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Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 45. Chapters: John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Richard O'Connor, Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, John André, Alexander Galloway, Qaboos bin Said al Said, Charles Shaw, Percy Cox, John Dutton Frost, Colin Muir Barber, Charles Stuart, Andrew Barnard, Samuel Lomax, Gregory Holman Bromley Way, John Colville, 1st Baron Clydesmuir, John Graham, Thomas Simson Pratt, Love Jones-Parry, Henry Hope Crealock, John St Clair, Master of Sinclair, William Herbert Anderson, Anthony Dickson Home, Sir Alexander Sprot, 1st Baronet, George Pirie, Bruce Seton, Thomas Riddell-Webster, Charles Preston, Horatius Murray, Henry Templer Alexander, William Bradshaw, John Fullerton Evetts, George Munro, 1st of Auchinbowie, George Carter-Campbell, Eric Girdwood, Roy Bucher, William Rennie, George Collingwood, David Fleming, Lord Fleming, William Alexander Smith, Robert Cotton Money, John Christopher Guise, Thomas de Courcy Hamilton, Robert Montresor Rogers, Henry Lysons, Lyde Browne, William Caine, Eric Templeton Young, Lewis Robertson, George Baker, William Campbell Church. Excerpt: General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor KT, GCB, DSO & Bar, MC, ADC (21 August 1889 - 17 June 1981) was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of World War II. He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces completely destroyed a much larger Italian army - a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel to try and reverse the situation. O'Connor was captured by a German reconnaissance patrol during the night of 7 April 1941, and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp. He eventually escaped in December 1943, and in 1944 commanded VIII Corps in Normandy and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was General Officer in Command of the Eastern Command in India and then in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent headed Northern Command. His final job in the army was Adjutant-General to the Forces in London in charge of the British Army's administration, personnel and organisation. In honour of his war service, O'Connor was recognised with the highest level of knighthood in two different orders of chivalry. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order (twice), Military Cross, French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honour and served as Aide-de-camp to King George VI. He was also mentioned in despatches nine times for actions in World War I, once in Palestine in 1939 and three times in World War II. O'Connor was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, on 21 August 1889. His father was a major in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and his mother was the daughter of a former Governor of India's central provinces. He attended Tonbridge Castle School in 1899 and The Towers School in Crowthorne in 1902. In 1903, after his father's death in an accident, he transferred to Wellington School in Somerset. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1908. In September of the following year he was commissi