General Sir Frederick Alfred Pile, 2nd Baronet (14 September 1884 - 14 November 1976) was born in Dublin, the second of four children and the eldest of three sons of Sir Thomas Devereux Pile, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1900, and his wife, Caroline Maude, daughter of John Martin Nicholson JP of Rathgar. Sir Frederick's youngest brother was killed in action in 1917. September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... The Mansion House The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the symbolic head of the city government in the capital of Ireland. ... Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... A Justice of the Peace (JP) is a puisne judicial officer appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. ... Rathgar (Irish: Rath Gharbh) is a well-to-do suburb of Dublin, Ireland, lying about 4 km south of the city centre. ...

Early life

From the first he was an enthusiast — be it for the rather inadequate mixed school at which he was educated, for horse riding, for polo, or for tennis. But the insufficiency of his initial education all but robbed him of the opportunity to indulge in what proved to be his greatest enthusiasm — the business of soldiering as a member, to begin with, of the Royal Artillery. Only by desperate cramming was he able to enter, "bottom of his term", the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1902. Yet by hard work he passed out twenty-sixth, endowed with the foundations of knowledge, which were to stand him in good stead throughout a career rich in managerial and technical experience. This article is about the ball sport on horseback. ... A tennis net Tennis is a game played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponents court. ... RGA redirects here. ... The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. ...

Service in the Army

As a battery commander in the Royal Horse Artillery, he took part in the retreat from Mons; and in the four years of war to come performed the duties of brigade-major and general staff officer, 2nd grade, Royal Artillery, in France, where artillery was to dominate the battlefield and field gunnery was to undergo a revolution. New ideas stimulated Pile but were not necessarily greeted with acclaim by the instructors at the Staff College, which he attended from 1922 to 1923. At the suggestion of Colonel J. F. C. Fuller he transferred to the Royal Tank Corps in 1923 ‘because liked bright ideas there', and he at once embarked upon development work at the heart of the mechanization and modernization of the army. During World War I he had won the MC and been appointed to the DSO (1918), as well as being mentioned in dispatches. The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) is a corps in the British Army. ... The central square and town hall of Mons Mons (Dutch: Bergen) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. ... In the British Army the Chief of Staff of a brigade or similar formation. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... J.F.C. Fuller (September 1, 1878 – February 10, 1966), full name John Frederick Charles Fuller, was a British Major General, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising principles of warfare. ... The Royal Tank Regiment is a unit of the British Army (formerly the Tank Corps and Royal Tank Corps). ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna... The Military Cross (MC) is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries. ... DSO medal The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. ...

Two years with the RAF/Army Co-operation School and a short spell with the 501 battalion RTC before taking command as lieutenant-colonel, of the 3rd battalion in 1927, were good grounding for his work in command of the fast group of the experimental mechanized force. This force, in 1927, established, on Salisbury Plain, the kind of armoured warfare which lay at the heart of Blitzkrieg as practiced by the Germans in 1939. With a reputation as a dangerous commander who would "chance his arm" and pull things off in battle, he was sent in 1928 to work for four years as assistant director of mechanization at the War Office, where he was immersed in the effort to design and produce the war machines of the future — medium and light tanks, self-propelled and lorry-towed artillery, swimming tanks, and the wide variety of prototypes which were, within a decade, the operational paraphernalia of the British Army. Lieutenant Colonel (Lieutenant-Colonel in English from the French grades spelling) is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine corps and air forces of the world, typically ranking above a Major and below a Colonel. ... This article is about the plateau in southern England; Salisbury Plain is also an area on South Georgia Island. ... The defining characteristic of what is commonly known as Blitzkrieg is that it is a highly mobile form of mechanized warfare. ... Old War Office Building, Whitehall, London - the former location of the War Office The War Office was a former department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence. ...

Pile, who had succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1931, was not to lead these new forces he helped create. Instead in 1932 he was sent to Egypt to command the Canal Infantry brigade (in which one of his battalion commanders was Bernard Montgomery, later Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. There he demonstrated his prowess as a trainer until returning to Britain in 1936. Despite many arguments, he remained "Monty's" friend for life. In 1937 he re-entered the world of artillery as major-general in command of the 1st Anti-Aircraft division (TA) guarding London. This was a Territorial formation and its state was deplorable. Units were much below establishment and there was an appalling shortage of equipment. General Pile flung himself into this entirely unfamiliar work. A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt), is the holder of an hereditary title awarded by the British Crown, known as a baronetcy. ... Bernard Law Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (November 17, 1887 - March 24, 1976) was a British military officer during World War II often referred to as Monty. ... Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. ... In the United Kingdom the Territorial Army is a part of the British Army composed of reserve units, or part-time soldiers. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

With war imminent and air raids certain, Pile found himself in command of a part-time force, equipped for the most part with obsolete weapons and employing antiquated methods, which had little hope of deterring enemy bomber pilots. His responsibility became all the heavier when on 28 July 1939 he assumed command of Anti-Aircraft Command, a post he was to hold until 15 April 1945 (he was promoted to general in 1941), as the only commander to retain the same high position throughout World War II. He was to tell the story after the war, in his official dispatch and in his book Ack-Ack (1949). It was a tale of expansion to meet dire threats with resources which were tardily provided and several times whittled down to the bone, an unremitting struggle to obtain modern guns, improved searchlights, and radar to replace sound locating while the battle was instantly under pressure to reduce manpower. He filled the gaps by the voluntary recruitment of 70,000 young women. Eventually 74,000 members of the ATS took their place on the gun sites, joined Inter by part-time members of the Home Guard. July 28 is the 209th day (210th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 156 days remaining. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Perhaps his most striking quality was that he was a most gifted 'mixer'. He could establish contact and confidence immediately with anyone from the highest to the lowest. He was a close friend and regular confidant of Sir Winston Churchill; he could talk on equal terms with the great scientists and with the Chiefs of Staff: and in five minutes' conversation he could calm down an infuriated Mayor who had just had an unexploded shell through the roof of his Town Hall. Churchill redirects here. ...

It was a measure of his success that he kept the prime minister's confidence in all the crises of the Battle of Britain, the night blitz, and the concluding attack by pilotless aircraft and rockets in 1944-5. One reason for that success was openness of mind when tackling a new problem, a willingness to work closely with scientists and operational researchers, and a keen sympathy with subordinates. It was no accident that, in Anti-Aircraft Command, courts martial and absence without leave were less than 50 per cent of other commands. And it was Pile who managed the incredible large-scale redeployment of guns and ammunition to meet each change of enemy tactics and he, incidentally, who pressed hard for permission to fire shells in the direction of enemy rockets as the first attempt at an anti-missile—in 1945. A prime minister is the very most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... Combatants United Kingdom Including combatants from:[1] Poland New Zealand Canada Czechoslovakia Belgium Australia South Africa France Ireland United States Jamaica Palestine Rhodesia Germany Including combatants from Italy Commanders Hugh Dowding Hermann Göring Albert Kesselring Strength 754 single-seat fighters 149 two-seat fighters 560 bombers 500 coastal 1... Look up Blitz in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ...

Post-war Career

After the war he became director-general of housing in the Ministry of Works, but soon entered private industry on the board of Fothergill & Harvey and, later, as chairman of Cementation Ltd. He was colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery in 1945-52. Pile was appointed CB (1938), Knight Commander (KCB) (1941), and Knight Grand Cross (GCB) (1945). In 1946 he received an honorary LLD from Leeds University. In 1948 a locomotive of the Southern Railway SR Battle of Britain Class was named after him at Waterloo station in London. This locomotive has since been preserved and is under restoration at the Avon Valley Railway in Bristol, United Kingdom. The Ministry of Works was a department of the UK Government formed in 1943 to organise the requisitioning of property for wartime use. ... Badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. ... Badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. ... Badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. ... Doctor of Laws (Latin: Legum Doctor, LL.D) is a doctorate-level academic degree in law. ... University Tower, University of Leeds The University of Leeds (United Kingdom) is amongst the largest of British universities and the most popular by applicants, with 52,444 applicants in 2003 for 7,228 places (UCAS). ... The Southern Railway in the United Kingdom was geographically the smallest of the four railway systems created in the Grouping ordered by the Railways Act 1921. ... Preserved Unrebuilt West Country Class 21C213 Blackmoor Vale. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Great Western Railway No. ... Bitton railway station and yards. ...

Family Life

Pile married first, in 1915, Vera Millicent, daughter of Brigadier-General Frederick Charles Lloyd; they had two sons. This marriage was dissolved in 1929.

In 1932 Pile married Hester Mary Melba, daughter of George Grenville Phillimore, barrister, of Shedfield, Hampshire. She died in 1949.

Thirdly, he married, in 1951, Molly Eveline Louise Mary, widow of Brigadier Francis Wyville Home, of the Royal Marines, and daughter of Ralph Smyth, gentleman, of Newtown, Drogheda. She had been chief commander of the ATS. Pile died 14 November 1976 in the Lister Hospital, Stevenage. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his elder son, Frederick Devereux Pile (born 1915). The Royal Marines (RM), are the Royal Navys elite fighting forces. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

External links

• 34058 - Sir Frederick Pile. 34058 Restoration Group. Retrieved on 2006-07-08.
• Rebuilt Bulleid WC/BB 'West Country' and 'Battle of Britain' class 4-6-2. Southern E-Group (2003-06-23).