General Sir Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson, KCB, MC (25 December 1891 – 29 April 1959) was a senior British Army officer who saw service in both world wars.

He is mainly remembered as the commander of the British First Army during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa and the subsequent Tunisian campaign which ended with the capture of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers.

[3][4] He was sent to England, where he was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, a line infantry regiment of the British Army, on 19 September 1911.

[15] His fellow students in his year there included several who would achieve high command, such as Frederick Morgan, David Cowan, Geoffrey Bruce, Harold Briggs, along with Ronald Hopkins of the Australian Army.

[4] Anderson, after graduating from Quetta, became a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) in the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation.

The duration of his stay with II Corps was not long, however, as in April 1942, after being succeeded as GOC by Lieutenant-General James Steele, he was promoted to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of Eastern Command.

[28] Despite his lack of experience in commanding larger formations in battle, in August 1942 Anderson was given command of the First Army, replacing Lieutenant-General Edmond Schreiber who had developed a kidney disease and was not considered fit enough for active service in the Army's planned involvement in Operation Torch, codename for the Allied invasion of French North Africa.

In his diary in October 1941 he wrote: "...it is lamentable how poor we are in Army and Corps commanders; we ought to remove several, but Heaven knows where we will find anything very much better.

[32] While Anderson was privately aghast at Fredendall's shortcomings, he seemed frozen by the need to preserve a united Allied front, and never risked his career by strongly protesting (or threatening to resign) over what many of his own American subordinates viewed as an untenable command structure.

[36][37] Major General Harmon had been in Thala on the Algerian border, witnessing the stubborn resistance of the British Nickforce, which held the vital road leading into the Kasserine Pass against the heavy pressure of the 10th Panzer Division, which was under Rommel's command.

[36] Commanding Nickforce was Brigadier Cameron Nicholson, an effective combat leader who kept his remaining forces steady, under relentless German hammering.

Inexplicably, the 9th Division was ordered by Anderson to abandon Thala to the enemy and head for the village of Le Kef, 50 mi (80 km) away, to defend against an expected German attack.

Nicholson pleaded with the American artillery commander, Brigadier General Stafford LeRoy Irwin, to ignore Anderson's order and stay.

"[36] The 9th Divisional artillery did stay, and with its 48 guns raining a year's worth of a (peacetime) allotment of shells, stopped the advancing Germans in their tracks.

Alexander later changed his mind, writing to Montgomery on 29 March that "I have considered the whole situation very carefully – I don't want to upset things at this stage.

"[38] Anderson managed to hold on to his position and performed well after V Corps, under Lieutenant-General Charles Allfrey, held off the last Axis attack during Operation Ochsenkopf.

General Eisenhower, his superior officer, had stated after observing Anderson in action that he, "studied the written word until he practically burns through the paper" but later wrote of him that he was ...a gallant Scot, devoted to duty and absolutely selfless.

Anderson's rank of lieutenant-general was made substantive on July[41] and he was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in August.

Brooke described it in his diary on 18 January: Then a sad interview with Kenneth Anderson to tell him he would not be commanding the 2nd Army in the forthcoming offensive, as Dempsey is to replace him.

He was promoted full general in July 1949 when he was made a Knight of the Venerable Order of Saint John and retired in June 1952 and lived mainly in the south of France.