Ralph Eastwood
Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Ralph Eastwood, was a senior British Army officer who notably served as Governor of Gibraltar towards the end of the Second World War.
Early life
Thomas Ralph Eastwood was born on 10 May 1890 at Canterbury in the county of Kent in England. He was the second son of Captain Hugh de Crespigny Eastwood of the King's Dragoon Guards who went on to distinguish himself in the Second Boer War, earned the Distinguished Service Order in 1902 and finished his military career as Inspector of Cyclist Units in 1918. Ralph's mother was Elinor, who married Hugh in 1887 and was the daughter of General John Hall Smyth. Elinor's sister was Ethel Smyth, the composer and militant suffragette. Ralph's older brother Hugh became a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy. Eastwood was educated at Eton College from 1904 to 1908.Military career
After leaving Eton, Eastwood was accepted into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) in October 1910.He was promoted to lieutenant in November 1911 and, a year later, in November 1912, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the governor of New Zealand, Lord Liverpool. He was released from this role on the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914, when he was commissioned into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, later serving as a captain in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of Liverpool's Own). After participating in the occupation of German Samoa, Eastwood left New Zealand with the Third Reinforcement in February 1915, arriving at Suez by sea forty days later.
In April 1915, his battalion was deployed to Gallipoli, where he served as a staff captain and was later awarded the Military Cross for his leadership of a column during a night assault on 6–7 August 1915. The medal's citation reads:
After service with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Eastwood's brigade was transferred to France, where in October 1917 he became a general staff officer, grade 2 and was later promoted to the rank of major.
Eastwood transferred back to the British Army on 17 October 1918, and in 1919 he served in the ill-fated North Russia Intervention, as brigade major on General Lord Rawlinson's staff. After further staff duties at Aldershot, Cork in Ireland, and after having attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1921 to 1922, and served on the staff at the War Office in London, before becoming an instructor at the Staff College, in 1928. Following a spell as Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps, he was appointed Commandant of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, with the rank of major-general in 1938.