John Frost (British Army officer)

Major-General John Dutton Frost, (31 December 1912 – 21 May 1993) was an airborne officer of the British Army best known for being the leader of the small group of British airborne troops that actually arrived at Arnhem bridge during the Battle of Arnhem in Operation Market Garden, in World War II. He was one of the first to join the newly formed Parachute Regiment and served with distinction in many wartime airborne operations, such as in North Africa and Sicily and Italy, until his injury and subsequent capture at Arnhem. He retired from the army in 1968 to become a beef cattle farmer in West Sussex. John Dutton Frost was born in Poona, British India, on 31 December 1912. He was the son of Frank Dutton Frost, a British Army officer, and his wife, Elsie Dora (née Bright). He was educated, initially, at Wellington College, Berkshire, but was transferred to Monkton Combe School, Somerset in 1929 due to lack of progress. He would later leave Monkton Combe School off his Who's Who entry. On leaving Monkton he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the British Army. On graduation from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst on 1 September 1932, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). He was promoted on 1 September 1935 to lieutenant. Frost served with his regiment's 2nd Battalion, then commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Riddell-Webster, in the United Kingdom before the battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Graham, was sent to Palestine during the early stages of the Arab revolt. From 1938 to 1941 Frost worked with the Iraq Levies, receiving a promotion to captain on 1 September 1940. Returning to the United Kingdom in September 1941, Frost initially served with the 10th Battalion, Cameronians, a Territorial Army (TA) unit which formed part of the 45th Brigade of Major-General Philip Christison's 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, before later volunteering to join the Parachute Regiment in the same year.