Douglas Henry Pratt

Douglas Henry Pratt
Born	(1892-10-07)7 October 1892 Jaunpur, India
Died	14 May 1958(1958-05-14) (aged 65)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1911−1946
Rank	Major General
Service number	4584
Unit	Royal Irish Regiment Royal Tank Regiment
Commands held	2nd Royal Tank Regiment 1st Army Tank Brigade
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Mentioned in dispatches (3) Legion of Merit (United States)

Major General Douglas Henry Pratt CB, DSO, MC (7 October 1892 – 14 May 1958) was a British Army officer who served in World War I and World War II.^[1]

Military career[]

Douglas Henry Pratt was born in British India on 7 October 1892 and was sent to England where he was initially educated at Dover College and later entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Irish Regiment on 20 September 1911.^[1] His first three years of his military career were spent in British India, until the First World War in August 1914.^[1]

Pratt spent the First World War in France. By the war's end he had been awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order, mentioned in dispatches three times and, in 1916, had transferred to the Tank Corps, later the Royal Tank Regiment.^[1]

Continuing his military service into the interwar period, he attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1923−1924 and served as a staff officer with the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division from 1926−1928. Pratt served on exchange with the Australian Army and was appointed as the commandant of Duntroon in 1931. He is the only non-Australian officer to have served in the role.^[2] Returning to England, he served on the staff at the War Office from 1934−1935 and later commanded the 2nd Battalion, Royal Tank Corps until 1937. The following year he returned to the War Office, this time as Assistant Director of Mechanization.^[1]

Remaining in this position until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he was promoted the following month to be the commander of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, which became part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. The tank brigade fought against the Germans in Belgium and Northern France, during the counter-attack at the Battle of Arras and the Allied retreat to Dunkirk.^[1]

After being evacuated from France, Pratt was promoted to major general and sent to Washington, D.C., in the United States, to become Major General Armoured Fighting Vehicles where it was largely due to him that the Sherman tank, which was then in development, was upgraded and up-gunned to British requirements. In 1943 he became Deputy Director of the British Supply Mission in Washington. The war over in 1945, Pratt retired from the army, after a thirty-five year career, in 1946.^[1]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844150496.
• Moore, Darren (2001). Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911–2001. Canberra: Royal Military College of Australia. ISBN 978-1-876439-97-2.
• Buckton, Henry. Retreat: Dunkirk and the Evacuation of Western Europe. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2017. ISBN 1445664836

External links[]

• British Army Officers 1939−1945
• Generals of World War II