Lieutenant General Sir Edward Puttick, KCB, DSO & Bar (26 June 1890 – 25 July 1976) was an officer who served with the New Zealand Military Forces during the First and Second World Wars.

He commanded 'B' Company of the battalion during the Senussi Campaign from January to February 1916,[4] before being transferred to the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the newly formed New Zealand Division.

In July, prior to the start of the Somme Offensive, he was transferred back to the Rifle Brigade, and appointed second-in-command of its 4th Battalion.

[9][10] On 21 March 1918, the Germans began their Spring Offensive and the New Zealand Division was rushed to plug a gap in the front near Colincamps.

On 27 March, Puttick was wounded in the chest while leading his battalion in an action designed to link up with an Australian brigade in the nearby village of Hébuterne.

[11] He was evacuated to England for treatment and after recuperating, commanded the New Zealand Rifle Brigade's training camp in Brocton, Staffordshire.

[9][17] On Crete, Puttick was promoted to temporary major general and, following Freyberg's appointment as the commander of Creforce, took over responsibility for the 2nd New Zealand Division.

[3] During the Battle of Crete his failure to pressure James Hargest, one of his brigade commanders, to make a counterattack to support the defenders of Maleme airfield resulted in its eventual loss to the Germans.

[1] With reinforcements and supplies landed at the airfield the Germans were able to consolidate the tenuous gains made in the opening days of the invasion.

Any meaningful chance of the Allies successfully preventing the capture of the island was lost and the survivors of Creforce were eventually evacuated to Egypt.

In the face of the increasing threat of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, he also put considerable effort into improving New Zealand's defences.

After the Japanese entered the war, he considered the actual threat of invasion to be minimal but continued to encourage improvements in home defence as a means of boosting morale.

Later in the war, he was in favour keeping the 2nd Division in Italy to deal with what he considered to be the greater priority, the defeat of Germany, rather than have it be used against the Japanese.

His wife died in 1964 and in his later years, he lived in Raglan, a small seaside town on the west coast of the North Island.