Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

Arthur Kingscote Potter (7 April 1905 – 25 February 1998) was a

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

officer, civil servant and diplomat.

Early life

Potter was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

, the son of Richard Ellis Potter and Harriot Isabel Kingscote (b. 22 Dec 1865, d. 3 Apr 1940). He was educated at

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

. Select British > Indian Army > P

Career

He entered the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

on 9 October 1928. In December of that year he was posted to Burma as Assistant Commissioner, and oversaw the Government relief effort following the 1930 Pyu earthquake. In 1934 Potter became a District Commissioner in Burma and in 1937 he was appointed Controller of Finance. In 1942, Potter became financial advisor to the

British Burma Army The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include ...

, before serving briefly as Financial Secretary to the Government of Burma. On 1 June 1943 he received a commission in the British Indian Army and subsequently worked as financial adviser to the

11th Army Group The 11th Army Group was the main British Army force in Southeast Asia during the Second World War. Although a nominally British formation, it also included large numbers of troops and formations from the British Indian Army and from British Africa ...

. From 1944 to 1947 he was Chief Financial Officer to the Military Administration of Burma, and he was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in June 1946. In November 1947, he was transferred to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

, and was the Treasury's representative in India, Burma and Pakistan until 1950. Between 1950 and 1956 Potter was Assistant Secretary at HM Treasury. His final posting was as a Counsellor in the UK Delegation to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

in Paris from 1956 to his retirement in 1965. Potter was made a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

in the

1957 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1957 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lon ...

Personal life

On 20 July 1950, he married Hilda Hodgkinson Butterfield, the daughter of William Arthur Butterfield OBE and Rebecca Emelda Stevenson; they had one daughter, Beatrice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Arthur 1905 births 1998 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford British civil servants British Indian Army officers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Indian Army personnel of World War II Indian Civil Service (British India) officers People educated at Charterhouse School Military personnel from Dublin (city)