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, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

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

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

officer who served during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

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 fi ...

. 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: Greece 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 ...

island of

Leros Leros ( el, Λέρος) is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies (171 nautical miles) from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 9-hour ferry ride or by a 45-minute flight f ...

, 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 United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

in camp

Oflag IX-A/H Oflag IX-A was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located in Spangenberg Castle in the small town of Spangenberg in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Camp history The camp was opened in October 1939 as Oflag IX-AMattiello (1986), p.206 to hou ...

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 decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typi ...

and in 1962 he was invested as a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

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