At the outset of the Great War, Nye went to France with the
British Expeditionary Force in 1914, serving for just over a year as a
non-commissioned officer in the
Corps of Army Schoolmasters attached to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. In 1915, as a
sergeant, he was selected for a permanent
commission in the
Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment, and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant on 5 December 1915. He was further promoted to
lieutenant on 5 September 1916, and to the
acting rank of
captain in August 1917. Wounded twice in action, he was awarded the
Military Cross for bravery. The official citation for this ward reads: When the
Leinster Regiment was disbanded, Nye was transferred to the
Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Following this, he served as a
staff officer in Air Cooperation from 1926–28 before becoming a
brigade major with the
33rd Infantry Brigade.
Brevetted to
major on 1 July 1930, he completed his graduation in law and qualified as a barrister at the
Inner Temple in 1932. He was then posted as an instructor to the Staff College with the local rank of
lieutenant-colonel, and advanced to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1934. Nye was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 8 September 1935, and to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel in September 1937. From late 1937 to early 1939, he commanded the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In February 1940 he returned to London to take up the post of deputy director of Staff Duties,
War Office and became Director of Staff Duties with the acting rank of
major-general from 1 November. Promoted to substantive major-general on 18 November 1941, in December he became
Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff under Sir Alan Brooke with the acting rank of
lieutenant-general from 5 December. The enormous burdens placed on Brooke meant that he needed to delegate many of his tasks and for this he relied heavily on Nye. The partnership was highly successful and Nye remained in the job for the rest of the war. It could be said that while Brooke ran the war, Nye ran the army. Advanced to the temporary rank of lieutenant-general on 5 December 1942, in the
1944 Birthday Honours Nye was knighted as a
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the first of five knighthoods he would ultimately be conferred with. He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-general on 14 September 1944. Nye retired on 29 March 1946. ==Later life==