Introduction

Eastern Command was reconstituted in 1920 following the Great War, covering the counties of Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex (except Purfleet and Rainham Rifle Range and (for the foot guards) Warley), Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey (except for the portion included in Aldershot Command) and Sussex.

It was a Lieutenant General’s (or General’s) appointment. The headquarters of the command was located at Horse Guards, London.

Areas
The command initially consisted of four Areas:

Eastern Area (the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex);
Shires Area (Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex);
Thames and Medway Area (Chatham);
South Eastern Area (Kent, Sussex and part of Surrey).

In the mid 1920’s, the Eastern Area and Shires Area merged to form the East Anglian Area, with the South Eastern Area renamed the Home Counties Area and the Thames and Medway Area renamed the Chatham Area. The Area Commander for the Chatham Area was the Commandant, School of Military Engineering at Chatham. The other two Area Commanders were the General Officers Commanding the two Territorial Army formations. In 1936, Northamptonshire was transferred to the South Midland Area.

Formations
There was one Regular Army divisional formation based in Eastern Command, this was the 4 Division, the headquarters of which was based at Colchester. One of the brigades was located at Shorncliffe, one at Colchester and the other at Dover.

There were two Territorial Army formations located within the command. The 44 (Home Counties) Division was based in Kent, Sussex and Surrey, with the 54 (East Anglian) Division based in the rest of the command.