Alexander Gatehouse


Alexander Hugh Gatehouse DSO & bar MC was a senior British Army officer who commanded the 10th Armoured Division during the North African Campaign of World War II.

Military career

He joined the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1914 and fought in World War I.
After the war he transferred to the Royal Tank Corps in 1931. He was appointed commandant of the Mechanisation Experimental Establishment at Farnborough in 1933.
He served in World War II as deputy commander of the 7th Armoured Brigade in the Western Desert from 1940, as commander of the 4th Armoured Brigade in the Western Desert from April 1941 and as General Officer Commanding 10th Armoured Division from June 1942. His permanent rank was advanced to colonel on 6 November 1940, with seniority backdated to 1 July 1940. Having led the 10th Armoured Division at the Battle of Alam el Halfa in September 1942 and then the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 he became major-general in charge of administration at Washington D. C. at the end of the year, and military attaché in Moscow in 1944 before retiring in 1947.

Family

In 1920 he married Helen Williams; they had one son.