Basil Coad

Major-General Basil Aubrey Coad, CB, CBE, DSO & Bar, DL (27 September 1906 – 26 March 1980) was a senior British Army officer. He held battalion, brigade and divisional commands during the Second World War and immediately after, but is best known as the commander of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade during the Korean War.

After his involvement in Korea, he held a further divisional command, and then a senior administrative position in the army before retiring. In retirement, he continued his connection with the army, serving as Colonel of his former regiment, and assisting in writing the British official history of the Korean War. He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.

Coad was born on 27 September 1906 at Portsmouth, Hampshire. He was educated at Felsted School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. From Sandhurst he was commissioned into the British Army as a second lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment on 4 February 1926. He was soon bound for India to join the 1st Battalion. After a few years' service there he was posted to Shanghai, then one of the treaty ports, in January 1929, promoted to lieutenant on 4 February, and appointed as Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal from December that year.

Coad returned to the United Kingdom in 1934 and was appointed adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, Wiltshires. He served with the battalion in Palestine during the Arab revolt. On 22 January 1937 he was seconded to the 4th Battalion, a Territorial Army (TA) unit, to serve as its adjutant, at the same time he was granted temporary rank as a captain in the TA. He was promoted to substantive captain on 18 March 1938.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Coad was promoted to acting major for service as an instructor in the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, he became a temporary major on 1 February 1940. In January 1941 he was appointed second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Wiltshires. By August 1942 he was an acting lieutenant colonel in command of the Battle School of the 43rd Division, now commanded by Major General Ivor Thomas, in Kent. He was then appointed commanding officer of the 5th Battalion, Dorset Regiment at the beginning of 1943. He was promoted substantive major on 4 February 1943.

The 5th Dorsets participated in Operation Overlord (the Normandy Campaign) as part of the 130th Infantry Brigade, 43rd Division. On 10 July 1944, during the opening of Operation Jupiter, the unit was ordered to capture Chateau de Fontaine, near Fontaine-Étoupefour. They successfully captured the chateau, and were then ordered to take a further objective. Coad personally reconnoitred the route across open country, despite heavy machine gun and mortar fire. The attack was launched and the objective taken, but it could not be held. Coad withdrew his two furthest forward companies and prepared the chateau as a defensive position. As a result of his leadership on this occasion Coad was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 19 October 1944. The citation concluded:

Lt Col COAD throughout the day retained complete control of the situation and by his personal example inspired his battalion to carry out all the tasks allotted them magnificently.

The brigade participated in the continued Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, and in September 1944 was involved in the ill-fated Operation Market Garden. On 7 October 1944, Coad was promoted acting brigadier and given command of the 130th Brigade. A year later he was awarded a Bar to his DSO on 11 October 1945 for his leadership in the intervening period, which covered the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The citation remarked: