Eric Dorman-Smith

Eric Dorman-Smith
Eric Dorman-Smith (left) talking with General Sir Alan Brooke at El Alamein, Egypt, August 1942.
Other name(s)	Eric Dorman O'Gowan
Nickname(s)	"Chink"
Born	24 July 1895 Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland[1]
Died	11 May 1969 (aged 73) Cavan General Hospital, Lisdarn, County Cavan, Ireland
Buried	Kilcrow, Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland
Service / branch	British Army Irish Republican Army
Years of service	1914–1944
Rank	Brigadier[1]
Service number	8427
Unit	Northumberland Fusiliers
Commands	1st Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers Staff College, Haifa 160th Infantry Brigade 3rd Infantry Brigade
Battles / wars	First World War Irish War of Independence Second World War
Awards	Military Cross Mentioned in dispatches (5)[1]
Relations	Reginald Dorman-Smith (brother)

Brigadier Eric Edward "Chink" Dorman-Smith (24 July 1895 – 11 May 1969), who later changed his name to Eric Edward Dorman O'Gowan, was an Irish officer whose career in the British Army began in the First World War and closed at the end of the Second World War. In the 1950s, Dorman-Smith (then Dorman O’Gowan) became an officer in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

In the 1920s, during the interwar period, he was one of the military thinkers in various countries, like Heinz Guderian in Germany and Charles de Gaulle in France, who realised that technology and motorisation were changing the way that wars and battles were fought. Influenced by J. F. C. Fuller, Archibald Wavell, B. H. Liddell Hart, and many others, Dorman-Smith tried to change the culture of the British Army and held a number of teaching and training roles in various parts of the British Empire. Although he made several contributions in advisory roles during the campaigns in the Western Desert from 1940 to 1941, it was not until May 1942 that he went on active service again. His service in the Second World War is shrouded in controversy and ended when he was fired from his command in August 1944.