General Sir Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson, (25 December 1891 – 29 April 1959) was a senior British Army officer who saw service in both world wars. He is mainly remembered as the commander of the British First Army during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa and the subsequent Tunisian campaign which ended with the capture of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers. An outwardly reserved character, he did not court popularity either with his superiors or with the public.
His American superior, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote that he was "blunt, at times to the point of rudeness". In consequence he is less well known than many of his contemporaries. According to Richard Mead, however, "he handled a difficult campaign more competently than his critics suggest, but competence without flair was not good enough for a top commander in 1944."
Early life and First World War
Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson was born on 25 December 1891 in Madras, British India, the son of Arthur Robert Anderson, a Scottish railway engineer, and Charlotte Gertrude Isabella Duffy Fraser.
He was sent to England, where he was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, a line infantry regiment of the British Army, on 19 September 1911. He was sent to join the 1st Battalion in British India and was promoted to lieutenant on 29 November 1913.
Still in India upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Anderson's battalion, commanded by Archibald Ritchie, was sent to the Western Front, arriving there late the following month, as part of the Dehra Dun Brigade of the 7th (Meerut) Division, and remained with his battalion throughout the many battles it was involved in. He was promoted to the acting rank of captain on 10 April 1915, and captain on 1 October 1915.
He was, between 24 December 1915 and 3 July 1916, adjutant of the 23rd (Service) Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers (4th Tyneside Scottish), a Kitchener's Army unit serving as part of the 102nd (Tyneside Scottish) Brigade of the 34th Division. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for bravery in action and was wounded during the Battle of the Somme on the opening day of the battle, 1 July 1916. Anderson was one of 629 casualties, which included 19 officers, sustained by the battalion on that day. The citation for his MC read:
For conspicuous gallantry. Captain Anderson was severely wounded in front of an enemy first line trench. He endeavoured to struggle on, but progress was impossible as one of his legs was broken. Nevertheless, although exposed to heavy fire, he continued to direct and encourage his men.
He took eighteen months to recover from the wounds he received, before rejoining the 1st Battalion, Seaforths, by then in Palestine, in time to celebrate victory. He was appointed to the acting rank of major on 12 May 1918, and reverted to captain in July 1919.
On 12 February 1918, Anderson married Kathleen Lorna May Gamble (1894–1983), the only daughter of Sir Reginald Arthur Gamble and his wife Jennie. Her brother was Captain Ralph Dominic Gamble, of the Coldstream Guards. They had two children, Michael Iain Anderson, born in 1927, and a daughter.
Anderson's military career during the interwar period was active. He served as adjutant to the Scottish Horse from 1920 to 1924, and was promoted to major during this posting. He attended the Staff College, Quetta from 1927 to 1928, where he apparently did not do that well. His superior, Colonel Percy Hobart, thought it "questionable whether he had the capacity to develop much." Other staff council also had reservations, but "hoped that he might suffice". His fellow students in his year there included several who would achieve high command, such as Frederick Morgan, David Cowan, Geoffrey Bruce, Harold Briggs, along with Ronald Hopkins of the Australian Army. Those above included William Slim and James Steele, while those below included Douglas Gracey, John Crocker, Henry Davies, Colin Gubbins and Australian George Vasey and E. L. M. Burns of the Canadian Army.
Anderson, after graduating from Quetta, became a General staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) in the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation. In 1930 Anderson was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 2 June 1930 became Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Seaforths in the North West Frontier, for which he was mentioned in despatches and, returning to Scotland, as a full colonel, went on to command the 152nd (Seaforth and Cameron) Infantry Brigade, part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, another TA unit, in August 1934. Still as a full colonel in March 1936 he was appointed to a staff job (GSO1) in India and in January 1938 was appointed acting brigadier to command of the 11th Infantry Brigade, part of the 4th Infantry Division, then commanded by Major-General Dudley Johnson, which he trained hard, despite inadequate equipment.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, Anderson led the 11th Brigade, still part of the 4th Division, overseas to France where it became part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Anderson saw service with the BEF throughout the "Phoney War" period and during the Battle of France in May 1940 and, when Major-General Bernard Montgomery, General officer commanding (GOC) of the 3rd Infantry Division, was promoted to command II Corps during the evacuation from France, the departing II Corps GOC, Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Brooke, chose Anderson, of whom he thought highly, to take temporary command of Montgomery's 3rd Division.
Upon returning to the United Kingdom after the withdrawal from Dunkirk, Anderson briefly returned to his 11th Brigade. However, on 13 June, he was promoted to the acting rank of major-general and became GOC of the 1st Infantry Division, which had fought in France. His rank of major-general was made permanent on 17 June 1940 (with seniority backdated to 26 July 1938). The division was tasked with defending the coast of Lincolnshire against a German invasion and was serving under the command of I Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Harold Alexander, who had commanded the 1st Division in France and with whom Anderson would encounter later, itself serving under Northern Command. On 11 July he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and on 26 July 1940 was mentioned in despatches for his service in France and Belgium.
On 18 May 1941 Anderson handed over the division to Major-General Edwin Morris and was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant-general and given command of VIII Corps, which he commanded until December before assuming command of II Corps. The duration of his stay with II Corps was not long, however, as in April 1942, after being succeeded as GOC by Lieutenant-General James Steele, he was promoted to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of Eastern Command. On 19 May his rank of lieutenant-general was made temporary.
Despite his lack of experience in commanding larger formations in battle, in August 1942 Anderson was given command of the First Army, replacing Lieutenant-General Edmond Schreiber who had developed a kidney disease and was not considered fit enough for active service in the Army's planned involvement in Operation Torch, codename for the Allied invasion of French North Africa. The first choice replacement, Lieutenant-General Sir Harold Alexander, had been almost immediately selected to replace General Sir Claude Auchinleck as Commander-in-chief (C-in-C) of Middle East Command in Cairo, Egypt and his replacement, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, was himself redirected to the Western Desert to command the British Eighth Army, following the death of Lieutenant-General William Gott, the original nominee. Anderson, therefore, became the fourth commander in no more than a week. Despite his new appointment, it was still somewhat strange for Anderson, with no experience in command in battle of anything above a brigade, to receive such an important assignment. The most likely reason is that, even at this stage of the war, there simply were not enough experienced senior commanders to go around. One man in particular who believed this to be true was the-then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), General Sir Alan Brooke, who had been Anderson's corps commander in France two years earlier. In his diary in October 1941 he wrote: "...it is lamentable how poor we are in Army and Corps commanders; we ought to remove several, but Heaven knows where we will find anything very much better." Despite this, Brooke actually formed a very high opinion of Anderson, although this would fade in time.