{{Short description|British Army general (1884–1976)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = General | name = Sir Frederick Pile | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|Bt|DSO|MC}} | image = Frederickpile.jpg | caption = Sir Frederick Pile in 1937 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|09|14|df=yes}} | birth_place = Dublin, Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|11|14|1884|09|14|df=yes}} | death_place = London, England | placeofburia = | nickname = "Tim" | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | service_years = 1904–1945 | service_number = 3052 | rank = General | unit = Royal Artillery<br />Royal Tank Regiment | commands = Anti-Aircraft Command (1939–1945)<br />1st Anti-Aircraft Division (1937–1939)<br />Canal Brigade (1932–1936) | battles = First World War<br />Second World War | awards = Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath<br />Distinguished Service Order<br />Military Cross<br />Mentioned in Despatches<br />Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)<br />Order of the White Eagle (Serbia)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Acović|first=Dragomir|title=Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima|year=2012|location=Belgrade|publisher=Službeni Glasnik|page=594}}</ref> | relations = | other_work = }} General '''Sir Frederick Alfred Pile, 2nd Baronet''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|DSO|MC}} (14 September 1884 – 14 November 1976) was a senior British Army officer who served in both World Wars. In the Second World War he was General Officer Commanding Anti-Aircraft Command, one of the elements that protected Britain from aerial attack.
== Early life == Pile was born in Dublin as the second child of Sir Thomas Devereux Pile, 1st Baronet and his wife, Caroline Maude Nicholson.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31549|title=Frederick Pile|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31549 }}</ref> Sir Thomas served as the Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1900 to 1901.
Pile had an older sister and two younger brothers. His youngest brother, Cyril John Pile, served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, and was killed in action in 1917.{{CN|date=December 2024}}
After attending the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, Pile was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in July 1904.<ref name=lh>{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/PILE.shtml|title=King's Collections : Archive Catalogues: Military Archives|work=Liddell Hart Centre}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27707|page=5415|date=23 August 1904}}</ref> He initially served in India, together with Britain and South Africa.<ref name=lh />{{sfn|Doherty|2004|pp=89-90}}
== Military career == [[File:British generals Whittaker, Wason and Pile at A.A. Command February 1941 H 007259 1 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Major General Robert Whittaker (centre left); Lieutenant General Sydney Wason (centre), and Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Pile (centre right) at Anti-Aircraft Command on 14 February 1941 during a visit by David Margesson, the Secretary of State for War.]]
Pile served in the First World War and was involved in the retreat from Mons and was a Staff Captain with 1st Division before becoming a Brigade Major with 40th Division in 1916.<ref name=lh /> In the closing stages of the War he became a General Staff Officer (GSO) with 22nd Corps in France.<ref name=lh /> He was married in 1915, thrice mentioned in dispatches, and awarded both the Military Cross<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29886|page=39|date=29 December 1916|supp=y}}</ref> and the Distinguished Service Order<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30450|page=25|date=29 December 1917|supp=y}}</ref> during the war.{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=251}}{{sfn|Doherty|2004|p=90}}
After the war he was appointed a Brigade Major at Brighton and Shoreham District.<ref name=lh /> He attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1922 to 1923 and transferred from the RFA to the Royal Tank Corps (later the Royal Tank Regiment) in August 1923,<ref name=lh />{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=251}} when he was immediately promoted to major.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32849|page=5241|date=31 July 1923}}</ref> In 1928 he became commander of the 1st Experimental Mechanized Force and assistant director of mechanisation at the War Office.<ref name=lh /> He went to Egypt in 1932 as commander of the Canal Brigade Mechanized Force.<ref name=lh />
In 1937 he became General Officer Commanding 1st Anti Aircraft Division. Even before the war started, he foresaw the likely pressures on personnel and investigated whether women would be capable to taking a part in anti-aircraft batteries. He invited Caroline Haslett of the Women's Engineering Society to spend several weekends observing the work of a battery in Surrey and she advised him that women would certainly be able to do the work, as proved to be the case during the war.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Roof over Britain, the official story of the AA Defences 1939-42|publisher=HMSO|year=1943|location=London|page=58}}</ref> In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, he was made General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Anti-Aircraft Command, a position he held throughout the war.<ref name=lh /> He was the only British general to retain the same command throughout the entire war. After Dunkirk he issued a General Order telling his men that they were the only British troops still firing at the enemy. He was to tell the story after the war, in his official dispatch and in his book ''Ack-Ack: Britain's Defence against Air Attack during the Second World War''.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=2605627|title=Review of Ack-Ack: Britain's Defence against Air Attack during the Second World War|journal=International Affairs|first=Ian|last=Jacob|date=1950|volume=26|issue=2|page=236|doi=10.2307/2605627}}</ref> His plan for "Engagement of Long Range Rockets with AA Gunfire" (gunfire into a radar-predicted airspace to intercept the V-2 rocket) was ready on 21 March 1945 but the plan was not used due to the danger of shells falling on Greater London.<ref name=Ordway>{{cite book |last=Ordway |first= Frederick I III|author2=Sharpe, Mitchell R|title=The Rocket Team|series= Apogee Books Space Series 36|page=262}}</ref>
''Tim'' Pile was considered as CIGS to replace John Dill in October 1941 at Beaverbrook's urging (Pile had been spending weekends with Beaverbrook). Alan Brooke who replaced Dill said that "Tim" Pile had certain valuable qualities but he could not think of a ''worse selection'' as CIGS.<ref>{{cite book | last = Alanbrooke | first = Field Marshal Lord | author-link = Alan Brooke | title = War Diaries 1939–1945 | publisher = Phoenix Press | date = 2001 | page = 192| isbn = 1-84212-526-5 }}</ref>
In March 1944, MI5 considered him the most likely source of the classified information leak concerning the location of the planned Normandy landings to B. H. Liddell Hart.<ref>{{cite news |title=Files reveal leaked D-Day plans |publisher=BBC |date=4 September 2006 |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5311460.stm}}</ref>
Pile was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1945 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=34066 | date=3 July 1934|page=4222 }}</ref> After the War he became Director General of Housing with the Ministry of Works.<ref name=lh />
He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1945 to 1952.<ref name=lh />
== Personal life == In 1915 Pile married Vera Millicent Lloyd, with whom he had two sons, Frederick Devereux Pile (1915–2010) and John Devereux Pile (1918–1982). In 1932 he married Hester Mary Melba Phillimore. In 1951, he married Molly Eveline Louise Mary Home.<ref name=odnb />
Pile's elder son, Frederick Pile, served as a major in the Royal Tank Regiment. He won the Military Cross during the British Army's advance into Germany in 1945. He was later promoted to colonel and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 1976.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/8169065/Colonel-Sir-Freddy-Pile.html | title=Colonel Sir Freddy Pile | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=29 November 2010 | access-date=31 March 2016}}</ref>
== Commemoration == [[File:SR WC 4-6-2 34058 Sir Frederick Pile, Bitton, AVR, April 2006 P4030035 (9922504613).jpg|thumb|right|The Battle of Britain class locomotive ''Sir Frederick Pile'' at Bitton railway station in 2006]] In 1948, a locomotive of the Southern Railway SR Battle of Britain Class was named after Pile at Waterloo station in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.34058.co.uk/Images/34058_32.jpg|title=side view of the locomotive showing the SIR FREDERICK PILE name and crest|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041126185055/http://www.34058.co.uk/Images/34058_32.jpg|archive-date=26 November 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.34058.co.uk/Images/Crest1.jpg|title=Pile Family Crest as carried by the Southern Railway (Great Britain)-Southern Railway locomotive|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726135205/http://www.34058.co.uk/Images/Crest1.jpg|archive-date=26 July 2011}}</ref> After residing at Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales it was initially preserved at the Avon Valley Railway for many years, and then moved to the Watercress Line in 2011.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.34058.co.uk| title = 34058 – Sir Frederick Pile| access-date = 8 July 2006| publisher = 34058 Restoration Group| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060620053329/http://www.34058.co.uk/| archive-date = 20 June 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.semgonline.com/steam/blp51.html| title = Rebuilt Bulleid WC/BB 'West Country' and 'Battle of Britain' class 4-6-2| date = 23 June 2003| publisher = Southern E-Group}}</ref> Hornby Railways have released a model of this locomotive.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.hornbyguide.com/item_details.asp?itemid=2477 | title=Rebuilt Battle of Britain Class Locomotive – Sir Frederick Pile | publisher=Hornby Railways Collector's Guide | access-date=31 March 2016}}</ref>
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = Pile (of Kenilworth House) Achievement.png |escutcheon = Azure three piles Argent on a chief Ermine a castle Proper between two harps Or. |crest = On a crest coronet Or charged with a cross bourdonée Azure a pelican with wings endorsed and inverted Proper. |motto = Sine Labe Nota<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage |date=1915 |page=1602}}</ref> }}
== References == {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book| first=Richard| last=Doherty| title=Ireland's Generals in the Second World War| author-link=Richard Doherty | isbn=978-1-85182-865-4| year=2004| publisher=Four Courts Press}} *{{Cite book| first=Richard| last=Mead| title=Churchill's Lions: a biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II| year=2007| publisher=Spellmount| location=Stroud (UK)| isbn=978-1-86227-431-0}} *{{cite book| first=Nick| last=Smart| title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War| isbn=1-84415-049-6| year=2005| location=Barnesley| publisher=Pen & Sword}}
==External links== *[https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_P02.html#Pile_FA British Army Officers 1939−1945] *[https://generals.dk/general/Pile/Frederick_Alfred/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Sir Alan Brooke}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC-in-C Anti-Aircraft Command|years=1939–1945}} {{s-aft|after=Sir William Green}} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{s-bef|before=Thomas Devereux Pile}} {{s-ttl|title=Baronet<br />'''(of Kenilworth House)''' | years=1931–1976}} {{s-aft|after=Frederick Devereux Pile}} {{s-end}}
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pile, Frederick Alfred}} Category:1884 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Anti-Aircraft Command officers Category:British Army generals Category:British Army generals of World War II Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Commanders of the Legion of Merit Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Military personnel from Dublin (city) Category:People educated at Weymouth College (public school) 202 Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:Royal Tank Regiment officers