You are Frederick Edgworth Morgan, a career officer of the British Army. Born, in 1894, you studied at a private secondary school (Clifton College) and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1913, you accepted a commission as an officer of the Royal Field Artillery and you volunteered for service in India. Thus, the outbreak of the First World War found you serving with a field battery in Jabalpur, some two hundred and fifty miles southeast of Delhi, the capital city of the Indian Empire.
In September of 1914, your battery deployed to the Western Front. In the four years that followed, you divided your time between service with field batteries and work on the staffs of larger artillery units. At the end of the war, you returned to India. There, you divided your time between command of artillery units and service on the staff of an infantry division.
After a brief sojourn in Great Britain, where you commanded a coast artillery battery, you completed the two-year course at the Indian Army Staff College. After this, you remained in India, serving with a field battery and the staff of a regional headquarters.
In 1934, you took command of an anti-aircraft battery and, with that unit, deployed to the island of Malta. Between 1936 and 1938, you served at the War Office in London, where you matched trained staff officers with suitable appointments. In 1938, you became chief of staff (‘GSO 1’) of the 3rd Infantry Division.
May of 1940 found you in France, at the head of the Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division. (As the infantry and field artillery units of this brigade failed to arrive in France before the end of the campaign, your command consisted of a company of engineers and a battalion-sized unit of anti-tank guns.) After Dunkirk, you commanded, in succession, the reconstituted Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division, two infantry divisions, and an army corps, all of which were stationed in Great Britain.
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