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Philip Sidney Whitcombe was an English cricketer and Soldier who worked his way up to Major General.
Born in Windsor, Berkshire and educated in Windsor College. He married in 1919 and was a keen games player, playing cricket for Essex and the army in the early 1920s. His Army career spanned 22 years from 1925 to 1947 – so included both WW1 and WW2.
He attended the Staff College, Camberley, 1925–1926, served in India 1928–1929 and was Deputy Assistant General, Northern Command, 1934–1936.
A staff officer at the War Office 1936–1938, he was a lieutenant colonel in 1939. Mentioned in despatches after the campaign in France and Flanders, in which he served as Deputy Assistant of Supplies and Transport with the BEF, Whitcombe was Assistant Adjutant and QMG in Gibraltar 1940–1941 and Brigadier i/c Administration 1941–1942. Deputy Adjutant and QMG with British troops in Northern Ireland 1942–1943, he was Major General i/c Administration Eastern Command 1943–1947.
Appointed CB in 1944 and retired from the army in 1947, Whitcombe, a member of the MCC, was a JP in Wiltshire from 1948.
His farther was Robert Henry Whitcombe (eminent anglican bishop and schoolmaster), and his son was Philip Arthur Whitcombe (also a first-class English cricketer).
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sidney_Whitcombe
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