Henry Robert Bowreman Foote

His tank had been knocked out. He had been wounded in the neck. Days later, with his remaining tanks under devastating fire and his own guns useless, he deliberately placed himself where his men could see him and continued to lead. Major-General Henry Robert Bowreman Foote VC, CB, DSO became one of the outstanding British armoured commanders of the Second World War, and his courage during the Battle of Gazala earned him the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy.

Foote was born on 5 December 1904 at Ishapur, Bengal, India. After training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Tank Corps in 1925. His appointment appears in the London Gazette of 30 January 1925, which lists Henry Robert Bowreman Foote among the newly commissioned officers of the Royal Tank Corps. He would spend more than three decades in British armoured service, rising from a young tank officer to the rank of major-general.

By the spring of 1942, Foote was a major and temporary lieutenant-colonel commanding the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in the Western Desert. His first major wartime decoration was the Distinguished Service Order. The award was announced in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 13 August 1942, Issue 35665, page 3543, "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East." The official notice did not publish a detailed citation. A later obituary by Major-General Allan Taylor, who knew Foote personally, associated the DSO with Foote's leadership at Sidra Ridge during the Gazala fighting. That attribution is historically credible, but it should be distinguished from the wording of the official Gazette announcement.

It was at Gazala that Foote's name became inseparable from the history of the Royal Tank Regiment. His Victoria Cross citation covered the period from 27 May to 15 June 1942 in Libya. On 6 June, after leading his battalion through heavy artillery fire in pursuit of a superior enemy force, his tank was knocked out. While transferring to another vehicle he was wounded in the neck. He refused to relinquish command. Instead, he continued directing the battle from an exposed position on the outside of a tank. When another vehicle was disabled, he went forward on foot under intense fire, encouraging his men and helping defeat an attempt to encircle two British divisions.

A week later came an even more extraordinary test. On 13 June 1942, Foote was ordered to delay enemy armour so that the Guards Brigade could withdraw from the Knightsbridge escarpment. After the first wave of British tanks had been destroyed, he reorganised those that remained, moving on foot from vehicle to vehicle under intense artillery and anti-tank fire. His own tank was badly damaged and all its guns had been rendered useless, yet Foote deliberately placed it in front of the others so that he could be clearly seen in the turret. His presence steadied the surviving crews and helped keep the withdrawal corridor open until the brigade had passed through. The official citation concluded that his courage and leadership over several days were of an exceptional order and that his name had become synonymous with bravery throughout the brigade.

For these actions, Foote was awarded the Victoria Cross. The award was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 18 May 1944, Issue 36518, page 2269. King George VI personally invested him with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 12 December 1944. The Tank Museum notes that Foote and Captain Philip "Pip" Gardner were the only two members of the Royal Tank Regiment to receive the Victoria Cross during the Second World War.

Foote did not leave the Western Desert freely. On 23 June 1942, shortly after the fall of Tobruk, he was captured and became a prisoner of war. He was eventually sent to Italy and was held at the prisoner-of-war camp at Veano. Following the Italian armistice in September 1943, Foote and seven other prisoners escaped into the mountains. After weeks on the move they reached Wil in the Swiss canton of St Gallen on 27 November 1943. He later moved to Berne and eventually returned to Britain in 1944. His wartime experiences, including captivity and escape, were later recorded in an oral-history interview preserved by the Imperial War Museums.

His service after returning from captivity was also formally recognised. On 22 March 1945, the London Gazette recorded Lieutenant-Colonel H. R. B. Foote, VC, Royal Tank Regiment, as Mentioned in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services in the field. That Mention in Despatches is represented on his War Medal 1939-45 ribbon by the bronze oak leaf visible in his surviving medal group.

Foote's career did not end with the war. He served in a succession of important armoured commands and technical appointments. He commanded the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment from 1947 to 1948, led the Automotive Wing of the Fighting Vehicles Proving Establishment at the Ministry of Supply, commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade from 1949 to 1950, and then became General Officer Commanding the 11th Armoured Division from 1950 to 1953. His advancement reflected not only battlefield courage but a deep professional knowledge of tanks, armoured formations and mechanised warfare.

On 1 January 1952, Foote was appointed a Companion of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. The appointment appears in the Supplement to the London Gazette, Issue 39421, page 3, where "Major-General Henry Robert Bowreman Foote, V.C., D.S.O." is listed among the new Companions of the Order. He subsequently served as Director-General of Fighting Vehicles at the Ministry of Supply from 1953 to 1955, followed by one of the most senior appointments in his branch, Director of the Royal Armoured Corps at the War Office from 1955 to 1958. He retired from the Army in 1958 after more than thirty years of commissioned service.

Retirement did not sever Foote's connection with the regiment or the men with whom he had served. He remained involved with the British Legion, the Royal Tank Regiment's old comrades and veterans' organisations, and he became closely associated with The Tank Museum at Bovington. The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association records his long involvement with the association, while his obituary remembered a commander respected not merely for personal bravery, but for the example he set to the soldiers around him.

Foote died on 22 November 1993, aged 88, and was buried at St Mary's Church, West Chiltington, Sussex. His correct date of death is important because several secondary websites incorrectly give 11 November 1993. Both the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association and his contemporary Independent obituary record 22 November 1993.

More than eight decades after Gazala, Foote's story remains closely connected with the regiment he served. In May 2026, The Tank Museum at Bovington announced that Foote's medal group, including his Victoria Cross, had been placed on display in its WW2: War Stories exhibition alongside the medals of Captain Philip "Pip" Gardner. Together, their two Victoria Crosses represent the only such awards made to members of the Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War.

Henry Robert Bowreman Foote's career was far larger than a single decoration, but the words of his Victoria Cross citation capture why he is still remembered. When tanks were burning, communications were failing and withdrawal threatened to become disaster, Foote made himself visible, moved toward the danger and gave others the confidence to remain at their posts. His distinction was not simply that he commanded tanks. It was that, at the most dangerous moments of the Battle of Gazala, he commanded by example.