff for Home Forces. and he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1944 New Year Honours. Surrender at Caserta on 29 April 1945 at the Caserta Royal Palace: gen. Morgan is near the table on the right, representing the allied nations. In February 1944, Morgan was made General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Southern Command. In March 1945, he became Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theatre, Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander. On 29 April 1945, he accepted the surrender of all Axis forces on the Italian Front with the surrender signed at Caserta. The Morgan Line, which at one time demarcated the boundary between Italy and Yugoslavia, was named after him.

Postwar In August 1946, after the war, Morgan's rank of lieutenant general was made permanent (with seniority backdated to the end of 1944) and in November 1946 was promoted to general.

In 1947 Morgan was made commander of the British Army Staff in Washington, D.C., His knighthood was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1949 New Year Honours, and he retired from the British Army in June 1950.