{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant-General | name = Sir Richard Fyffe | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KBE|CB|DSO|MC}} | image = Richard Fyffe.jpg | caption = | birth_date = 12 August 1912 | death_date = 24 December 1972 (aged 60) | burial_label = | burial_place = | death_place = | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{army|United Kingdom}} | service_years = 1932–1971 | service_number = 53778 | rank = Lieutenant-General | unit = Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) | commands = 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)<br>61st Lorried Infantry Brigade<br>11th Infantry Brigade<br>Army Air Corps<br>54th (East Anglian) Division/District | battles = World War II | awards = Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire<br>Companion of the Order of the Bath<br>Distinguished Service Order<br>Military Cross | relations = | other_work = }} Lieutenant-General '''Sir Richard Alan Fyffe''' KBE CB DSO MC (12 August 1912 – 24 December 1972) was Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence).
==Military career== Fyffe was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) in August 1932.<ref name=lh>{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/FYFFE.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120923094304/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/FYFFE.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 September 2012|title=Fyffe, Richard|publisher= Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archive|accessdate=7 June 2020}}</ref> <ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33860|page=5623|date=2 September 1932}}</ref>
He served in World War II initially as a General Staff Officer and then with his regiment in North Africa and Italy.<ref name=lh/> He earned his Military Cross as a company commander with 10th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Tower Hamlets Rifles) in Tunisia in 1943.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35969|supp=y|page=1619|date=8 April 1943}}</ref><ref name = Hastings451>Hastings, p. 451.</ref> After a short period commanding a battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment he returned to command 10th Rifle Brigade and later 2nd Rifle Brigade through the Italian Campaign.<ref>Hastings, pp. 241, 254, 288.</ref> He temporarily commanded 61st Infantry Brigade early in 1945,<ref>Joslen, p. 297.</ref> and on 3 May 1945 he went blindfolded behind enemy lines to negotiate the surrender of a German corps.<ref>Hastings, p. 339.</ref> He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order at the end of the war.<ref name = Hastings451/>
After the War he joined the Directing Staff at the Staff College, Camberley before moving to General Headquarters, Far East Land Forces in 1947.<ref name=lh/> He was appointed Assistant Adjutant General at the War Office in 1950 and then Commanding Officer of 1st Bn Rifle Brigade in 1953.<ref name=lh/> He was made Commander of 61st Lorried Infantry Brigade in 1955 and Commander of 11th Infantry Brigade in 1956.<ref name=lh/>
thumb|left|The gravestone of Richard and Diana Fyffe in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene, Great Hampden, March 2020.
He was appointed Deputy Military Secretary at the War Office in 1957 and Brigadier commanding the Army Air Corps in 1960.<ref name=lh/> He moved on to be Director of Public Relations at the War Office in 1961 and General Officer Commanding 54th (East Anglian) Division/District of the Territorial Army (TA) in July 1963.<ref name=lh/> He was made Head of the British Army Staff at Washington D. C. in 1965.<ref name=lh/>
He was appointed Director of Service Intelligence in 1967 and Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence) at the Ministry of Defence in 1968; he retired in 1971.<ref name=lh/>
==Notes== {{reflist|30em}}
==References== * Maj R.H.W.S. Hastings, ''The Rifle Brigade in the Second World War 1939–1945'', Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1950/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2004, ISBN 978-1-4745-3670-7. * Lt-Col H.F. Joslen, ''Orders of Battle, United Kingdom and Colonial Formations and Units in the Second World War, 1939–1945'', London: HM Stationery Office, 1960/London: London Stamp Exchange, 1990, ISBN 0-948130-03-2/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, ISBN 1-843424-74-6.
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Ian Freeland}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 54th (East Anglian) Division/District|years=1963–1965}} {{s-aft|after=Fergus Ling}} |- {{succession box | before=Sir Harold Maguire | title=Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence) | years=1968–1971 | after=Sir Louis Le Bailly}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fyffe, Richard}} Category:1912 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Military personnel from Liverpool Category:British Army Air Corps officers Category:Rifle Brigade officers Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:British Army lieutenant generals Category:Burials in Buckinghamshire Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Academics of the Staff College, Camberley