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 ...

Robert Adolphus George Tilney, (2 November 1903 – May 1981) was a

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 who served during 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 ...

Military career

Robert Tilney was a Territorial Army officer, formerly of the

Leicestershire Yeomanry The Leicestershire Yeomanry (Prince Albert's Own) was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794 and again in 1803, which provided cavalry and mounted infantry in the Second Boer War and the First World War and provided two fie ...

. He was the son of Colonel William Arthur Tilney and Hylda Sophia Paget. On 5 November 1943 Tilney was appointed to command the British forces on the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

island of Leros, replacing Major-General F.G.R. Brittorous. He had under his command the 234th Infantry Brigade and an assortment of

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

and Italian Navy troops. The island of Leros was invaded by German forces on 12 November 1943 and Tilney surrendered on 16 November. Tilney spent the rest of the war as a POW in camp Oflag IX-A/H in Germany. His POW number there was 1765. In 1945 he was awarded 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 ...

and in 1962 he was appointed 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 ...

References

External links

British Army Officers 1939−1945
* British Army brigadiers of World War II British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Royal Artillery officers Deputy lieutenants of Leicestershire Leicestershire Yeomanry officers Dodecanese campaign Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Military personnel from Edinburgh {{UK-army-bio-stub