Major General John Yeldham Whitfield CB, DSO & Bar, OBE (11 October 1899 – 23 September 1971) was a senior British Army officer who commanded the 56th (London) Infantry Division during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War and later the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division.

[3] Returning to England, he attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1934 to 1935[4] and, married in 1936, he was a brigade major with the King's African Rifles from 1937 to 1939.

[3] He returned to England in 1942 during the Second World War, where he became Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2/5th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment in July, leading the battalion in Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Libya and in the final stages of the Tunisian campaign in late April 1943.

[6] He briefly commanded the 169th (Queens) Infantry Brigade, his battalion's parent formation, in October and November 1943.

[1] The 56th Division was deactivated in Austria after the war and Whitfield subsequently became GOC 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and Northumbrian District in October 1946, chief of staff at Northern Command in January 1948[7] and Inspector of Recruiting at the War Office in 1951 before he finally retired from the army in 1955.