Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Robert Elliot Urquhart, CB, DSO (1901 - 1988) was a British military officer. His most famous role was commanding the British 1st Airborne Division, especially through Operation Market Garden. Urquhart was not an airborne officer, originally. Through 1941, he had been a staff officer in the 3rd Division. Between 1941 and 1942, he commanded the 2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. After holding that command, until 1943, he was a staff officer in the 51st Infantry Division, which was stationed in North Africa. For a short time, he commanded the 231st Malta Brigade, which faced action in Sicily. Until 1944, he was a staff officer in XII Corps. However, in that year, he was given command of the 1st Airborne Division. Its former commander had been killed in Italy, and his successor, Brigadier Ernest Down had been given a command in India. Urquhart, who had never been in an airborne command, commanded the division through Operation Market Garden. After the unit lost 3/4 of its soldiers at Arnhem, it never saw action in World War II again. Urquhart saw various staff positions, until his retirement in 1955. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.