Eric Bertram Rowcroft
British Army general
Major General Sir Eric Bertram Rowcroft, (28 January 1891 – 27 December 1963) was a British Army officer. His military career started in 1908 as a Territorial Army officer in the Royal Engineers and retired at the rank of major general in 1946. He is noted for his involvement in the formation of The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and the planning of Operation Overlord.
Family and education
Rowcroft was the son of Colonel George Francis Rowcroft. He was educated at Haileybury and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Military career
After his initial involvement with the Territorial Army, Rowcroft received his commission in 1911 after he passed out of Sandhurst into the Army Service Corps. At the outbreak of the First World War he served with the British Expeditionary Force overseas with various mechanical transport units. By 1918, Rowcroft worked at the War Office in a technical capacity. During the interwar period he served in India, Ceylon and at the Tank Inspection Department, at Woolwich Arsenal. His army career continued along the Technical route when in 1936 he was appointed commander Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), 1st Division in Palestine during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
The public source identifies “Eric Bertram Rowcroft” as british Army general. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Eric, Bertram and Rowcroft.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Eric Bertram Rowcroft”, the useful work is to connect “british Army general” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5386128. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1963, 1908 and 1946.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Eric Bertram Rowcroft”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Eric Bertram Rowcroft primary sources, Eric Bertram Rowcroft archive and Eric research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eric Bertram Rowcroft”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Eric Bertram Rowcroft” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.