{{Short description|British Army general (1905–1982)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Major-General | name = Edward Colville | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|DSO1|DL}} | birth_date = 1 September 1905 | birth_place = St George Hanover Square, London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1982|1|10|1905|9|1}} | death_place = Stoughton, West Sussex, England | spouse = {{marriage|Barbara Joan Denny|1934}} | image = | caption = | nickname = | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{army|United Kingdom}} | service_years = 1925–1959 | service_number = 33658 | rank = Major-General | current position = | commands = 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders<br/>227th Infantry Brigade<br/>128th Infantry Brigade<br/>{{nowrap|51st (Highland) Infantry Division}} | unit = Gordon Highlanders | battles = {{tree list}} *Second World War **North West Europe *Malayan Emergency {{tree list/end}} | awards = {{nowrap|Companion of the Order of the Bath}}<br/>Distinguished Service Order & Bar<br/>Mentioned in dispatches | other_work = }} }}
Major-General '''Edward Charles Colville''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|DSO1|DL}} (1 September 1905 – 10 January 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He commanded a brigade during Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine, in March 1945 during the Second World War. He both planned and executed his brigade's successful attack. After serving as Chief of Staff at Headquarters Far East Land Forces in June 1954 during the Malayan Emergency, he spent three years as General Officer Commanding 51st (Highland) Division in a home defence role.
==Military career== Born the son of Admiral Sir Stanley Colville<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FGZmAAAAMAAJ|title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry|page=200|volume= 1|first= Bernard|last= Burke|year=1965}}</ref> and Adelaide Jane Meade, Colville was educated at Marlborough College and commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders on 3 September 1925.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33081|date=4 September 1925|page=5837}}</ref><ref name=THG>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9-p4upLOHf8C|title=Territorial and Home Guard Magazine|volume=24–25|year=1955|page=8|publisher=Territorial Publications|access-date=15 December 2025}}</ref>
Colville served for two years from 1932 to 1934 as aide-de-camp to Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough who was at that time officiating as Governor-General of Canada.<ref name=THG/><ref name=tele>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/187208645/|title=Obituary: Major-General E. C. Colville|newspaper=The Telegraph|year=1982|access-date=21 December 2025}}</ref> In July 1934, towards the end of his tour in Canada, Colville spent nine days on an Atlantic salmon fishing trip with four other Canadian officials, including the governor-general, on the Jupiter River on Anticosti Island, in the Minganie Regional County Municipality of Quebec. He later contributed to a book that the five officials wrote and published about their experiences on the river.<ref name=fly>{{cite web|url=http://www.amff.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Fall-TAFF-2021-web.pdf|title=Who Was Baldemec? The Unraveling of a Pen Name|first= Ken|last= Callahan|publisher=The American Fly Fisher: the Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing |volume=47 |page=3|year=2021|access-date=15 December 2025}}</ref>{{efn|The five officials on the trip were Bessborough, Alan Lascelles, Viscount Duncannon, Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Dighton Mackenzie, and Edward Colville. They wrote and published under the collective pen name "Baldemec", taken from their initials.<ref name=fly/>}}
Colville was then appointed adjutant of the Gordons on 18 November 1937.<ref>{{London Gazette|page=7264|issue=34456|date=19 November 1937}}</ref> Participating in the Second World War, Colville was promoted from captain to major on 3 September 1942.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35690|page=3856|date=1 September 1942}}</ref> He became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, in September 1943.<ref name=THG/><ref name=tele/> Part of the 227th Infantry Brigade, he led the battalion ashore on 18 June 1944 to fight in the Normandy Campaign.{{sfnp|Martin|1948|p=357}}
Colville assumed command of the 227th Brigade,<ref name=tele/> as a temporary brigadier, when on 15 July 1944 Brigadier John Mackintosh-Walker was killed in an attack on his scout car; on 19 October Colville was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his actions with the Gordon Highlanders in the campaign.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36753|date=17 October 1944|supp=y|page=4785}}</ref>{{sfnp|Martin|1948|p=69}}<ref>{{London Gazette|page=4785|supp=y|issue=36753|date=17 October 1944}}</ref>
Colville was closely involved in Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine, near Xanten in March 1945. He planned the 227th Brigade's attack, codenamed "Operation Nap", to assault with 10th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry on the right and 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on the left, aiming to seize the villages of Overkamp and Lohr respectively. The 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders would then cross and relieve the other two battalions, which would in turn advance to take the villages of Bellinguoven and Wisshof.<ref name="auto">Saunders (2006), p. 159; for wider context, pp. 143−161</ref><ref name="delaforce">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RgUkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181 |title=Onslaught on Hitler's Rhine Operations Plunder and Varsity, March 1945|first= Patrick |last=Delaforce|year= 2017|publisher=Fonthill Media|page=181|isbn=978-1781554418}}</ref> Colville led the brigade during the subsequent chaotic{{efn|Some of Colville's tracked landing vehicles became stuck in the mud on the far side, and his troops came under heavy fire leading to many casualties. His forward observation post was wiped out and one his battalions suffered over 100 casualties.<ref name=delaforce/>}} but completely successful river crossing,<ref name="auto"/><ref name="delaforce"/> which was crucial for the Allied advance into Germany. It has been described by ''Warfare History Network'' as the "Greatest Assault River Crossing of All Time".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/operation-plunder-crossing-the-rhine/|title=Operation Plunder: Crossing the Rhine|publisher=Warfare History Network|date=1 August 2013|access-date=15 December 2025}}</ref>
Towards the end of the campaign, on 30 April, Colville negotiated the surrender of the German city of Geesthacht, including a store of V-1 flying bomb fuel and poison gas.{{sfnp|Martin|1948|p=333}} For his command of the brigade he received a bar to the DSO on 10 May and was mentioned in despatches on 4 April 1946.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37072|date=8 May 1945|supp=y|page=2451}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|page=1697|supp=y|issue=37521|date=2 April 1946}}</ref>
After the war Colville became Defence adviser in Canada in December 1946,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://generals.dk/general/Colville/Edward_Charles/Great_Britain.html |title=Colville, Edward|publisher=Generals of World War II|access-date=21 December 2025}}</ref> was promoted to colonel on 31 March 1949, and in November was appointed commander of the 128th Infantry Brigade, moving to become Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations) at British Army of the Rhine in June 1952.<ref name="commands">{{cite web|url=https://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf|title=Army Commands|access-date=20 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|page=5828|supp=y|issue=38778|date=9 December 1949}}</ref> Promoted to substantive brigadier on 1 September 1953,<ref>{{London Gazette|page=368|supp=y|issue=40074|date=15 January 1954}}</ref> he was further advanced to temporary major-general on 29 June 1954, and appointed to serve as Chief of Staff at Headquarters Far East Land Forces during the Malayan Emergency.<ref name="commands"/><ref>{{London Gazette|page=4231|supp=y|issue=40233|date=16 July 1954}}</ref> Promoted to substantive major-general on 7 July 1955, for his services in the Far East Colville was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 25 October.<ref>{{London Gazette|page=5555|supp=y|issue=40598|date=30 September 1955}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=40613|date=25 October 1955|supp=y|page=5965}}</ref> He relinquished his post in Malaya on 15 January 1956,<ref>{{London Gazette|page=751|supp=y|issue=40703|date=3 February 1956}}</ref> and in March received his final posting as General Officer Commanding 51st (Highland) Division, which was a Territorial Army unit in a home defence role. He retired on 12 April 1959.<ref name="commands"/><ref>{{London Gazette|page=2418|supp=y|issue=41679|date=10 April 1959}}</ref>
In retirement Colville served as a deputy lieutenant of West Sussex<ref name=unit>{{cite web|url=https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_C02.html|title=Colville, Edward Charles|publisher=Unit Histories|access-date=21 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42719|date=29 June 1962|page=5192}}</ref> but also had a home at Balformo House near Scone in Perthshire.<ref name=kelly>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bT9H5ORTROIC|title=Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed & Official Classes|year=1962|page=687|publisher=Kelly & Co.}}</ref>
Colville died in January 1982, aged 76.<ref name=tele/>
==Family== In 1934, Colville married Barbara Joan Denny; they had one son and two daughters.<ref name=unit/><ref name=kelly/>
==Works== *{{cite book|author=Baldemec|title=A Week On The Jupiter River Anticosti Island|year=1934|publisher=Privately published}} (Colville was one of the five authors who contributed to the book under the collective pen name "Baldemec".)<ref name=fly/>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|last=Martin|first=H. G.|year=1948|title=The History of the Fifteenth Scottish Division 1939–1945|location=London|publisher=William Blackwood & Sons|oclc=1401785744}} *{{cite book | last=Saunders | first=Tim | title=Operation Plunder : the British & Canadian Operations | publisher=Pen & Sword Military | publication-place=Havertown | date=2006 | isbn=978-1-78346-079-3 | oclc=854974757}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=James Scott-Elliot}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 51st (Highland) Infantry Division|years=1956–1959}} {{s-aft|after=Frederick Graham}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colville, Edward}} Category:1905 births Category:1982 deaths Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II Category:British Army major generals Edward Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Deputy lieutenants of West Sussex Category:English justices of the peace Category:Gordon Highlanders officers Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Category:Military personnel from the City of Westminster Category:People educated at Marlborough College