Glyn Gilbert

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British Army general (1920–2003)

title: "Glyn Gilbert" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920-births", "2003-deaths", "bermudian-soldiers", "british-army-major-generals", "british-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "british-military-personnel-of-the-palestine-emergency", "british-parachute-regiment-officers", "companions-of-the-order-of-the-bath", "graduates-of-the-royal-military-college,-sandhurst", "military-of-bermuda", "people-educated-at-eastbourne-college", "recipients-of-the-military-cross", "royal-lincolnshire-regiment-officers", "bermudian-people-of-world-war-ii"] description: "British Army general (1920–2003)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyn_Gilbert" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British Army general (1920–2003) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]

FieldValue
honorific_prefixMajor-General
nameGlyn Gilbert
honorific_suffix
birth_date15 August 1920
death_date
placeofburial_coordinates
allegiance
branch[[File:Flag of the British Army.svg
serviceyears1939–1974
rankMajor-General
commands44th Parachute Brigade
3rd Division
battlesSecond World War
awardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath
Military Cross
::

| honorific_prefix = Major-General | name =Glyn Gilbert | honorific_suffix = | image = | caption = | birth_date =15 August 1920 | death_date = | placeofburial_label = | placeofburial = | birth_place = | death_place = | placeofburial_coordinates = | nickname = | allegiance = | branch =[[File:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] British Army | serviceyears =1939–1974 | rank =Major-General | unit = | commands =44th Parachute Brigade 3rd Division | battles =Second World War | awards =Companion of the Order of the Bath Military Cross | relations = | laterwork = Major-General Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert CB MC (15 August 1920 – 26 September 2003) was a 20th-century British military officer who saw active service during the Second World War. In 1970, he became the highest ranking Bermudian military officer when he was promoted to the rank of major-general in the British Army.

Early life

Gilbert was born into a family with its roots in the 17th century settlement of Bermuda, where the family is based mostly in Paget and Warwick parishes. A Thomas Gilbert of Warwick gifted the land upon which Christ Church in Warwick, the oldest Presbyterian church outside of the British Isles, was built in 1719 (Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert's parents, however, belonged to the St. Paul's Church (Church of England) in Paget). His father, Major Charles Gray Gosling Gilbert, OBE, MC, was the long-time head of the Colony's education department (1924–1956) (the school of Gilbert Institute, in Paget, opened on 26 May, 1933, is named for him). Charles Gilbert, a Bermuda Rhodes Scholar from 1913, had been studying at Brasenose College, Oxford, in England when the Great War began. He left the university and was commissioned into the Royal West Kent Regiment, before serving on the Western Front in the Machine Gun Corps. Other Bermudian students in Britain similarly left their studies to serve in the British Army, including another Bermudian Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Lennock de Graaf Godet, killed in action while serving in the Royal Flying Corps. During the Second World War, Gilbert was also in charge of cable censorship in Bermuda.

Glyn Gilbert was born in England, where his father worked briefly after leaving the Army following the end of the Great War. Raised in Bermuda, he was sent to Eastbourne College in England. After leaving school the year before the start of the Second World War, and anticipating the coming conflict, Glyn Gilbert returned briefly to Bermuda before enrolling at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. The 1939 class of officer cadets was hurried through its training, and Gilbert was commissioned into the Lincolnshire Regiment. Two contingents from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps had served with the Lincolnshire Regiment on the Western Front, during the Great War. Since the 1920s, the affiliation between the two units had been given official sanction, with the Lincolns taking a paternal relationship towards the BVRC, akin to that it had with its own Territorial battalions. The BVRC would send drafts to the Lincolns again, in 1940 and 1944.

Service in Second World War

In 1944, Major Gilbert, as Officer Commanding "C" Company, 2nd Lincolns, was one of only two Bermudians to land on the beaches of Normandy. He later earned the immediate award of the Military Cross in the crossing of the Escaut Canal, part of a larger operation to cross the Rhine. He, and another company commander involved, was decorated with the medal by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, personally. As Gilbert put it, 'later that day [of the crossing], the ribbon was pinned on while we were still in the field. The next day we were relieved by a contingent of Bermudians', which included his cousin, Lieutenant Ambrose Gosling. The Bermudians were part of a draft of Lincolns sent from England, under the command of Bermudian Major Anthony Frith "Toby" Smith, who was killed in action shortly thereafter. Glyn ended the War in Northern Germany, where 2 Lincolns had taken part in the capture of Bremen. He was one of four Bermudians who served in the Lincolns during the War and who attained the rank of major while serving in the regiment (the others were Anthony Frith Smith, John Brownlow-Tucker, and Patrick Purcell). Another volunteer from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, who transferred to the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1940, Lieutenant Bernard John Abbott, a school teacher who had originally been commissioned into the Bermuda Cadet Corps, would end the war as an honorary lieutenant-colonel.

Post-war service

After the War, Gilbert was attached to the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (3 Para), serving in Palestine. Following this command, he was promoted to brigadier general, in command of the Territorial Army's 44th Parachute Brigade. After attending the Imperial Defence College, Gilbert became commandant of the School of Infantry, Warminister, in 1967. While there, he entertained HM the Queen in his own home when she visited the school. He was promoted to major-general in 1970 and appointed General Officer Commanding 3rd Division before he retired from the Army in 1974. Gilbert was one of the umpires for the 1974 Sandhurst wargame on Operation Sea Lion.

Gilbert also played a pivotal role in the development of the Royal Bermuda Regiment, the Bermudian territorial unit formed in 1965 by amalgamating the BVRC (which had been renamed the Bermuda Rifles) with the Bermuda Militia Artillery. The original mandated strength of the Bermuda Regiment (which became a Royal regiment in 2015) was about 400, all ranks. Following discipline problems during an exercise in the West Indies, a report on the unit was commissioned from Major-General Gilbert, who also took into account the difficulties the regiment subsequently experienced in meeting its obligations when embodied during the civil unrest of 1977, when it had proven under-strength and had required regular army reinforcement. He made a number of recommendations, including the increase of the regiment's strength to a full battalion of about 750, with three rifle companies and a support company.

Private life

In 1943, Gilbert married Heather Mary Jackson, and they had three sons, including Major Graham Gilbert, and one daughter.

In retirement, Gilbert continued to live at Heytesbury. A member of the Army and Navy Club, in Who's Who he stated his recreation as "following the sun". His wife died in 2000, and he himself died in 2003, at the age of 83.

References

References

  1. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1444923/Major-General-Glyn-Gilbert.html Obituary: Major-General Glyn Gilbert] The Telegraph, 24 October 2003
  2. . (). ["An Overview of Our History"](http://www.christchurch.bm/index.php/church-history).
  3. Hollis Hallett, C. F. E.. (2005). "19th Century Church Registers of Bermuda". Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press.
  4. [http://www.rhodes.bm/rhreg.htm The Rhodes Trust Register of Bermuda Rhodes Scholars: 1913: GILBERT, Charles Gray Gosling]
  5. "Bermuda Ministry of Education; Gilbert Institute".
  6. [http://www.geocities.ws/gpvillain/15-6apr1.html The Royal Gazette, 6 April 1915:] MR. C. G. G. GILBERT GRANTED A COMMISSION.
  7. [http://www.geocities.ws/gpvillain/memoirs-gilbert.html Extract: ''THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES GRAY GOSLING GILBERT, O.B.E., M.C.''. 27 November 1839 9 September 1981. Published by his sons Glyn, John and David.]
  8. [http://www.geocities.ws/mhicgherri/raf-images3 POTSI (archived):] 2/LT Lennock de Graaf Godet
  9. [http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf Army Commands] {{webarchive. link. (5 July 2015)
  10. 'GILBERT, Maj.-Gen. Glyn Charles Anglim', in ''[[Who's Who (UK). Who Was Who 2001–2005]]'' (London: A. & C. Black, 2006, {{ISBN. 0-7136-7601-9)

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1920-births2003-deathsbermudian-soldiersbritish-army-major-generalsbritish-army-personnel-of-world-war-iibritish-military-personnel-of-the-palestine-emergencybritish-parachute-regiment-officerscompanions-of-the-order-of-the-bathgraduates-of-the-royal-military-college,-sandhurstmilitary-of-bermudapeople-educated-at-eastbourne-collegerecipients-of-the-military-crossroyal-lincolnshire-regiment-officersbermudian-people-of-world-war-ii