"Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM was a New Zealand born nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Wake
"The father of modern plastic surgery is generally considered to have been Sir Harold Gillies. A New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, he developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers with disfiguring facial injuries during the First World War."
Noor GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944) of Indian parents was a British resistance agent in France in the WWII who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It conducted espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers.
There were a lot of Dutch officers in the time of Marlborough, for obvious reasons. And lots of German officers and rank and file in e.g. the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic wars.
Jan Smuts, Boer War Guerrilla General. Smuts served as a senior military and strategic advisor to Winston Churchill during WWII and held the honorary rank of Field Marshal in the British Army—the only non-British citizen to do so.
Canadian George Frederick “Buzz” Beurling, RAF pilot. “The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", credited with shooting down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island.
He was definitely unique, probably mentally unstable, but he could aim for where he calculated an enemy aircraft was GOING to be when the bullets arrived, which was some kind of wizardry I think.
The entire Greek crew of the Averof, who disobeyed orders to scuttle their old cruiser as the Nazis defeated their country and sailed to Egypt to join the Royal Navy instead.
The whole history of that ship is like a crib sheet for the first half of the 20th century in the eastern med/balkans but the entire crew disobeying orders and fighting on against the Nazis is worthy of an entire movie.
*Polish & Czech fighter pilots - Battle of Britain
*Gurkhas - have played a pivotal role in the British army & every major war fought from 1816 onwards.
*Hessians" - approx 30,000 German troops hired by the British to help fight during the American Revolution.
*Canadians - ww1 & ww2 made...
... significant contributions. Like the Scots theys always got stuck with the sh*tty assignments that the English didn't want to do or had tried and failed to do.
*Australians - ww1 & ww2
*New Zealanders - ww1 & ww2
*South Africans -ww1 & ww2
*Indians - ww1 & ww2
*Jews from Palestine - Sept 1944...
John Ligonier - born in Castres (Huguenot), became a British Field Marshal and Earl.
Henri de Massue - born in Paris (Huguenot again), Lt.-Gen. and Earl. Commanded allies at Battle of Almansa, where the Bourbon forces were commanded by the Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II.
The Polish general Sosabowski springs to mind; not only for his and his brigade’s bravery during the disastrous Market Garden in face of overwhelming odds (which he forcibly warned about), but the way he was subsequently ostracised and scapegoated afterwards by snr British military and govt figures.
Big role, consequential probably not - but the story of him leading a small troop of light armoured cars on a bicycle in Holland under German fire to relieve his troops always sticks in my mind.
Kinda repeated what he has done in 1939. POL 8th Infantry Division launched an ill fated nightime counterassault which went downhill really quickly due to confusion likely to happen at night and only Sosabowski's regiment performed well, which it continued for next four weeks in defence of Warsaw.
Hmm - not sure if it qualifies - but the only son of Napoleon III, Louis Philippe, joined the British army after the family moved to Chislehurst after Franco-Prussian war, and was killed in 1879 aged 23 in the Anglo-Zulu wars.
Keith Parks...NZer who was key to Battle of Britain...or do Colonial Anglos count as Brits(probably fair if they do, technically they were still "Brits" back then & many were happy to defend the "Mother Country")
Possibly Jan Smuts during the First World War? Complicated by the fact that South Africa was still part of the British Empire - and there must be many other similar examples. Smuts has a statue in Parliament Square.
Klaus 'Henie' Adam was a German Jew who was sent to an Edinburgh boarding school after his older brother Dieter got into a fight with a Hitler Youth member.
Ken and Denis would join the RAF and fly Typhoons in 609 and 183 Sqns. Ken is perhaps better known today for his Oscar-winning set designs.
Quite a few from the 17-18th centuries (depending on what you call the 'British Armed Forces'), especially at the high level. Prince Rupert of the Rhine (German). King William III of Orange (Dutch). Both were field commanders. King George II was the last monarch to command (born German).
There must have been a lot of colonials too in the British forces proper, as distinct from Anzacs, RCAF etc.
But arguably Ireland doesn't count -- we're not strictly foreign in UK law.
The Norwegian author Nordahl Grieg was shot Down in a bomb raid over Berlin in 1943.
He served as a warcorrespondant in England after Fleeing the nazi occupation of Norway
Not sure about "big role", but do look up Carlo Fantom in Aubrey's "Brief Lives".
Where does William of Orange fit - or was he naturalised? Prince Rupert?
What about all those Czechs and Poles in the Battle of Britain?
(This is all off the top of my head)
William the Conqueror? Cnut? Gets tricky.
Of course! 🙂 👍 I read ages ago about when police came to intern an Edinburgh Italian as an enemy alien. His mum said "I'm afraid he's not here. He's been called up for the army."
Of the three men with VC and bar, 2 were New Zealanders (and related). If you can find a good obituary of Charles Upham of North Canterbury NZ his WW2 exploits will knock you sideways (the Telegraph one was a work of art but sadly no longer available online)
There's a statue to the Russian Prince Alexander Obolenski, WWII fighter pilot and then England rugby international, in Ipswich http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/7896298.stm Or do you mean people who helped to *form* the armed forces?
These are some gurkhas that won the VC:
Recipients
*Lalbahadur Thapa 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles Second World War
*Gaje Ghale 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles Second World War
*Michael Allmand Indian Armoured Corps attached to 6th Gurkha Rifles Second World War
*Tulbahadur Pun 6th Gurkha Rifles Second World War
These are Polish pilots awarded medals by the RAF in WW2:
Name Post War RAF Rank
* Andrusikiewicz DFC Roman Wojciech Flight Lieutenant
*Andrzejewski VM Stanislaw Jan Flight Lieutenant
* Antoniak, Tadeusz Peter Pilot Officer
Brigadier Dudley Wrangel Clarke, British Army and Founder of the British “Commandos” and the great military illusionist, born Ladysmith, South Africa, 1900.
Wilhelm von Knyphausen led the Hessian mercenaries who took Fort Washington, in northern Manhattan, during the early stages of the American War of Independence.
This was in the early stage when the British were doing well, after the Battle of Brooklyn.
Johann Friedrich von der Decken, raised the King's German Legion to fight the French - their light infantry were the valiant (suicidal) defenders of La Haye Sante, critical at Waterloo
I understand that the majority of the British army at Waterloo were not British (36% British) before the Prussians arrived to win the battle (even the display at the Wellington Arch opposite Apsley House talks of the Prussians winning the battle).
Billy Bishop, the leading Allied fighter Ace in WWI, was Canadian; he flew in the RFC and the RAF. (The other example I can think of offhand is Benedict Arnold, who may not be quite what you're looking for!)
Jean de Selys Longchamps (Belgian RAF pilot) is my absolute favorite. The guy was a complete nut case but a seriously good planner... And deadly effective.
I passed his memorial just today! It's right outside the former Gestapo HQ on Avenue Louise in Brussels, which he shot up in direct contravention of his orders.
Indeed. But what I like most about him is the deviously planned execution. Anyone else would just have been "performative", strafing the building and getting away. He made sure to perform a low pass beforehand to bring as many Germans to the windows before actually making a second (strafing) pass.
I mean, that shows planning. And I'm not even talking about using a Typhoon, probably the plane least adequate to the task, to realize a series of low level, highly dangerous manoeuvres, where the slightest mistake in angling or rolling gets you an instant but horrible death...
Field Marshal Smuts, William of Orange (and generals).
George Washington (although I suppose he became a only foreigner after his service in the British army)
That Irish bloke who was Sharpe's sergeant through the Peninsular wars (as representative of all the Irish troops who followed Wellington)
H. D. G. Crerer, was a Canadian General led the Canadian army & played a major role on Operation Overlord. He was with Montgomery at the Military Headquarters overseeing it. The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed at Juno beach. Don’t know if this helps but the Canadians deserve a mention!
Lord Ligonier was more a foreign migrant who settled in England and devoted his life to the British army, than a foreigner as such, but he might be relevant depending on how your argument is structured.
Yeah, Milligan is just out and out hilarious (though also powerful in places). CdW is a mix of reader incredulity and his sang froid which certainly feels humorous at times.
One of the fun things about a fondness for 18th century military history is “the Austrian General Graf Hans O’Leary squared off against his French rival, Marshal of France Comte Pierre Houlihan”
They’re basically “so I’d messed up a bit in my first year at Oxford so I took myself off to find a war to fight in. When my father found out I was in South Africa, by chance more than design, fighting for the British, he summoned me home. I somewhat petulantly agreed.”
Two of my three sons are in the army right now. Shame that this doesnt answer your question as they are very much in the present...and neither do they play a big role. They might do in the future though...
Bernard Freyberg in WW1. Jan Smuts in WW2 was appointed field marshal of the british army. Query whether they were understood as 'foreigners' given the close commonwealth connections btwn NZ, SA and UK at the time...
I came across his grave whilst out for a stroll about 20 years ago and looked up his VC (and subsequently went to the place he earned it). Brave as a lion, probably not the sharpest tool in the shed.
How about Samuel Franklin Cody who designed and in 1907 built the first aeroplane for the British Army named the British Army Aeroplane No 1 that flew in 1908...
Depending on how you’re defining “British armed forces”, General Sir John Monash was an Australian officer who was extremely effective in the First World War & informed much of the modernisation that led to allied (British imperial) success on the Western Front.🤔
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, born and raised in New Zealand, was responsible for the fighter defence of London and southeast England during the Battle of Britain (when he was Air Vice Marshall Keith Park).
I was at the National War Museum in Valletta earlier this year (in the upper levels of Fort St Elmo).
They have one of the famous trio of hastily assembled obsolete biplane fighters (Faith, Hope and Charity) on display Only Faith survived the war.
Malta's WW2 fighter defence was an afterthought 😲.
It really wasn’t by 1941, just that they had a crap RAF commander who didn’t push for spitfires rather than hurricanes and they had difficulty supplying the island with fuel, food, replacement planes and ammo due axis air and sea blockade.
The opportunity was between June 1940 (after Italy joined the war and France surrendered) and November 1940 (Taranto attack).
Italy's Navy had to assume that Malta would be defended by both the British and French navies and it couldn't fight both.
Summer 1940 the Italian navy was at its strongest.
If Italy invaded in June 1940 Malta had very little air cover, the Royal Navy was busy elsewhere.
During the Phoney War Malta had just four infantry battalions.
More arrived later in 1940 but Malta not well defended. If Italy had landing craft and ~10,000 amphibious troops they could have done it.
He was maneuvered out of his job by Leigh-Mallory and the "Big Wing"believers towards the end of the Battle of Britain. Respected by his men and by the Americans.
New Zealand was a member of the League of Nations and declared war on Germany separately (not all dominions did so, for example Ireland didn't).
As for New Zealand born people, there really was no separate New Zealand citizenship at that time. They were British subjects (by imperial naturalisation).
As of 2025 they are 'foreigners'.
For example any born after 31 December 1982 and staying for longer than six months usually requires a visa (there are exceptions for people with British spouses etc..).
Admiral Tirpitz with his Naval plan for Germany led to a massive expansion in the size of the Royal Navy and the creation of Dreadnought and the super dreadnoughts.
I'm sure you know this, but the Polish airmen during WWII. If you're counting people from the colonies as 'foreigners', then a whole lot more. During the American revolutionary wars, all kinds of mercenaries (Hessians come to mind).
Sailor Malan was South African although it'll depend on how you classify foreign at the time.
Facetiously, as the monarch is commander in chief the George I and William III
The father of Sir John Monash (Australian officer in the British Army in World War I, and a crucial leader in the 'Hundred Days' offensive by the allies in 1918) was a Prussian Jew who had emigrated to Australia from France.
If you can count an Anglo-Irish Protestant as foreign - and he might not have - then Field Marshal Gough, commander of 2nd Btn Royal Irish Fusiliers in the Peninsular War and victor of the First Opium War and the Maratha War and the First and Second Sikh Wars, was from Co Limerick.
Spike Milligan, Irish citizen born in Ahmednagar, India. Served in the Royal Artillery during World War 2. Never achieved high rank, but wrote some very well-regarded war memoirs.
Australians as individuals include Don Bennett who led the RAF’s Pathfinder force in WWII - but I’m doubtful that dominions or colonies of the British empire could be regarded as ‘foreigners’ at the time.
You are right, he was born in UK. He left with 5 GBP in his pocket after, reading between the lines, his father kicked him out (I sense for not meeting said father's expectations). I had forgotten this - what I had remembered was how he thought of himself; he wrote "I am Rhodesian".
Not sure how you are defining‘foreigners’ but the EIC and later British forces in India and later WW Europe would have been toast without sepoys/Indian soldiers. In the 18th century EIC officers included European (French, Swiss etc) men.
On the tiniest scale I think of my paternal grandfather who was the son of German immigrant to Britain but served in the British army during WWI (at the same time as his father returned - or was deported? - to Germany).
Duke of Wellington was born in Ireland …Henry V and other kings were French, 26 Ghurkas awarded the VC, many Polish fighter pilots in the RAF… it goes on .. it’s unfair to pick individuals out they were all hero’s the UK more than I think any other European country has been very international
If not already mentioned HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, joined the Royal Navy whilst still a German-Greek citizen and served with distinction in Atlantic Mediterranean and Pacific fleets during WW II.
Possibly the highest ranking best known foreigner to serve the UK in modern times.
The Norwegians patrol boats operating out of Shetland during WWII. HNoMS Svenner, one of few allied warships sunk during d-day. Kompani Linge, operated out of Scotland, and was the ones taking out the heavy water plant in Telemark
No end of medieval examples (though the concept of foreigner is a bit elastic - if your duke happens to be king of England too, and 'nation' is problematic). William the Marshal, earl of Pembroke; Edward I's Savoyard knights, the various Aquitanians that fought in England's wars all over, etc.
All those people had personal connections to a monarch in a way that can't really be translated as 'foreigner' in a way we'd readily use.
I suppose the even more obvious set would be William the Conqueror's army: when William wins, and they're granted English lands, are they people 'of England'?
Nice: add him in, more the merrier.
I’m not counting any ‘imperials’ because they would have thought of themselves as British.
As did Alanbrooke although he was born in France I think.
Ohh, nice one, born and raised in France and bilingual, according to Wikipedia - Alanbrooke was not on my radar but should have been as a capable linguist doing coalition things.
The Liddell Hart catalogue seems to indicate not much First World War material, though, unfortunately...
In the 1920s he wrote an influential series of articles on artillery tactics during the FWW I think in the RUSI Journal as Major AF Brooke. Let me know if you need proper references.
Foch and Eisenhower of course both commanded the British military in the field.
Foch the only non-royal foreigner to be made a Field Marshal in the British army
Georg Hein aka Peter Stevens. A German Jew, he was sent to the UK in 1934. When war was declared he assumed the name of Peter Stevens, and flew operations as a pilot with 144 Squadron before becoming a POW in 1941. Read Marc H. Stevens, 'Escape, Evasion and Revenge'.
If providing the opportunity for the armed forces to abandon their loyalty to the monarch of the day, & because we hardly ever talk about him in Northern Ireland, William of Orange?
I was born in South Africa because my great grandfather joined British-German Legion during the Crimean War. The war ended before the seeing any action, they were a bit of a nuisance in Portsmouth so we're sent to look after interests in SA.
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Wake
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._303_Squadron_RAF
For a colonial perspective you could also consider Bernhard Freyberg and John Monash.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_German_Legion?wprov=sfla1
(Ireland was not part of the UK at his birth, though it shared a monarch. )
2. King George II, born in Hanover, commanded British army at Battle of Dettingen.
Dolphin's Barn, originally a cinema, became Ireland's first indoor ice skating rink in the 1980s,
That joke was begging to be cracked
https://bsky.app/profile/theaviation.show/post/3lhybuoge622n
Jewish Brigade in Palestine, defected to the Haganah after the war and fought the Brits
Half an hour later ... I wasn't wrong.
43 gang, ex British army in WWII who were the core of the Mau Mau/Land And Freedom Army in Nairobi
Mahatma Ghandi, stretcher bearer in Flanders WWI
Basically anyone who fought the Brits to end colonialism, have a scratch and they were in the British armed forces WWII
*Gurkhas - have played a pivotal role in the British army & every major war fought from 1816 onwards.
*Hessians" - approx 30,000 German troops hired by the British to help fight during the American Revolution.
*Canadians - ww1 & ww2 made...
*Australians - ww1 & ww2
*New Zealanders - ww1 & ww2
*South Africans -ww1 & ww2
*Indians - ww1 & ww2
*Jews from Palestine - Sept 1944...
* Caribbean people - approx 6000 served in RAF in ww2
That's what comes to mind just now. There are more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Atkins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Redgrave_%28British_Army_officer%29?wprov=sfla1
Henri de Massue - born in Paris (Huguenot again), Lt.-Gen. and Earl. Commanded allies at Battle of Almansa, where the Bourbon forces were commanded by the Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II.
Major General Orde Charles Wingate - Naini Tal, India
Colonel Sir Robert Warburton - Afghanistan
Colonel Paul Rodzianko - Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Lord "Paddy" Ashdown - Delhi
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meinhardt_Schomberg,_3rd_Duke_of_Schomberg
Ken and Denis would join the RAF and fly Typhoons in 609 and 183 Sqns. Ken is perhaps better known today for his Oscar-winning set designs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Janou%C5%A1ek
But arguably Ireland doesn't count -- we're not strictly foreign in UK law.
He served as a warcorrespondant in England after Fleeing the nazi occupation of Norway
Where does William of Orange fit - or was he naturalised? Prince Rupert?
What about all those Czechs and Poles in the Battle of Britain?
(This is all off the top of my head)
William the Conqueror? Cnut? Gets tricky.
I shall salute him with whisky tonight, but he deserves more.
For a non-Commonwealth chap to get a VC, dammit.
May his name never be forgotten by us.
Recipients
*Lalbahadur Thapa 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles Second World War
*Gaje Ghale 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles Second World War
*Michael Allmand Indian Armoured Corps attached to 6th Gurkha Rifles Second World War
These are Polish pilots awarded medals by the RAF in WW2:
Name Post War RAF Rank
* Andrusikiewicz DFC Roman Wojciech Flight Lieutenant
*Andrzejewski VM Stanislaw Jan Flight Lieutenant
* Antoniak, Tadeusz Peter Pilot Officer
Hope that helps
Field-Marshal Sir Nigel Thomas Bagnall, born in India in 1927
Air-Vice Marshal Don Bennett, Royal Air Force: born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia,in 1910.
more here https://peek-01.livejournal.com/64479.html
This was in the early stage when the British were doing well, after the Battle of Brooklyn.
(He's quite well known in er, certain parts of the UK)
Godert de Ginkel 1st Earl of Athlone
George Washington (although I suppose he became a only foreigner after his service in the British army)
That Irish bloke who was Sharpe's sergeant through the Peninsular wars (as representative of all the Irish troops who followed Wellington)
William of Orange, though maybe too long ago to be relevant.
George II: born in Hanover, present as C-in-C of the British-Austrian-Hanoverian army at the battle of Dettingen.
In a less exalted role, Napoléon, Prince Imperial, son of Napoleon III.
Any of these fellows.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Park
Possibly the man who more than anyone else ensured victory in it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dorman-Smith
know of his Irish association nor of his IRA advisory role.
William III
George I
George II
IIRC their kill ratio was better than the Brits.
They have one of the famous trio of hastily assembled obsolete biplane fighters (Faith, Hope and Charity) on display Only Faith survived the war.
Malta's WW2 fighter defence was an afterthought 😲.
Italy's Navy had to assume that Malta would be defended by both the British and French navies and it couldn't fight both.
Summer 1940 the Italian navy was at its strongest.
During the Phoney War Malta had just four infantry battalions.
More arrived later in 1940 but Malta not well defended. If Italy had landing craft and ~10,000 amphibious troops they could have done it.
As for New Zealand born people, there really was no separate New Zealand citizenship at that time. They were British subjects (by imperial naturalisation).
For example any born after 31 December 1982 and staying for longer than six months usually requires a visa (there are exceptions for people with British spouses etc..).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Franti%C5%A1ek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Finucane
Facetiously, as the monarch is commander in chief the George I and William III
I guess one could also say Klaus Fuchs, for good and ill!
Field Marshal Ligonnier.
He joined as a cadet in 1939 and fought through WW2.
He was a New Zealander.
Serious answer, Rupert of the Rhine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30685433
Possibly the highest ranking best known foreigner to serve the UK in modern times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England
I suppose the even more obvious set would be William the Conqueror's army: when William wins, and they're granted English lands, are they people 'of England'?
I’m not counting any ‘imperials’ because they would have thought of themselves as British.
As did Alanbrooke although he was born in France I think.
But even if you say there wasn’t an English army before the Civil War, there was a navy so I think it’s ok.
The Liddell Hart catalogue seems to indicate not much First World War material, though, unfortunately...
Foch the only non-royal foreigner to be made a Field Marshal in the British army
George 1 introduced the Hanoverian regiments, the Kings German Legion, which played a big role at Waterloo
Robert Rogers, born in the US, fought on the British side in the Seven Years War
The British colonial administrations used to employ
Wellington would command mixed forces in the Peninsula campaigns, both Portuguese regulars and Spanish irregulars
He did this in India, mixed British regulars with Indian regiments
Eventually we had the Indian Army,
This would be repeated in Africa