Career
After service with the 6th Warwick Militia, Collins was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1899. He fought in the Second Boer War and then served with the Egyptian Army until 1911. He took part in World War I becoming Chief Instructor at the Staff School in Cambridge during the last year of the War.
He was appointed Commander of 73rd Infantry Brigade later in 1918 and became an Instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in 1919 before taking up a post as Director of Military Training in India in 1924.
He went on to be Commandant of the Small Arms School in 1929 and General Officer Commanding 3rd (Meerut) Indian Division in 1934 before retiring in 1938. He was recalled at the start of World World War II to be General Officer Commanding 61st Division and then Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley before retiring again in 1941.
He was also author of Lord Wavell, 1883-1941 - A military biography (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1947).