Eric Goddard Lieutenant - General Eric Norman Goddard CB CIE CBE MVO MC ( 6 July 1897 – 11 June 1992 ) was a regular soldier of the Indian Army who rose to the position of General Officer Commanding - in - Chief , Indian Southern Command . Early life . The third son of Arthur Goddard , a London Chartered accountant , by his marriage to Isabel Catherine Roberts , he was born in London , educated at Dulwich College , and commissioned into the Indian Army in 1915 . Military career . Goddard saw active service in Mesopotamia , Persia and Kurdistan between 1916 and 1919 , being twice mentioned in despatches and receiving the Military Cross . He was a General Staff Officer 3 at Army Headquarters India , from 1923 to 1925 . In 1928 he joined the 12th Frontier Force Regiment , passed the Staff College , Quetta , in 1928 – 29 , and was posted as Brigade Major to the Nowshera Brigade from 1932 to 1934 , seeing active service in the Chitral relief operation of 1932 ( when he was again mentioned in despatches and gained a bar to his MC ) and in the Mohmand operations of 1933 ( again mentioned in despatches ) . He was promoted Brevet Major in 1933 and from 1934 to 1936 was a GSO2 in Eastern Command . Appointed Officer in command the King ' s Indian Orderly Officers , 1936 , when he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order ( 4th class ) and the same year became Commandant of the 4th Battalion the 15th Punjab Regiment . In 1939 he was promoted Brevet Colonel and Colonel in command of Administration , Burma Army , then in October 1940 Brigade Commander of the Landi Kotal Brigade . In December 1941 Goddard was promoted Major - General in command of Administration , Army in Burma , and saw service in Burma and on the Eastern front from then until December 1944 . In 1943 – 1944 he was Major - General in command of Administration to the 11th Army Group and to Allied Land Forces in South East Asia , when he was mentioned in despatches a further four times and appointed CIE and CBE . In 1944 he was promoted a Substantive Major - General . Following the end of the Second World War , Goddard was posted as General Officer Commanding - in - Chief of Southern Command , India , serving from 1947 , when he was promoted an Acting Lieutenant - General , until his retiment with the honorary rank of Lieutenant - General in November 1948 . In that role , he was responsible for the Goddard Plan for Operation Polo , the armed invasion by the Union of India of the princely state of Hyderabad , put into effect in September 1948 by Major - General Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri . On his retirement from the Indian Army and the Southern Command in 1948 , Goddard was succeeded by Maharaj Shri Rajendrasinhji Jadeja , the first Indian officer to take on the post . Later career . Goddard returned to Europe from India and next took on a special appointment to the Control Commission for Germany , serving from 1949 to 1953 . He was Director of Civil Defence for the North - Western Region of England , based in Manchester , from 1955 to 1963 . Private life . On 25 May 1939 at Maymyo , Burma , Goddard married Elizabeth Lynch Prioleau Hamilton , daughter of Major Lynch Hamilton by his marriage to Frances Prioleau , and they had one son . At the time of his death in 1992 his address was given in " Who ' s Who " as Kent House , Camden Park , Tunbridge Wells , Kent .