General Sir Edward Pellew Quinan, KCB, KCIE, DSO, OBE (9 January 1885 – 13 November 1960) was a senior officer in the British Indian Army who served as a British Army commander during the Second World War.
Early Life and Career
Quinan was of Anglo-Irish descent and was born in Calcutta, British India, on 9 January 1885. His father died when he was ten years old, and although his mother later remarried, he was brought up and educated in Dublin by his grandparents and aunts. He entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1903.
Commissioned as a second lieutenant on 9 January 1904, Quinan joined the Indian Army (27th Punjabis) on 25 March 1905. Before the First World War, he saw active service on the North West Frontier of the British Indian Empire and was promoted to captain in January 1913.
First World War
During the First World War, Quinan served with Indian Army forces in France and Mesopotamia. He fought at the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Loos, and the attempt to relieve Kut al Amara, and was wounded at Beit Aisa. He was brevetted to major in January 1918.
Interwar Period
After the war, Quinan returned to India and served as a staff officer in the 1919 Afghan War and the subsequent campaign in Waziristan. He wrote the official history of the Waziristan campaign, which is considered by military experts to be a model of campaign history. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his staff work during this campaign.
He attended the Indian Army Staff College in Quetta in 1920 and later the Imperial Defence College. In 1930, he rose to command the 3rd Battalion of the 8th Punjab Regiment. He served as an instructor at the Staff College in Quetta, where his predecessors included Auchinleck and his successor in 1934 was Montgomery. In 1937, he commanded troops in the campaign against the Faqir of Ipi in Waziristan and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He was promoted to major-general at the end of 1937.
Second World War
In March 1941, Quinan was promoted to lieutenant-general and sent to command the Indian Army Corps in the landing at Basra, Iraq, becoming GOC British Troops in Iraq (Iraqforce). During the short Anglo-Iraqi War, his invasion from the south, supported by British troops from Trans-Jordan, overthrew the Axis-leaning Iraqi government of Rashid Ali al-Kaylani and replaced it with a pro-British one.
He subsequently became GOC of the Tenth Army in the Persia and Iraq Command. His forces supported the invasion of Syria and Lebanon to replace the Vichy French government with a Free French one. Later in 1941, he planned and executed the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia, primarily to secure supply lines to the Soviet Union and protect British oil installations in Abadan. Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, was deposed and replaced by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Quinan's command, designated the Tenth Army in February 1942, was built up as German forces advanced into the Soviet Union. By the end of 1942, he had eight divisions and two independent brigades under command. He was knighted in the birthday honours of 1942 and promoted to full general in August 1942.
Following the German defeat at Stalingrad, the threat to the region receded and the Tenth Army headquarters was closed in 1943. In April 1943, Quinan was appointed GOC-in-C of the North Western Army in India. He retired on 16 November 1943 for medical reasons, related to a recurrence of high blood pressure.
Later Life and Assessment
In November 1945, Quinan was appointed Colonel of the 8th Punjab Regiment. In the 1946 New Year's Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He retired to Barrington, Somerset, and died on 13 November 1960.
Quinan's renowned attention to detail was noted in his Times obituary, which recorded that he "astonished, and sometimes appalled his subordinates by his meticulous attention to the duties of the smallest units under his command." He was nicknamed "Quinan the Terror."
