Major General Cosmo Alexander Richard Nevill, (14 July 1907 – 19 September 2002) was a senior

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

who fought in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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and later commanded the 2nd Division from 1956 to 1958.

Military career

Nevill was educated at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and the Royal Military College Sandhurst.Obituary: Major-General Cosmo Nevill
The Telegraph, 12 October 2002 He was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers in 1927 and then served in India from 1932.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He fought in the

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

and then took part in the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of the 2nd Battalion of the

Devonshire Regiment The Devonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that served under various titles and served in many wars and conflicts from 1685 to 1958, such as the Second Boer War, the World War I, First World War and the World War II, ...

. His battalion captured the

Longues-sur-Mer battery The Longues-sur-Mer battery (German: ''Marineküstenbatterie (MKB) Longues-sur-Mer''; also designated ''Widerstandsnest (Wn) 48'') is a World War II German coastal artillery battery approximately north of the village of Longues-sur-Mer in Nor ...

and took 120 prisoners, earning him the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

. After the war Nevill served on the General Staff of the Military Staff Committee at the

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in New York. He became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers in Germany in 1950, commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade at

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

in 1951 and commandant of the School of Infantry at

Warminster Warminster () is a historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in south-west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of 18,173 in 2021. The name ''Warminster'' occurs first i ...

in 1954. His last appointment was as General Officer Commanding of the 2nd Infantry Division at

Hilden Hilden () is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is situated in the Mettmann (district), District of Mettmann, west of Solingen and east of Düsseldorf on the right side of the Rhine. It is a middle sized industrial town ...

in 1956 before he retired in 1960 following a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

. In retirement Nevill became a respected

oil painter Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

Family

In 1934 Nevill married Grania Goodliffe; they had a son and a daughter.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nevill, Cosmo 1907 births 2002 deaths British Army major generals Royal Fusiliers officers Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order People educated at Harrow School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst People from Bordon British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Hampshire