Major General Robert Elliot "Roy" Urquhart, CB, DSO & Bar (28 November 1901 – 13 December 1988) was a British Army officer who saw service during the Second World War and Malayan Emergency.

He became prominent for his role as General Officer Commanding the 1st Airborne Division, which fought with great distinction, although suffering very severe casualties, in the Battle of Arnhem during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

[9] Urquhart attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1936 to 1937, and then returned to the 2nd Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Horatio Berney-Ficklin.

Then he was appointed as a staff officer in the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, which was then stationed in the United Kingdom before moving to North Africa in mid-1942.

[4][12] For a short time, after being promoted to brigadier,[5] he commanded the 231st Infantry Brigade, which saw action during the Allied invasion of Sicily and in the early stages of the Italian Campaign.

[4] For nine days Urquhart's division fought unsupported against armoured units of II SS Panzer Corps and suffered increasingly heavy casualties during the Battle of Arnhem.

[4][14] In May 1945, following the German surrender, Urquhart led the 1st Airborne Division, as the advanced guard of Force 134, during Operation Doomsday, the Allied reoccupation of Norway.

[4] He was charged with supervising the surrender of the German forces, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities.

Due to delays in troop arrivals, Urquhart ended up driving into Oslo in a captured German staff car, accompanied only by four military policemen and two infantry platoons.

As a result, Urquhart welcomed Crown Prince Olaf of Norway, and three ministers representing the Norwegian Government, when they arrived on a Royal Navy cruiser.