John Grover

Major General John Malcolm Lawrence Grover CB MC (6 February 1897 – 11 June 1979) was a British Army officer who commanded the 2nd Infantry Division in the Burma campaign, including in the Battle of Kohima, during the Second World War. Early life and military career Grover was born in British India, the son of General Sir Malcolm Grover and Helen Grace Lawrence, granddaughter of Sir George St Patrick Lawrence. He was educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Grover was, at the age of just 17, commissioned as a second lieutenant into the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) on 15 December 1914, four months after the outbreak of World War I. After turning 18, he was posted to the regiment's 1st Battalion in 1915, then serving on the Western Front as part of the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division, a Regular Army formation, which had sustained heavy losses. Serving with his battalion for the rest of the war, Grover was awarded the Military Cross for his service and was wounded in action three times during the conflict. Between the wars Remaining in the army during the interwar period, spent mostly as a captain with his battalion in India, Grover married in 1930. He became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, India, and saw service on the North-west Frontier from 1930 to 1931. He attended the Staff College, Quetta from 1932 to 1933, and, after serving as a staff officer with Aldershot Command and commanding the KSLI regimental depot, he became Commanding Officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, KSLI in 1938, which had just arrived in England from India. Second World War Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, Grover, still CO of the battalion, now serving as part of the 3rd Brigade of Major General The Hon. Harold Alexander's 1st Division, led it overseas to France, where it formed part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). There was no immediate action, however, and the battalion spent the first few months of its time in France digging defensive positions in expectation of a repeat of the trench warfare of World War I. From 18 to 28 December Grover took over as acting commander of the 3rd Brigade, and soon afterwards was posted to Major General Harold Franklyn's 5th Division as its General Staff Officer Grade I (GSO1).