Philip Balfour

Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Maxwell Balfour KBE CB MC* (1898–1977) was a senior British Army officer who achieved high office in the 1950s.

Military career

Philip Balfour was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1915 He served in World War I being deployed to France and Belgium. He also served in World War II and was awarded the CBE for 'gallant and distinguished services in Normandy' as a temporary brigadier.

After the War he joined the Control Commission in Germany in 1945 and then became Director of Civil Affairs for the Military Government, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in 1946. He was appointed General Officer Commanding 53rd Division later in 1946 and then GOC 2nd Division in 1947. Finally he became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command in 1949; in that role he was critical of the standard of shooting in the British Army. He retired in 1953.