Henry Pownall Lieutenant General Sir Henry Royds Pownall KCB , KBE , DSO & Bar ( 19 November 1887 – 10 June 1961 ) was a senior British Army officer who held several important command and Staff appointments during World War II . In particular , he was Chief of Staff to the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) in France and Belgium until the fall of France in May 1940 . He was later Chief of Staff to General Archibald Wavell until the fall of Singapore in 1942 , and Chief of Staff to Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1943 – 44 . Early career . Pownall was born on 19 November 1887 and received his education at Rugby School and Royal Military Academy , Woolwich . After graduating he began his military service with the Royal Field Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery , during which he was stationed in both Britain and India 1906 – 1914 . In 1909 he was promoted to lieutenant , and then captain in 1914 . World War I . During World War I Pownall served in both France and Belgium . He was promoted to major in 1917 and oversaw the Royal Artillery , 17th Division . For his service during the war Pownall was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1918 . Interbellum . Following the war , Pownall served as Brigade Major at the School of Artillery in Larkhill from 1924 to 1925 . He continued his training and education as General Staff Officer ( Grade 2 ) at the Staff College , Camberley from 1926 to 1929 where he became a brevet lieutenant - colonel in 1928 . After completing his training at Staff College he took part in Great Game operations in the North West Frontier of India through 1931 . Following this , Pownall held a series of staff appointments , serving as the Military Assistant Secretary for the Committee of Imperial Defence from 1933 to 1935 , then as Deputy Secretary for the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1936 . From 1936 to 1938 , he was Commandant of the Royal School of Artillery . As the threat of war grew , he was Director of Military Operations and Military Intelligence in the War Office from 1938 to 1939 . World War II . Britain entered the war after Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 . Pownall held a series of command and senior staff positions throughout the war . He was appointed Chief of General Staff for the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) in France and Belgium until the fall of France in May 1940 . He then assumed the position of Inspector General for the recently created Home Guard and was Commander of British Troops in Northern Ireland , before being appointed the Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff in the War Office in 1941 . He subsequently became Commander - in - Chief of the British Far East Command in South East Asia until 1942 when it was succeeded by the short - lived ABDACOM where he became Chief of Staff to General Sir Archibald Wavell . Afterwards he assumed the role of General Officer Commanding , Ceylon from 1942 to 1943 , and Commander - in - Chief of the Persia and Iraq theatres in 1943 . Finally , he was appointed Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten , the Supreme Commander of the Allied South East Asia Command from 1943 to 1944 . After the conclusion of the war he retired from the British army in 1945 . During the war Pownall received the distinctions of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1940 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1945 . He married Mary Henderson in 1918 , and was stepfather to her son , Willoughby Gray . Pownall died on 10 June 1961 , aged 73 . Further reading . Henry Pownall ' s diaries were published as " Chief of Staff . The Diaries of Lieutenant - General Sir Henry Pownall " , edited by Brian Bond ( Leo Cooper , London , 1972 )