Miles Dempsey

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Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey GBE KCB DSO MC (15th December 1896 - 5th June 1969) was commander of the British Second Army during the D-Day landings in World War II.

After graduating from Sandhurst Military Academy in 1915 Dempsey joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment. He served on the Western Front in France during the First World War where he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery.

Remaining in the army, at the start of World War II he had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and was commander of the 13th Infantry Brigade where during Dunkirk he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. In December 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant general where he helped plan the invasion of Sicily and lead the assault on Sicily in 1943. Dempsey later led the invasion of Italy across the Strait of Messina, in which his troops advanced more than 300 miles to the north before linking up with US troops at Salerno.

In January 1944 he was given command of the British Second Army which was the main British force (although it also included many Canadian and Polish soldiers) involved in the D-Day landings and subsequent drive into France and the Low Countries liberating Brussels and Antwerp in September 1944. He also led the British Second Army into Germany capturing Bremen, Hamburg and Kiel.

In 1946 he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Middle East.

Dempsey retired from the British Army in July 1947. He died in Yattendon, Berkshire in 1969 at the age of 72. Miles Dempsey is a direct descendant of the O'Dempseys of Clanmalier, an aristocratic Gaelic nobility who can trace their line back to the High King of Ireland in the 2nd century A.D. His ancestor fled Ireland following the late 17th. c. confiscations there.