William Dobbie - World War II

World War II

Dobbie, then holding the rank of major-general, was informed that after Malaya he would be retired, because new War Office regulations deemed him too old for a further position. After war was declared in September, he was frustrated in his attempts to return to active service, until in April 1940 he encountered the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Edmund Ironside, who offered him the position of Governor-General and Commander-in-chief of Malta. He remained Governor of Malta until May 1942.

While in Malta, he was criticised for his approach to leadership during the 3 year siege and for what critics argue to have been an unacceptable delay in the creation of bomb shelters; as well as in implementing efficient food-rationing and creating an effective civil-defence system. Issues surrounding the unloading of ordnance were also a criticism.

He was also the former Commandant of the Royal School of Military Engineering. Dobbie was a member of the Protestant Plymouth Brethren, and when living in The Paragon, Blackheath, attended the large Brethren assembly in Nightingale Vale, Woolwich Common, London SE18. On 31 July 1944 a German V-1 flying bomb fell on houses in Milward Street and Nightingale Vale, Woolwich, and the Brethren's Gospel Hall was severely damaged, but none of the 450 members perished.