{{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix= Lieutenant-General |name= Sir Gordon Macready |honorific_suffix= {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|Bt|KBE|CB|CMG|DSO|MC}} |image= Taking a part in the Combined Chiefs of Staff discussions at the Potsdam Conference in Germany, L to R, Lt. Gen. Sir... - NARA - 198902.jpg |image_size= 250px |alt= |caption= Taking a part in the Combined Chiefs of Staff discussions at the Potsdam Conference in Germany, 1945. From left to right: Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Macready, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, and Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke. |nickname= "Baronet Macready" |birth_date= {{birth date|1891|04|05|df=yes}} |birth_place= Kandy, Ceylon |death_date= {{death date and age|1956|10|17|1891|04|05|df=yes}} |death_place= Paris, France |burial_place= |allegiance= United Kingdom |branch= British Army |service_years= 1910–1946 |rank= Lieutenant-General |service_number= 22930 |unit= Royal Engineers |commands= |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/>Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George<br/>Distinguished Service Order<br/>Military Cross<br>Mentioned in Despatches (5)<br/>Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)<br/>Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)<br/>Legion of Honour (France) |relations= Sir Nevil Macready (father) |other_work= }} Lieutenant-General '''Sir Gordon Nevil Macready, 2nd Baronet''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|KBE|CB|CMG|DSO|MC}} (5 April 1891 – 17 October 1956) was a British Army officer who served as Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the Second World War.
==Military career== [[File:Bad Honnef Villa Mauser.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Villa Mauser in Bad Honnef, Residence of Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Macready from 1949 until his death in 1956.]] Born in Kandy, British Ceylon, on 5 April 1891, the son of Sir Nevil Macready, Gordon Macready was sent to England and was educated at Cheltenham College and later entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Engineers on 23 December 1910.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28455|page=226|date=10 January 1911}}</ref>{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=205}}<ref name="Officers of the British Army">{{cite web|url=https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_M01.html#Macready_GN|title=British Army officer histories|publisher=Unit Histories|access-date=2022-10-03}}</ref>
Promoted to lieutenant on 21 December 1912,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28674|page=9785|date=24 December 1912}}</ref> Macready served on the Western Front during the First World War becoming an aide-de-camp in November 1914<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29023|page=11201|date=29 December 1914|supp=y}}</ref> and later an assistant adjutant and quartermaster general for the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division in 1917. He was promoted to captain on 23 December 1916,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29888|page=105|date=2 January 1917}}</ref><ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/MACREADY1.html Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> and brevet major on 3 June 1917.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=13099|page=1058|date=4 June 1917|city=e}}</ref> After the war, from April 1919, he became Assistant Adjutant General for the British Military Mission to Berlin.<ref name=lh/><ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
Attending the Staff College, Camberley, from 1923 to 1924, he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1926, which was followed by attendance at the Imperial Defence College in 1933. He was promoted to colonel in April 1934, with seniority backdated to the previous July, and made a GSO1 at the War Office.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34041|page=2389|date=13 April 1934}}</ref> He was deputy director of staff duties at the War Office in 1936 and head of the British military mission to Egypt in 1938.<ref name="Generals of World War II">{{cite web|url=https://generals.dk/general/Macready/Gordon_Nevil/Great_Britain.html|title=Biography of Lieutenant General Gordon Nevil Macready (1891−1956), Great Britain|website=generals.dk}}</ref>
He served in the Second World War as Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff from October 1940<ref>[http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf Army Commands] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705211343/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf |date=5 July 2015 }}</ref> and as Head of the British Army mission in Washington D. C. from 1942 until his retirement in 1946.<ref>[https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12280 Citation Accompanying the Legion of Merit Awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon N. Macready]</ref><ref name="Generals of World War II"/>
In retirement he became Regional Commissioner for Lower Saxony in 1946, British Chairman of the Economic Control Office for the British and American Zones of Germany in 1947 and then Economic Advisor to the UK High Commissioner in 1949.<ref name=lh/><ref name="Generals of World War II"/>
He is author of the book ''In the wake of the great'' published by Clowes in 1965.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/wake-great-Gordon-Macready/dp/B0000CMUSA Amazon.com]</ref>
==Family== In 1920 he married Elisabeth Pauline Sabine Marie de Noailles; they had one son, Sir Nevil Macready, 3rd Bt.<ref>[https://www.angelfire.com/realm3/ruvignyplus/010.html Angelfire]</ref>
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = Macready Achievement.png |escutcheon = Argent on a chevron Azure between three leopard faces Gules two swords the points in saltire Proper pommels and hilts Or. |crest = On a wreath of the colours in front of two swords points upwards in saltire proper pommels and hilts Or a cubit arm also Proper grasping a snake Vert. |motto = Ad Extremum Tenax <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage |date=2000}}</ref> }}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography== *{{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| page=544 pages}} *{{Cite book|title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War| first=Nick| last=Smart| location=Barnsley, UK| publisher=Pen & Sword Military| year=2005| isbn=1-84415-049-6}}
==External links== *[https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_M01.html#Macready_GN British Army Officers 1939−1945] *[https://generals.dk/general/Macready/Gordon_Nevil/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]
{{s-start}} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{succession box | title=Baronet<br>'''(of Cheltenham) | years='''1946−1956 | before= Sir Nevil Macready | after=Sir Nevil Macready}} |- {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Desmond Anderson}} {{s-ttl|title=Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff|years=1940−1942}} {{s-aft|after=Daril Watson}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macready, Gordon}} Category:1891 births Category:1956 deaths Category:People from British Ceylon Category:Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies 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:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Category:Grand Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2 Gordon Category:British recipients of the Legion of Honour Category:People educated at Cheltenham College Category:People from Kandy Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:Royal Engineers officers Category:War Office personnel in World War II