Lt Col John Alfred Codrington (28 October 1898 – 25 April 1991) was a career British Army officer with a life-long interest in plants and flowers.
He was born in London, the son of Lieutenant General Sir Alfred Codrington (1854–1945) and Adela Harriet née Portal (1859–1935).
[1] Educated at Harrow, Christ Church, Oxford and Strasbourg University; he served with the French Red Cross in France, 1915–16; then attended Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1916–17; and was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards, his father's regiment, in 1917.
In 1920 he was appointed Aide de Camp to Lt Gen Sir Tom Bridges in Smyrna, Turkey, 1920.
He served in Turkey, in Syria as British Liaison Officer to French forces; was attached to French Army and the French Foreign Legion; served in the Sudan and Egypt; was Aide de Camp to FM Sir Philip Walhouse Chetwode, Commander-in-Chief of the Army in India, from 1933 to 1935; retired in 1937 until 1939 when he was attached to the Foreign Office; Assistant Chief of Staff, Gibraltar, 1942–43; Special Liaison Officer, Algiers, 1943–44; Honorary Lt Col in 1948.