Edmond Schreiber


Sir Edmund Charles Acton Schreiber, was a senior British Army officer who served in both the First World War and the Second World War. In the latter he commanded the 45th Infantry Division, V Corps and the British First Army.

Military career

Born in London, England, on 30 April 1890, the son of Brigadier-General Acton Lemuel Schreiber, Edmond Charles Acton Schreiber was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Royal Field Artillery on 23 December 1909. He was promoted to lieutenant on 23 December 1912. He served in the First World War with the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, earning the Distinguished Service Order on December 1914, for his "Very gallant conduct on 14th September in saving horses which had become entangled in blocked road, and man-handling guns away from a position which had become untenable from a very heavy shell fire, continuing to work, although wounded". He was several times mentioned in dispatches and ended the war as a brevet major, having been promoted to that rank on 1 January 1918.
In the 1930s, during the interwar period, he served at the Staff College, Camberley, the War Office and the Senior Officers' School, Sheerness and was Brigadier Royal Artillery in Southern Command.
During the Second World War Schreiber served with the British Expeditionary Force in France between 1939 and 1940. Promoted to acting Major-General on 26 April 1940, he became General Officer Commanding 61st Infantry Division on the same date, before being made GOC 45th Infantry Division later in 1940. In May 1941 he was promoted to acting Lieutenant-General to take command of V Corps later that year. In 1942 he was appointed to command the British First Army which was to be the parent organisation for Allied forces in French North Africa after Operation Torch in November; however, he developed a kidney problem and became unfit for active service.
Restricted to non-field roles, he became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command in 1942 and of South Eastern Command in 1944. Between 1944 and 1946, Schreiber was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta. He retired from the British Army after the war in 1947.

Retirement

He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Devon in 1948 and National President of the Old Contemptibles Association in 1960.

Family

Edmond Schreiber married Phyllis Barchard in 1916; there were two daughters.