Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Richard Rawlinson, OBE (9 August 1894 – 20 April 1984) was a British Army officer who served on the Western Front, and then in military intelligence in both World Wars.

[6][9] Already a cadet in the Officer Training Corps, Rawlinson was commissioned on 1 September 1914 as a temporary second lieutenant in the war-raised 6th (Service) Battalion of The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment).

After a year's service he obtained a regular commission with the York and Lancaster Regiment, serving again as a second lieutenant.

[12][13] On 26 June 1916, he was seconded to the newly formed Machine Gun Corps and promoted back to lieutenant on 21 December 1916.

[18] In the 1945 New Year Honours, the then Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) Rawlinson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), an advance on the recognition he had received after the previous war.

Dennys Grayson gave his son the distinctive name of Rudyard - as opposed to the unremarkable John - when the child was born the following year.