Frederick Browning

Who was Frederick Browning?

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague 'Boy' Browning GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO was a British Army officer who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was the commander of the I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden. During the planning for this operation he memorably said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier.

Educated at Eton College and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Browning was commissioned a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards in 1915. During the First World War he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In September 1918, he became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson. After the war, he competed in the bobsleigh at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in which his team finished tenth. He married Daphne du Maurier in July 1932.

During the Second World War, Browning commanded the 1st Airborne Division and I Airborne Corps.