Lieutenant General Sir Charles Walter Allfrey, (24 October 1895 – 2 November 1964) was a senior British Army officer who served in both the world wars, most notably during the Second World War as General Officer Commanding of V Corps in North Africa and Italy from 1942 to 1944. Early life and military career Charles Walter Allfrey was born on 24 October 1895 in Southam, Northamptonshire (this information is almost certainly incorrect due to a transcription error - in the first instance Southam is in Warwickshire and not Northamptonshire, but in any case the 1901 Census Record for Charles Walter Allfrey aged 5 and the 1911 Census for Charles Walter Allfrey aged 15, at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, states the place of birth as Gaydon, Warwickshire - Gaydon (approx 6 miles from Southam) at that time was in the Registration District of Southam), the youngest son of Captain Henry Allfrey, a British Army officer of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and Kathleen Hankey. He entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. However, upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he instead was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) on 11 August. Promoted to lieutenant on 9 June 1915, during the war Allfrey was wounded twice. He served on the Western Front with the 94th Brigade of the RFA, part of the 21st Division, a Kitchener's Army unit. He was promoted to the acting rank of captain on 5 January 1917, which was made substantive later that year on 3 November. Allfrey was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in 1918 for keeping his battery in action for an extended period of time, despite being under direct machine gun and artillery fire from the enemy. The citation reads: He was promoted to acting major on 17 December 1917 and reverted to his permanent rank of captain on 18 February 1919, by which time the war had ended due to the Armistice with Germany. Between the wars After the war, Allfrey served on regimental duties before becoming adjutant at the Army Equitation School, from 1925 to 1928, and was seconded to the Colonial Office, being later seconded to the Iraqi Army in November 1930. In Iraq, he won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and, from October 1932 to November 1933, was employed with the British Military Mission to Iraq where he was Inspector Artillery