Frederick Browning

For the English cricketer and British Army officer, see Frederick Browning (cricketer).

Lieutenant General

Sir Frederick Browning

GCVO KBE CB DSO
Browning as General Officer Commanding, 1st Airborne Division, October 1942
Nickname(s)
  • Boy
  • Tommy
Born(1896-12-20)20 December 1896
Kensington, London
Died14 March 1965(1965-03-14) (aged 68)
Menabilly, Cornwall
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1915–1948
RankLieutenant-general
Service number22588
UnitGrenadier Guards
Commands
Battles / wars
Awards
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1932)​
Relations
Other work

Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning GCVO KBE CB DSO (20 December 1896 – 14 March 1965) was a senior officer of the British Army who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces".[1] He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier.

Educated at Eton College and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Browning was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards in 1915. During the First World War, he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In September 1918, he became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson.

During the Second World War, Browning commanded the 1st Airborne Division and I Airborne Corps, and was also the deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, it has been suggested that he said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far."[2][3][4] In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. From September 1946 to January 1948, he was Military Secretary of the War Office.

In January 1948, Browning became comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, he became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. He suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1957 and retired in 1959. He died at Menabilly, the mansion that inspired his wife's novel Rebecca, on 14 March 1965.

  1. ^ Mead 2010, p. 66
  2. ^ Ryan 1974, p. 67
  3. ^ Beevor 2019, p. 31: "Browning had strenuously supported Comet, which included Arnhem. Now, he was to command three and a half airborne divisions to do the same job, not just one and a half, so he was unlikely to oppose the field marshal on the subject. And the suggestion that on 10 September Browning had said to Montgomery that Arnhem might be going 'a bridge too far' is highly improbable, since they do not appear to have met that day."
  4. ^ Buckingham 2002, p. 209: "[Roy] Urquhart's biographer also casts doubt on whether Browning expressed such a reservation and suggests that the bridge too far comment came from Montgomery."