Frederick Browning
Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning was a British Army officer who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier.
Educated at Eton College and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Browning was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards in 1915. During the First World War, he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In September 1918, he became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson.
During the Second World War, Browning commanded the 1st Airborne Division and I Airborne Corps, and was also the deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, it has been suggested that he said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. From September 1946 to January 1948, he was Military Secretary of the War Office.
In January 1948, Browning became comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, he became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. He suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1957 and retired in 1959. He died at Menabilly, the mansion that inspired his wife's novel Rebecca, on 14 March 1965.
Early life
Frederick Arthur Montague Browning was born on 20 December 1896 at his family home at 31 Hans Road, Brompton, London. The house was later demolished to make way for an expansion of Harrods, allowing him to claim in later life that he had been born in its piano department. He was the first son of Frederick Henry Browning, a wine merchant, and his wife Anne "Nancy" née Alt. He had one sibling, an older sister, Helen Grace. From an early age, he was known to his family as "Tommy". He was educated at West Downs School and Eton College, which his grandfather had attended. While at Eton, he joined the Officer Training Corps.First World War
Browning sat the entrance examinations for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on 24 November 1914. Although he did not achieve the necessary scores in all the required subjects, the headmasters of some schools, including Eton, were in a position to recommend students for nomination by the Army Council. The headmaster of Eton, Edward Lyttelton, put Browning's name forward and in this way he entered Sandhurst on 27 December 1914. He graduated on 16 June 1915, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. Joining such an exclusive regiment, even in wartime, required a personal introduction and an interview by the regimental commander, Colonel Sir Henry Streatfeild.Initially, Browning, promoted to lieutenant on 15 July, joined the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards, which was training at Bovington Camp. When the 4th Battalion departed for the Western Front in August 1915, he was transferred to the 5th Battalion. In October 1915 he left it to join the 2nd Battalion at the front. The battalion formed part of the 1st Guards Brigade of the Guards Division. Around this time he acquired the nickname "Boy". For a time he served in the same company of 2nd Battalion as Major Winston Churchill. Upon Churchill's arrival, Browning was given the job of showing him the company's trenches. When Browning discovered that Churchill had no greatcoat, Browning gave Churchill his own.
Browning was invalided back to England with trench fever in January 1916, and, although only hospitalised for four weeks, was not passed as fit for service at the front until 20 September, and did not rejoin the 2nd Battalion at the front until 6 October 1916. After being discharged from hospital, he went on leave for two months. In April he was posted to the 5th Battalion, and then to the Guards Depot at Caterham Barracks.
Browning fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge on 31 July 1917, the Battle of Poelcappelle on 9 October and the Battle of Cambrai in November. He distinguished himself at Cambrai and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order, usually given only to officers in command, above the rank of lieutenant-colonel. When a junior officer like Browning, who was still only a lieutenant, was awarded the DSO, this was often regarded as an acknowledgement that the officer had only just missed out on being awarded the Victoria Cross. His citation read:
He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on 14 December 1917, the same month he was made an acting captain, a rank he held until December 1920, and was mentioned in despatches on 23 May 1918. In September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive which saw the tide of the war turn in favour of the Allies, Browning temporarily became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson, commander of the British Fourth Army. The appointment only lasted a few weeks, however, before Browning returned to his regiment in early November. He was promoted to the temporary rank of captain, and appointed adjutant of the 1st Grenadier Guards, then part of the 3rd Guards Brigade of the Guards Division, in November 1918.
Inter-war period
Browning was granted the substantive rank of captain on 24 November 1920. He retained his post as adjutant until November 1921, when he was posted to the Guards' Depot at Caterham Barracks. In 1924 he was posted to Sandhurst as adjutant. He was the first adjutant, during the Sovereign's Parade of 1926, to ride his horse up the steps of Old College and to dismount in the Grand Entrance. There is no satisfactory explanation as to why he did it. After the Second World War this became an enduring tradition, but since horses have great difficulty going down steps, a ramp is now provided for the horse to return.Other members of staff at Sandhurst at the time included Richard O'Connor, Miles Dempsey, Douglas Gracey, Ronald Brittain and Eric Dorman-Smith. Dorman-Smith and Browning became close friends. Browning relinquished the appointment of adjutant at Sandhurst on 28 April 1928, and was promoted to major on 22 May 1928. Following a pattern whereby tours of duty away from the regiment alternated with those in it, he was sent for a refresher course at the Small Arms School before being posted to the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, at Pirbright.
His workload was very light, allowing plenty of time for sport. Browning competed in the Amateur Athletic Association of England championships in hurdling, finishing third behind L. H. Phillips in the 440 yards hurdles event at the 1923 AAA Championships but failed to make Olympic selection. He did however make the Olympic five-man bobsleigh team as brake-man. An injury incurred during a training accident prevented his participation in the bobsleigh at the 1924 Winter Olympics, but he competed in the bobsleigh at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in which his team finished tenth. Browning was also a keen sailor, competing in the Household Cavalry Sailing Regatta at Chichester Harbour in 1930. He purchased his own motor boat, a cabin cruiser that he named Ygdrasil.
In 1931, Browning read Daphne du Maurier's novel The Loving Spirit and, impressed by its graphic depictions of the Cornish coastline, set out to see it for himself on Ygdrasil. Afterwards, he left the boat moored in the River Fowey for the winter, and returned in April 1932 to collect it. He heard that the author of the book that had impressed him so much was convalescing from an appendix operation, and invited her out on his boat. After a short romance, he proposed to her but she rejected this, as she did not believe in marriage. Dorman-Smith visited her and explained that it would be disastrous for Browning's career for him to live with Du Maurier without marriage. Du Maurier then proposed to Browning, who accepted. They were married in a simple ceremony at the Church of St Willow, Lanteglos-by-Fowey on 19 July 1932, and honeymooned on Ygdrasil. Their marriage produced three children: two daughters, Tessa and Flavia, and a son, Christian, known as Kits.
Browning was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 1 February 1936, and was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. The battalion was deployed to Egypt in 1936 and returned in December 1937. His term as commander ended on 1 August 1939; he was removed from the Grenadier Guards' regimental list but remained on full pay. On 1 September, he was promoted to colonel, with his seniority backdated to 1 February 1939, and became assistant commandant of the Small Arms School.
Second World War
Airborne troops
Establishment
Browning remained in this position for a month before becoming the school's commandant, which saw him promoted to the acting rank of brigadier. Despite this being an important job he was not altogether pleased with the assignment: his wish was to be with one of the three regular Grenadier battalions out in France.File:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H19947.jpg|thumb|right|King George VI inspects an airborne jeep fitted with a Vickers machine gun during a visit to the airborne forces in Southern Command, 21 May 1942, with Browning |alt=
In mid-May 1940, Browning, his rank of brigadier having by now been made temporary rather than acting, was given command of the 128th Infantry Brigade, consisting of the 1/4th, 2/4th and 5th Battalions of the Hampshire Regiment. Part of the 43rd Infantry Division, which was then commanded by Major-General Robert Pollok, the brigade was a Territorial Army unit that was preparing to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. This was pre-empted by the Dunkirk evacuation and the subsequent fall of France in June, and the division instead assumed a defensive posture.
The next few months were spent in numerous activities, the most important of which was training to repel a possible German invasion of Britain. The severe shortage of equipment that plagued the army during this time made Browning's already formidable task even more difficult. Despite this, he managed to impress his superiors, including his immediate superior, Pollok, who was inspired by the way in which Browning's brigade responded to his command. He recommended Browning for the command of a division, as did Lieutenant-General Francis Nosworthy, commanding IV Corps, and Lieutenant-General Guy Williams, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command, although all three believed that Browning needed more time and experience.
In late February 1941, after handing over the brigade to Brigadier Manley James, Browning succeeded Brigadier The Hon. William Fraser, a fellow Grenadier Guardsman and an old friend, in command of the 24th Guards Brigade Group. Such was his popularity by now within the 128th Brigade, that when Browning left his old command many members of the brigade turned out to cheer him on and wish him well. While the 24th Brigade was not a division, it was perhaps the next best thing to one. The brigade group's objective was to defend London from an attack from the south.
On 3 November 1941, Browning was promoted to the acting rank of major-general, and appointed as the first General Officer Commanding of the newly created 1st Airborne Division. The division initially comprised the 1st Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier Richard Gale, and the 1st Airlanding Brigade, under Brigadier George Hopkinson. In this new role he was instrumental in parachutists adopting the maroon beret, and assigned an artist, Major Edward Seago, to design the Parachute Regiment's emblem of the mythical Greek hero Bellerophon riding the winged horse Pegasus. Because of this he has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". Browning designed his own uniform. He qualified as a pilot in 1942, and henceforth wore the Army Air Corps wings, which he also designed.