Robert Stone (British Army officer)

Robert Stone
Stone (left) with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his daughter, December 1943.
Born	(1890-01-16)16 January 1890
Died	27 June 1974(1974-06-27) (aged 84)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1902–1947
Rank	Lieutenant general
Unit	Royal Engineers
Commands held	British Troops in Egypt
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War Second World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Military Cross

Lieutenant General Robert Graham William Hawkins Stone CB, DSO, MC (16 January 1890 – 27 June 1974) was a senior British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding (GOC) British Troops in Egypt.

Military career

As a child aged 12, Stone travelled to South Africa, enlisted in the District Mounted Troop, Aliwal North in early 1902, and fought as a private soldier in the Second Boer War.

Subsequently educated at Wellington College, Stone was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1909. He served in the First World War in France, latterly as brigade major for 32nd Infantry Brigade. After attending the Staff College, Camberley in 1923 to 1924, he became a general staff officer at the War Office in 1930, Commander Royal Engineers for Deccan District in India in 1934 and military attaché in Rome in 1935. He went on to be assistant commandant and chief of staff in Sudan in 1938.

Stone also served in the Second World War, initially as chief of British Mission to the Egyptian Army and then, from 1942 as general officer commanding the British Troops in Egypt. In this capacity he had to maintain control during a coup d'état that resulted in Ahmad Pasha becoming Prime Minister of Egypt in 1944 as well as a subsequent mutinies within the Egyptian Army.

He retired in 1947.

Bibliography

• Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnsley, U.K.: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 1-84415-049-6.