Slim, William, 1st Viscount Slim

Slim, William (Joseph), 1st Viscount Slim (of Yarralumla and Bishopston)

(born , Aug. 6, 1891, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died Dec. 14, 1970, London) British general. He served with the British army in World War I and with the Indian army from 1920. In World War II he commanded Indian troops in East Africa and the Middle East (1940–41). As commander of the 1st Burma Corps (1942), he led a 900-mi (1,450-km) retreat from superior Japanese forces in Burma to India. In 1944 he led forces to repel a Japanese invasion of northern India; in 1945 he retook Burma from the Japanese. Promoted to field marshal (1948), he served as chief of the Imperial General Staff (1948–52) and later as governor-general of Australia (1953–60).