{{Short description|British military commander}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant-General | name = Sir Brian Kimmins | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KBE|CB|DL}} | image = Brian_Kimmins_in_1953.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Kimmins in 1953 | nickname = | birth_date = {{birth date|1899|07|30|df=yes}}<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007''; General Register Office</ref> | birth_place = Hendon, Middlesex, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1979|11|15|1899|7|30|df=y}} | death_place = Taunton, Somerset, England | burial_place = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | service_years = 1917–1958 | rank = Lieutenant-General | service_number = 1294 | unit = Royal Field Artillery<br/>Royal Artillery | commands = Northern Ireland District (1955–1958)<br/>44th (Home Counties) Division (1950–1952) | battles = First World War<br/>Second World War | awards = Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire<br/>Companion of the Order of the Bath<br/>Mentioned in Despatches<br/>Legion of Honour (France)<br/>Croix de Guerre (France) | relations = Charles William Kimmins (father)<br/>Grace Kimmins (mother)<br/>Anthony Kimmins (brother) | other_work = }} Lieutenant-General '''Sir Brian Charles Hannam Kimmins''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|KBE|CB|DL}} (30 July 1899 – 15 November 1979) was a British Army officer who served as the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District.
==Military career== Kimmins was born in Hendon, Middlesex (now North London), the son of psychologist Charles William Kimmins and Dame Grace Kimmins. He was the older brother of Anthony Kimmins.<ref>[http://www.chailey1914-1918.net/brian_charles_hannan_kimmins.html Brian Kimmins at 1914–1918.net] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808125054/http://www.chailey1914-1918.net/brian_charles_hannan_kimmins.html |date=8 August 2009 }}</ref>
After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich on 28 September 1917,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30310|page=9994|date=25 September 1917||supp=y}}</ref> Kimmins was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army, during the latter phases of the First World War.<ref name=lh>{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/KIMMINS.shtml |title=Kimmins, Brian|publisher= Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922063640/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/KIMMINS.shtml|access-date=12 June 2020|archive-date=22 September 2012}}</ref>
After the war he served in India and Egypt and became aide-de-camp to the High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan in 1928.<ref name=lh/> He relinquished this assignment in October 1929<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33569|page=207|date=10 January 1930}}</ref> and became adjutant at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1930 and brigade major for the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division's 147th Infantry Brigade in 1935.<ref name=lh/> He then attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1938 to 1939.<ref name=lh/>
Kimmins served in the Second World War, initially as a General Staff Officer with the British Expeditionary Force in France before becoming an instructor at the Staff College in 1940,<ref name=lh/> and with it came the acting rank of lieutenant colonel (which was made temporary in November).<ref name="Generals of World War II">{{cite web|url=https://generals.dk/general/Kimmins/Brian_Charles_Hannam/Great_Britain.html|title=Biography of Lieutenant General Brian Charles Hannam Kimmins (1899−1979), Great Britain|website=generals.dk}}</ref> He was then, after being promoted to the acting rank of colonel and brigadier in December 1941,<ref name="Generals of World War II"/> appointed Deputy Director of Military Training at the War Office in London from December 1941 until May 1942 when he became a Brigadier on the General Staff of Southern Command from May until November.<ref name=lh/><ref name="Generals of World War II"/> He became Commander, Royal Artillery for the Guards Armoured Division in 1943 and Director of Plans for South East Asia Command in 1944.<ref name=lh/> He was finally Assistant Chief of Staff at the Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia in 1945.<ref name=lh/> On 24 February 1945, towards the end of the war, he was promoted to the rank of major general.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37056|date=27 April 1945|page=2282|supp=y}}</ref><ref name="Generals of World War II"/>
After the Second World War Kimmins became Chief of Staff at Headquarters Combined Operations in 1946 and Director of Quartering at the War Office in 1947.<ref name=lh/> He was appointed General Officer Commanding Home Counties District and GOC 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division in 1950 and Director of the Territorial Army and Cadets in 1952.<ref name=lh/> His last appointment was as General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District in 1955, which saw him promoted to lieutenant general.<ref name=lh/><ref name="Generals of World War II"/> He then retired from the army, after over forty years of military service, in August 1958.<ref name=lh/><ref name="Generals of World War II"/>
He died at the age of 80 the Somerset Nuffield Hospital in Taunton on 15 November 1979, leaving a wife and three children.<ref name=deathnote>{{cite news|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title= Deaths|newspaper=The Times|location=London, England|date=17 November 1979|page=28|via=The Times Digital Archive 1785–2008}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *''At Your Service – a belated autobiography of Lieutenant General Sir Brian Kimmins KBE CB DL'', Foreword by Field Marshal Lord Guthrie GCB LVO OBE DL
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Philip Gregson-Ellis}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 44th (Home Counties) Division|years=1950–1952}} {{s-aft|after=Otway Herbert}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir John Woodall}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC British Army in Northern Ireland|years=1955–1958}} {{s-aft|after=Sir Douglas Packard}} {{end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimmins, Brian}} Category:1899 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Royal Field Artillery officers Category:British Army lieutenant generals Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:People from Hendon Category:Military personnel from the London Borough of Barnet Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British Army generals of World War II Category:Academics of the Staff College, Camberley Category:War Office personnel in World War II Category:Academics of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley