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|commands= [[British Army of the Rhine]] (1946–48)<br/>[[British Forces in Austria]] (1945–46)<br/>[[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]] (1944–45)<br/>[[X Corps (United Kingdom)|X Corps]] (1943–44)<br/>[[VIII Corps (United Kingdom)|VIII Corps]] (1943)<br/>[[2nd Armoured Group (United Kingdom)|2nd Armoured Group]]<br/>[[8th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|8th Armoured Division]] (1940–41)<br/>[[2nd Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom)|2nd Armoured Brigade]] (1940)<br/>[[12th Royal Lancers|12th Lancers]] (1935–38)
|battles= [[First World War]]<br/>[[Second World War]]
|awards= [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]<br/>[[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
}}
[[General (United Kingdom)|General]] '''Sir Richard Loudon McCreery''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|KBE|DSO|MC}} (1 February 1898 – 18 October 1967) was a career soldier of the [[British Army]], who was decorated for leading one of the last [[cavalry]] actions in the [[First World War]]. During the [[Second World War]], he was [[chief of staff]] to General [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Sir Harold Alexander]] at the time of the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]], and later commanded the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|British Eighth Army]], fighting in the [[Italian campaign (World War II)|Italian campaign]] from October 1944 until the end of the war, leading it to victory in the [[Spring 1945 offensive in Italy|final offensive in Italy]].
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Doherty sums up this, the final campaign of the Eighth Army as follows: ‘Sir Richard McCreery had managed one of the finest performances of a British army in the course of the war. He had done so through attention to detail, careful planning and a strategic flair that had few superiors.’{{sfn|Doherty|2004|p=159}}
McCreery was the last commander of the British Eighth Army; in 1945 it was re-constituted as [[British Troops Austria]]. He was also the only cavalryman to command it. He was appointed a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in July 1945.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37161|page=3490|date=3 July 1945|supp=y}}</ref>
==Post-war years==
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