commandant justice army general
Thomas Ralph Eastwood was born on 10 May 1890 at Canterbury in the county of Kent in England. He was the second son of Captain (later Colonel) Hugh de Crespigny Eastwood of the King"s Dragoon Guards who went on to distinguish himself in the Second Boer War, earned the Distinguished Service Order in 1902 and finished his military career as Inspector of Cyclist Units in 1918. Ralph"s mother was Elinor, who married Hugh in 1887 and was the daughter of General John Hall Smyth.
Eastwood was educated at Eton College from 1904 to 1908.
Elinor"s sister was Ethel Smyth, the composer and militant suffragette. Ralph"s older brother Hugh became a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy. After leaving Eton, Eastwood was accepted into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort"s Own) in October 1910.
In November 1912, he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of New Zealand, Lord Liverpool. He was released from this role on the outbreak of the Great War, when he was commissioned into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, later serving as a Captain in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of Liverpool"s Own).
After participating in the Occupation of German Samoa, Eastwood left New Zealand with the Third Reinforcement in February 1915, arriving at Suez by sea forty days later. After service with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Eastwood"s brigade was transferred to France, where in October 1917 he became a General Staff Officer with the rank of Major.
Eastwood transferred back to the British Army on 17 October 1918, and in 1919 he served in the ill-fated North Russia Intervention, as Brigade Major on Lord Rawlinson"s staff
After further staff duties at Aldershot, Cork in Ireland, and the War Office in London, Eastwood became an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, in 1928. Following a spell as Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, The King"s Royal Rifle Corps, he was appointed Commandant of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, with the rank of Major General in 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Eastwood was appointed General Officer Commanding of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division in the British Expeditionary Force, a command he held until 31 May 1940.
He was next given command of the 4th Infantry Division.
In October 1940, he was appointed to the new post of Inspector-General of the Home Guard, becoming Director-General of the Home Guard with the rank of Lieutenant General in November. In June 1941, Eastwood was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command.
He went on to be Governor of Gibraltar in 1944 and retired from the British Army in 1947. In 1945 he accepted the largely honorary post of Colonel Commandant of the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade, relinquished in 1951, when he became a Justice of the Peace in Wiltshire.
Ralph Eastwood married Mabel Vivian Prideaux on 21 April 1921.
They had one son, Thomas Hugh Eastwood (12 March 1922-1925 October 1999), who was a composer.
