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	==Further reading==		==Further reading==
	~~{{Portal\|Cornwall}}~~
	*{{cite book		*{{cite book
	\| last = Delaforce		\| last = Delaforce

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	{{Short description\|British Army general}}		{{Short description\|British Army general}}
	{{EngvarB\|date=September ~~2022~~}}		{{EngvarB\|date=September 2013}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=September ~~2022~~}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=September 2013}}
	{{lead too short\|date=April ~~2022~~}}		{{lead too short\|date=April 2017}}
	{{Infobox military person		{{Infobox military person
	\| name = Millis Rowland Jefferis		\| name = Millis Rowland Jefferis

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{{Short description|British Army general}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{lead too short|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Millis Rowland Jefferis
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1899|1|9}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1963|9|5|1899|1|9}}
| birth_place = [[Merstham]], [[Surrey]]
| death_place = [[Porthgwarra]], [[Cornwall]]
| image =
| caption =
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom
| branch = {{plainlist|
*[[File:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] [[British Army]]
*[[File:British Raj Red Ensign.svg|23px]] [[British Indian Army]]
}}
| serviceyears = 1918–1953
| servicenumber= 15844
| rank = [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]]
| commands =
| unit = [[Royal Engineers]]
| battles = [[World War I]] [[Waziristan campaign (1936–1939)|Waziristan Campaign]] Second World War
| awards = [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Military Cross]] [[Mentioned in Despatches]] Norwegian [[War Cross with sword]]
| laterwork = Deputy Engineer-Chief India Engineer-in-Chief Pakistan Chief superintendent of the [[Military Engineering Experimental Establishment]]
}}
Major-General '''Sir Millis Rowland Jefferis''' [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]] [[Military Cross|MC]] (9 January 1899 – 5 September 1963) was a British military officer who founded a special unit of the British [[Ministry of Supply]] which developed unusual weapons during the [[Second World War]].

==Early career==
Born at Merstham, Surrey on 9 January 1899,<ref>General Register Office entry of birth, Jan–Mar 1899, Croydon registration district, Volume 2a Page 278</ref> Jefferis was educated at [[Tonbridge School]] and [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]. From Woolwich he was commissioned into the [[Royal Engineers]] on 6 June 1918, during the final months of [[World War I]], and after passing through the [[Royal School of Military Engineering|School of Military Engineering]] at [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]], he was posted to the First Field Squadron RE in the [[British Army of the Rhine]] (BAOR).<ref name = Times_Obituary >''Sir Millis Jefferis New Weapons of War (Obituary)''. ''[[The Times]]'', 7 September 1963 p10 column E.</ref>

In 1920 he went to India and served with the [[Madras Engineer Group|Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners]] in the Third Field Troop at Sialkot. In 1922 he went into the Works Services in India as garrison engineer at [[Kohat]] and then at [[Spina Khaisora|Khaisora]] which is today in [[Pakistan]]. He saw active service in the [[Waziristan campaign (1936–1939)|Waziristan Campaign]] where his main responsibility was the construction of roads.<ref name = Times_Obituary /> On 12 June 1923 he was awarded the [[Military Cross]], the citation read:

{{quote|''The War Office, 12th June, 1923.''

His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the undermentioned rewards for distinguished service in the Field with the Razmak Force: —

''Awarded the Distinguished Service Order.''

Maj. Leslie Charles Bertram Deed, R.E.

''Awarded the Military Cross.''

Lt. Millis Rowland Jefferis, R.E.

For gallantry and devotion to duty whilst reconnoitring ahead of the road construction parties on the Isha-Razmak road between May and December, 1922, and in the supervision of the work. The satisfactory progress of the road was due in great measure to their efforts and disregard of danger.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32833|pages=4133–4134|date=12 June 1923}}</ref>}}

He then returned to Chatham and went to [[Cambridge University]].<ref name = Times_Obituary /> In 1925, he returned to India and was placed on special duty at [[Kabul]] in the foreign and political department. In 1926 he returned to [[Nowshera, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa|Nowshera]] as garrison engineer and spent several years in Works Services at [[Peshawar]] where he made full use of this engineering genius designing bridges.<ref name = Times_Obituary /> Also in 1925, he married Ruth Carolyne, daughter of G. E. Wakefield. They had three sons, two of whom went on to serve in the Royal Engineers.<ref name = Times_Obituary /> On 1 June 1929, Jefferis was promoted to [[captain (land)|captain]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33500|page=3587|date=31 May 1929}}</ref>

In 1934 he was posted to the [[Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners]] at Kirkee as a company commander in the training battalion. He returned to Britain in 1936 and joined the Twenty-third Field Company at [[Aldershot]]. Moving to the First Field Squadron, he stayed at Aldershot while the unit was being [[Armoured warfare|mechanised]].<ref name = Times_Obituary /> While at Aldershot, Jefferis successfully raced horses and played [[Squash (sport)|squash]] competitively.<ref>''Point-To-Point Meetings – The Whaddon Chase''. ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper, 14 March 1938 p4 column E.</ref><ref>''Squash Rackets – Army Championship ''. ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper, 9 November 1937 p8 column G.</ref> He was promoted [[major (United Kingdom)|major]] on 6 June 1938,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34517|supp=y|page=3638|date=9 May 1939}}</ref> and on 4 April 1939 he was appointed a [[staff (military)|General Staff Officer, Grade 2]] (GSO2).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34624|page=3106|date=9 May 1939}}</ref>

==Second World War==
===Norway===
In 1940, after [[World War II]] had begun, Jefferis was sent to Norway. He returned to give a personal account of his activities to Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]], who used his report to brief the War Cabinet:

{{quote|sign=|source=|The Prime Minister gave the War Cabinet an account of the report which had been made personally to him by Major Jefferis. Major Jefferis had been sent out to Andalsnes with instructions to blow up the Western railway in Central Norway. He had accordingly gone down the railway line and joined Brigadier Morgan’s Brigade; but the Norwegians had categorically refused to allow him to carry out any demolitions. He had been present when Morgan’s Brigade had been engaged by the enemy. The Germans had attacked with artillery, tanks and armoured cars, which our troops had been without. Far more destructive of morale, however, had been the low-flying attacks with bombs and machine guns. Although the casualties had not been so great as from shell fire, the moral effect of seeing the aircraft coming, of being unable to take cover, of being able to observe the bomb dropping, and of the terrific explosion, had been overwhelming.

Jefferis had eventually found himself with the Germans behind him. Picking up a sergeant and two privates, he had succeeded in making his way back to Andalsnes; and on the way he had managed to blow up the girders of two bridges on the German side. He estimated that it would take some three weeks to repair these. At Andalsenes the conditions of air attack had been such as to make it quite impossible to walk down to the jetty during daylight hours. He had spent a day in a sloop in the harbour at which thirty bombs had been aimed. None had hit, but the immunity of a ship under such conditions could only be, in Major Jefferis’s opinion, a matter of time, and he calculated that his life would probably not be more than three days.

The general conclusion which he (the Prime Minister) drew from Major Jefferis’s account was that it was quite impossible for land forces to withstand complete air superiority of the kind which the Germans had enjoyed in Norway. This made it all the more imperative to the success of our operations at Narvik that we should establish air bases in that area, not only for fighters, but also for bombers.<ref>[[The National Archives]], [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=7&CATID=-4279405 CAB 65/7/1], [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7965566 ''Conclusion of a Meeting of the War Cabinet held at 10 Downing Street, SW1, on Wednesday, May 1, 1940 at 10:30 am''], pp. 5–6. (Free download available.)</ref>}} For his service in Norway, Jefferis was awarded the Norwegian [[War Cross with sword]],<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35660|supp=y|page=3493|date=7 August 1942}}</ref> and [[Mentioned in Despatches]] for his efforts in the withdrawal from [[Lillehammer]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35020|supp=y|pages=7200–7201|date=20 December 1940}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7688597 Recommendations for honours and awards, Army—Image details—Jefferis, Millis Rowland—Mention in Despatches], ''DocumentsOnline'', [[The National Archives]] (fee usually required to view full original recommendation). Retrieved on 6 November 2008</ref>

===MD1===
Jefferis started working on sabotage devices for the "Military Intelligence Research" (MIR). When MIR was combined with other ''hush-hush'' elements to form the [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]], Jefferis' unit was not included and it instead became a department in the Ministry of Defence; the only unit of the Minister of Defence (The Prime Minister, [[Winston Churchill]]) and was known as "[[MD1]]", ultimately based in a house called "The Firs" in Whitchurch near [[Aylesbury]] in Buckinghamshire England.<ref>Thomson, 1958, p63</ref>

The unit was responsible for the design, development and production of a number of unique special forces and regular munitions during the Second World War. It gained the nickname "Winston Churchill's toyshop".

Jefferis was an explosives expert and engineer, but lacked the ability to manage men well. He was assisted in the management of MD1 by a wily assistant – Major [[Stuart Macrae (inventor)|Stuart Macrae]], whose book ''Winston Churchill's Toyshop'', is still one of the few published works on this unique unit.

Over the period of the Second World War, MD1 was responsible for the introduction into service of a total of 26 different devices.

Their designs include the [[PIAT]], the [[Sticky bomb]] and one of the first magnetic Limpet [[naval mines]].

Through the application of the Squash head and HEAT technology they had a role in the development and production of Lt-Col [[Stewart Blacker]]'s [[Blacker Bombard]], the PIAT (Blacker's smaller version of the bombard) matched to a hollow charge warhead, [[Hedgehog (weapon)|Hedgehog]] (effectively an adaption of the Bombard spigot mortar principle working with the Navy's [[Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development]]) and tank variants including the [[Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers|AVRE]] with its "Flying Dustbin" 230mm Petard [[spigot mortar]],<ref>[http://www.remuseum.org.uk/articles/rem_article_assaultbridge.htm Royal Engineers Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625161850/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/articles/rem_article_assaultbridge.htm |date=25 June 2010 }}</ref> and a bridge-laying tank.

Jefferis developed the idea of the squash head further. His most ambitious project was a bomb designed to sink [[capital ship]]s, his ideas were put forward by himself and [[Lord Cherwell]] in 1944 and coincided with the Admiralty's interest in developing a homing bomb for use against the Japanese. The development of this weapon was supported by the Air Staff and MAP who allocated it a higher priority that any other anti-capital ship weapon. When the war ended, development of the 'Cherwell-Jefferis' bomb was continued under the code names ''Journey's End'' and ''[[Blue Boar (bomb)|Blue Boar]]''.<ref>Twigge 1996. pp. 104–105.</ref>

Prime Minister Churchill became acquainted with then Jefferis in 1940 and regarded him as a "singularly capable and forceful man." He recommended a promotion to [[Lieutenant Colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] so that Jefferis would have more authority. Jefferis received substantive promotion to this rank on 10 February 1944.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=36576|supp=y|page=2977|date=20 June 1944}}</ref>

Jefferis was promoted to [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (KBE) by Churchill in the [[1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours]], having previously been appointed a Commander of the Order (CBE).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37227|supp=y|pages=4183–4184|date=14 August 1945}}</ref> He was promoted to acting [[Major General (United Kingdom)|major general]] on 15 May 1945,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37236|supp=y|page=4274|date=21 August 1945}}</ref> and substantive [[colonel (United Kingdom)|colonel]] on 14 July 1945.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37245|supp=y|page=4377|date=28 August 1945}}</ref> He left the Ministry of Supply on 20 November 1945, reverting to the temporary rank of brigadier.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37419|supp=y|page=233|date=1 January 1946}}</ref>

==Later career==
In 1945, Jefferis became deputy Engineer-in-Chief in India and 1947 he became Engineer-in-Chief in Pakistan, holding the temporary rank of major general.<ref name = Times_Obituary /> He was promoted to substantive [[brigadier]] on 1 November 1947,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38242|supp=y|page=2007|date=19 March 1948}}</ref> and returned to England on 2 January 1950<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38922|supp=y|page=2617|date=26 May 1950}}</ref> to become Chief Superintendent of the Military Engineering Experimental Establishment,<ref name = Times_Obituary /> reverting to the rank of brigadier on 8 March 1950.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38854|supp=y|page=1151|date=7 March 1950}}</ref> He was made [[Aide de Camp|ADC to the King]] on 24 May 1951 and held that appointment until he retired on 18 August 1953, on his retirement he was granted the honorary rank of major-general.<ref name = Times_Obituary /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39268|supp=y|page=3479|date=22 June 1951}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39939|supp=y|page=4467|date=14 August 1953}}</ref> As an ADC, Jefferis took part in [[George VI of the United Kingdom|King George VI's]] funeral, and [[Queen Elizabeth II]]'s [[Coronation of the British monarch|Coronation Procession]].<ref>''Processions''. ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper, 1 June 1953 p19.</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39575|supp=y|pages=3345–3351|date=17 June 1952}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=40020|supp=y|pages=6223–6227|date=17 November 1953 }}</ref> He died on 5 September 1963.<ref name = Times_Obituary />

== Ocean racing ==
Jefferis had a passion for ocean racing. In 1938, he built a 7-ton yacht at Aldershot called ''Prelude'' with another Royal Engineer officer and they sailed successfully both before and after the war.<ref name = Times_Obituary /><ref name = "Times Yacht Racing" >''Yacht Racing – The New Lloyd's''. ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper, 25 May 1948 p6 column B.</ref><ref>''Sports in Brief – Ocean Racing''. ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper, 9 May 1953 p3 column C.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{cite book |last=Thomson |first=George |author2=William Farren |title=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Volume 4 |year=1958 |publisher=Royal Society |location=London |chapter= Fredrick Alexander Lindemann, Viscount Cherwell }}
*{{cite web
| url = http://www.millsgrenades.co.uk/box.htm
| title = Stuart Macrae's "Toy Box"
| access-date =6 November 2008
| work = The Mills Grenade Collectors site
}}
*{{cite book
| first = Stuart
| last = Macrae
| author-link = Stuart Macrae (inventor)
| title = Winston Churchill's Toyshop
| publisher = Roundwood Press
| year = 1971
| ISBN = 0-900093-22-6
}}
*{{cite book
| first = Stephen Robert
| last = Twigge
| title = The Early Development of Guided Weapons in the United Kingdom, 1940–1960
| publisher = Taylor & Francis
| year = 1992
| ISBN = 978-3-7186-5297-6
}}
*{{cite book
| first = Giles
| last = Milton
| title = Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
| publisher = John Murray
| year = 2017
| ISBN = 978-1-444-79898-2
}}
*{{cite news
| title = Sir Millis Jefferis (obituary)
| newspaper = The Times
| date = 7 September 1963
| page = 10 column E
| ref = {{harvid|Times 7 September 1963}}
}}

==Further reading==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
*{{cite book
| last = Delaforce
| first = Patrick
| title = Churchill's Secret Weapons: The Story of Hobart's Funnies
| publisher = [[Pen and Sword Books|Pen & Sword]]
| year = 2007
| isbn = 978-1-84415-464-7
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Milton
| first = Giles
| title = The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
| author-link = Giles Milton
| publisher = [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]]
| year = 2016
| isbn = 978-1-444-79895-1
}}

==External links==
*[https://generals.dk/general/Jefferis/Millis_Rowland/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferis, Millis}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army major generals]]
[[Category:British Indian Army generals]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:People educated at Tonbridge School]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Surrey]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:Recipients of the War Cross with Sword (Norway)]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:Weapon designers]]

Millis Jefferis - Revision history

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14.0.225.178: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.

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