Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside

Field Marshal The Right Honourable

The Lord Ironside

GCB CMG DSO
Field Marshal The Right Honourable; The Lord Ironside; GCB CMG DSO
	Field Marshal The Lord Ironside
Birth name	William Edmund Ironside
Nickname(s)	Tiny
Born	6 May 1880; Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	22 September 1959 (aged 79); Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1899–1940
Rank	Field Marshal
Unit	Royal Artillery
Commands held	C-in-C Home Forces (1940); Chief IGS (1939–40); Army Inspector-General (1939); Eastern Command (1936–38); 2nd Division (1926–28); Staff College (1922–26); North Persian Force (1921); Archangel expedition (1918–1919); 99th Infantry Brigade (1918);
Battles/wars	Second Boer War; First World War; North Russia Campaign; Second World War;
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath; Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George; Distinguished Service Order; Knight of the Venerable Order of Saint John; Mentioned in Despatches; Legion of Honour (France); Croix de Guerre (France); Order of St. Vladimir (Russia); Order of the Lion and the Sun (Iran); Order of the Rising Sun (Japan);

Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside GCB CMG DSO (6 May 1880 – 22 September 1959) was a senior officer of the British Army who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War.

Ironside joined the Royal Artillery in 1899, and served throughout the Second Boer War. This was followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of the 6th Infantry Division during the first two years of the First World War, before being appointed to a position on the staff of the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916. In 1918, he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front. In 1919, he was promoted to command the Allied intervention force in northern Russia. Ironside was then assigned to an Allied force occupying Turkey, and then to the British forces based in Persia in 1921. He was offered the post of the commander of British forces in Iraq, but was unable to take up the role due to injuries in a flying accident.

He returned to the Army as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, where he advocated the ideas of J. F. C. Fuller, a proponent of mechanisation. He later commanded a division, and military districts in both Britain and India, but his youth and his blunt approach limited his career prospects, and after being passed over for the role of Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in 1937 he became Governor of Gibraltar, a traditional staging post to retirement. He was recalled from "exile" in mid-1939, being appointed as Inspector-General of Overseas Forces, a role which led most observers to expect he would be given the command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the outbreak of war.

However, after some political manoeuvring, General Gort was given this command and Ironside was appointed as the new Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Ironside himself believed that he was temperamentally unsuited to the job, but felt obliged to accept it. In early 1940 he argued heavily for Allied intervention in Scandinavia, but this plan was shelved at the last minute when the Finnish-Soviet Winter War ended. During the invasion of Norway and the Battle of France he played little part; his involvement in the latter was limited by a breakdown in relations between him and Gort. He was replaced as CIGS at the end of May, and given a role to which he was more suited: Commander-in-Chief Home Forces, responsible for anti-invasion defences and for commanding the Army in the event of German landings. However, he served less than two months in this role before being replaced. After this, Ironside was promoted to Field Marshal and raised to the peerage as Baron Ironside.

Lord Ironside retired to Morley Old Hall in Norfolk to write, and never again saw active service or held any official position.