Major-General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, KBE, CB, DSO, MC (14 June 1885 – 19 February 1957), also known as "Hobo", was a British Army officer and engineer best known for his command of the 79th Armoured Division during the Second World War. He was responsible for many of the specialised armoured vehicles ("Hobart's Funnies") that took part in Operation Overlord and subsequent engagements.

Hobart was born in Nainital, British India, to Indian Civil Service official Robert T. Hobart and Janetta Hobart (née Stanley). His mother was born in County Tyrone (Northern Ireland) and lived at Roughan Park, near Newmills, between Cookstown and Dungannon. She married Robert Hobart in Tullaniskin Parish Church, Dungannon, on 7 October 1880.

In his youth, Hobart studied history, painting, literature and church architecture. He was educated at Temple Grove School and Clifton College, and in 1904 he graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He was first sent to India, but during the First World War he served in France and Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He took part in the Waziristan campaign 1919–1920, when British and Indian Army forces put down unrest in local villages.

Attending the Staff College, Camberley, in 1920, in 1923, foreseeing the predominance of tank warfare, Hobart volunteered to be transferred to the Royal Tank Corps. While there, he gained the nickname "Hobo", and was greatly influenced by the writings of B. H. Liddell Hart on armoured warfare. He was appointed as an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta, in 1923 where he served until 1927. In November 1928, Hobart married Dorothea Field, the daughter of Colonel C. Field, Royal Marines. They had one daughter. His sister, Elizabeth, married Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

In 1934, Hobart became brigadier of the first permanent armoured brigade in Britain and Inspector, Royal Tank Corps. He had to fight for resources for his command because the British Army was still dominated by conservative cavalry officers. German General Heinz Guderian kept abreast of Hobart's writings using, at his own expense, someone to translate all of Hobart's articles being published in Britain.

In 1937, Hobart was made Deputy Director of Staff Duties (Armoured Fighting Vehicles) and later Director of Military Training. He was promoted to major general. In 1938, Hobart was sent to form and train "Mobile Force (Egypt)" although a local general resisted his efforts. While sometimes referred to as the "Mobile Farce" by critics, Mobile Force (Egypt) survived and later became known as the "Desert Rats", or more formally as the 7th Armoured Division of the United Kingdom.

Hobart was forced into retirement in 1940, based on hostile War Office information due to his "unconventional" ideas about armoured warfare. He joined the Local Defence Volunteers (precursor to the Home Guard) as a lance corporal and was charged with the defence of his home town, Chipping Campden. "At once, Chipping Campden became a hedgehog of bristling defiance", and Hobart was promoted to become Deputy Area Organiser. Liddell Hart criticised the decision to retire Hobart and wrote an article in the newspaper Sunday Pictorial. Winston Churchill was notified and he had Hobart recalled into the army over Chief of the Imperial General Staff Alan Brooke's objections in 1941. Hobart was assigned to train the 11th Armoured Division, a task which was recognised as extremely successfully achieved.

Hobart's detractors tried again to have him removed, this time on medical grounds but Churchill rebuffed them. He was relatively old (57) for active command and he had been ill. Once again, Hobart was assigned to raise and train a fresh armoured division, this time the 79th Armoured Division.