Richard Hull

Field Marshal Sir Richard Amyatt Hull, KG, GCB, DSO, DL (7 May 1907 – 17 September 1989) was a senior British Army officer.

[3] Hull entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 17th/21st Lancers, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, on 1 November 1926.

Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson, GOC of the British First Army, appointed Brigadier Cameron Nicholson, 2IC of the 6th Armoured Division, gave him command of Nickforce, an improvised formation.

The Eighth Army commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese (who had taught Hull at the Staff College, Quetta before the war), intended to launch an offensive to breach the Gothic Line, believing he could reach the Po Valley.

[11] On 24 September, however, the division received the news that it was to be disbanded, due to a severe manpower shortage that was afflicting the British Army at this stage of the war, particularly in Italy.

The division arrived in Belgium in early March, and on 17 April was assigned to Lieutenant-General Evelyn Barker's VIII Corps, then just a few miles from the western bank of the Elbe river.

The division crossed the river after facing light resistance and was not involved in much fighting thereafter and managed to enter the city of Lübeck in Northern Germany on 3 May, just a few days before the end of World War II in Europe.

[11] Promoted to colonel on 13 April 1946,[14] he again succeeded Major-General Philip Gregson-Ellis, this time as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley in May 1946, an assignment appointed to only the most promising officers.

[11] Having been promoted again to major-general on 13 June 1947,[15] he became Director of Staff Duties at the War Office in September 1948 and Chief Army Instructor at the Imperial Defence College on 1 January 1951.

[17] He was appointed GOC British Troops in Egypt on 15 June 1954[18] and, having been promoted to lieutenant-general on 29 September 1954[19] and advanced to a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the New Year Honours 1956,[20] he became Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff on 5 October 1956.

[21][11] He was appointed Commander-in-Chief Far East Land Forces on 25 June 1958[22] and, having been promoted to full general on 13 February 1959,[23] and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1961.

[26] Having been promoted to field marshal on 8 February 1965,[27] he was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of the British Armed Forces, on 16 July 1965.

[2] He was appointed Constable of the Tower of London from 1 August 1970,[31] Lord Lieutenant of Devon from 5 October 1978[32] and a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter on 23 April 1980.

Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery acknowledges the cheers of Belgian civilians during a tour of 5th Division in and around Ghent, 20 March 1945. Driving the car is Major-General Richard Hull, GOC of the 5th Division.
Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery poses for a group photograph with his staff and army, corps and divisional commanders at Walbeck , Germany, 22 March 1945. Pictured standing in the back row, on the far left, is Major-General Richard Hull.
An Australian soldier in action during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
General Sir Richard Hull arrives at PAF Station Peshawar , greeted by Air Marshal Asghar Khan , 13 March 1963.
Hull (left), talking with Lieutenant Colonel J. C. H. Serette of Trinidad & Tobago (centre) and Major General Abdul Hamid Bin Bidin of Malaysia, 1964.