John Whiteley
British Army general
Died when: 73 years 347 days (887 months)Star Sign: Gemini
General Sir John Francis Martin Whiteley, GBE, KCB, MC (7 June 1896 – 20 May 1970) was a senior British Army officer who became Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff (DCIGS).
A career soldier, Whiteley was commissioned in 1915 into the Royal Engineers from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.During the First World War he served in Salonika and the Middle East.
In May 1940, during the Second World War, he was posted to General Headquarters (GHQ) Middle East in Cairo as Brigadier, General Staff (BGS) (Operations) under General Sir Archibald Wavell.
In March 1942 he became Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army, participating in the Battle of Gazala and the First Battle of El Alamein.
In September 1942 Whiteley joined Lieutenant General Dwight D.Eisenhower's Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) as the British Deputy Chief of Staff.
When Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord in January 1944, Whiteley was one of three key British staff officers Eisenhower brought to England to staff the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF).
Whiteley initially became Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence (G-2) at SHAEF before becoming deputy to the Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations (G-3), Major General Harold Bull in May 1944.
After a few months in Germany as Assistant Chief of Staff in the Control Commission, Whiteley was appointed Army Instructor at the Imperial Defence College to initiate the post-war courses under General Sir William Slim as commandant.
In 1947 Whiteley was selected for an exchange of appointments with Canada, and became Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada.
He was DCIGS under Slim from 1949 until 1953, when he was promoted to full general, and took up his last appointment, as chairman of the British Joint Services Mission, Washington, D.C. and UK Representative on the NATO Standing Group from 1953 to 1956.
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