Hugh Massy (British Army officer)


Hugh Royds Stokes Massy was a British Army officer who served during the First and Second World Wars.

Military career

Educated at Bradfield College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Massy was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1902. He served with the West African Frontier Force from 1907 and then became Adjutant for 4th East Lancashire Brigade in 1913.
He served in the First World War, initially as a staff officer in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and then as a Brigade Major in France.
After the war he attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1919 and became a brigade major with Irish Command in 1920 and then went to India, initially as a staff officer, and then as an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta. After attending the Imperial Defence College in 1930, he was an instructor at the Senior Officers' School, Belgaum from 1932 and then became a brigadier with Southern Command in 1934. He was appointed Director of Military Training at the War Office in 1938.
He served in the Second World War, initially as Deputy Chief of Imperial General Staff and then as Commander-in-Chief of the North West Expeditionary Force to Central Norway in 1940; he went on to command XI Corps in East Anglia from July 1940 to November 1941 and retired in 1943.
He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1945 to 1951.
He was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1946.

Family

In 1912 he married Maud Ina Nest Roch. They had one son and one daughter.