Major-General Sir Millis Rowland Jefferis KBE 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, 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 School of Military Engineering at Chatham, he was posted to the First Field Squadron RE in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). In 1920 he went to India and served with the 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 Khaisora which is today in Pakistan. He saw active service in the Waziristan Campaign where his main responsibility was the construction of roads. On 12 June 1923 he was awarded the Military Cross, the citation read:
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. He then returned to Chatham and went to Cambridge University. 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 as garrison engineer and spent several years in Works Services at Peshawar where he made full use of this engineering genius designing bridges. 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. On 1 June 1929, Jefferis was promoted to captain. 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 mechanised. While at Aldershot, Jefferis successfully raced horses and played squash competitively. He was promoted major on 6 June 1938, and on 4 April 1939 he was appointed a General Staff Officer, Grade 2 (GSO2).
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:
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. For his service in Norway, Jefferis was awarded the Norwegian War Cross with sword, and mentioned in dispatches for his efforts in the withdrawal from Lillehammer.
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