Douglas Brownrigg

Brownrigg was commissioned into the 1st Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters in 1905.[1] He became Adjutant of his Regiment in 1910.[1]

He served in the First World War in the 13th Division and fought at Gallipoli in 1915 and then in Mesopotamia during the remaining years of the War.[1]

After the War he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the War Office and then became a General Staff Officer at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.[1] He returned to the War Office as a General Service Officer in 1923 and became Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General for the Shanghai Defence Force in China in 1927.[1] He was placed in charge of Administration for the North China Command in 1928.[1] He was appointed Commander of 159th (Welsh Border) Infantry Brigade in 1933 and General Officer Commanding 51st (Highland) Division in 1935.[1]

He became Military Secretary in 1938 and Director General of the Territorial Army in 1939.[1]

He took part in World War II as Adjutant-General of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939 and retired in 1940.[1] He was a Sector and Zone Commander for the Home Guard for the rest of the War.[1] In late 1942, Brownrigg was employed as the military advisor for the British film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The film was about an officer called Major-General Wynne-Candy, whose fictional career was rather similar to Brownrigg's, as he had served with distinction in the First World War, was retired after Dunkirk and then had taken a senior role in the Home Guard.[2]

In 1919 he married Mona Jeffreys.[3] Sir Douglas Brownrigg and Lady Brownrigg were keen dog breeders who imported two of the first Shih Tzus into the United Kingdom from China.[4] His memoirs; Unexpected (a book of memories), were published in 1942.[5]