William Herbert (British Army officer, born 1880)

Major-General William Norman Herbert, was a senior British Army officer who served as colonel of the Northumberland Fusiliers and commanded the 23rd (Northumbrian) Division in the Battle of France during the Second World War.

Military career

Herbert entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Northumberland Fusiliers on 11 August 1900. He saw active service in the Second Boer War from later that year, and was promoted to lieutenant on 12 December 1901. Following the end of the war in June 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom on the SS Europan, which arrived at Southampton in early September.
Herbert served in the First World War, during which he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in January 1918. He was commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers in which capacity he captured an enemy position together with fifty-nine prisoners for which he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Service Order in January 1919, the citation for which reads:
After attending the Staff College, Camberley, Herbert became a staff officer at Northern Command in 1930, commander of the 10th Brigade in March 1932 and General Officer Commanding 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division in February 1935. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1935, and colonel of the Northumberland Fusiliers on 5 July that year.
Although he retired in February 1939, Herbert was recalled during the Second World War as GOC 23rd (Northumbrian) Division to lead the deployment of that formation as part of the British Expeditionary Force in the Battle of France in April 1940. He retired for a second time when the division was disbanded on 30 June 1940. He settled in Worcestershire, and became deputy lieutenant for the county from 1946 until his death three years later in 1949.