William Stratton (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir William Henry Stratton KCB, CVO, CBE, DSO (1903–1989) was a senior British Army officer who was Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong from 1955 to 1957.

Military career

Stratton was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1924.^[1] He was deployed to the Gold Coast before becoming Assistant Instructor at the Royal School of Military Engineering in 1933.^[1]

He served in the Second World War as a brigadier on the General Staff of General Headquarters Home Forces and then of the General Staff of the 8th Army in Italy.^[1] In 1944 he was appointed Commander of 169th Infantry Brigade.^[1]

After the war he was appointed Chief of Staff at British Army of the Rhine, a post he held until 1949 when he became Commandant of the Joint Services Staff College.^[1] In 1952 he became Head of the British Army Staff in Washington, D.C.^[1] He went on to be General Officer Commanding 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division in 1953 and Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong in 1955.^[1] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1957 New Year Honours.^[2] His last post was Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1957; he retired in 1960.^[1]

He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers from 1960 to 1968.^[1]

References