On his return to Britain from Tunis in July, after the disbandment of the First Army, Anderson was initially given command of the British Second Army during the preparations for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Second Army was to form part of the 21st Army Group, then under General Sir Bernard Paget. His rank of lieutenant-general was made substantive on July and he was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in August. However, the criticisms of Alexander and Montgomery (who in March 1943 had written to Alexander saying "it is obvious that Anderson is completely unfit to command any army" and later described him as "a good plain cook") had gained currency and in late January 1944, soon after Montgomery arrived from Italy to take command of the 21st Army Group from Paget, Anderson was replaced by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, a much younger man and one of Montgomery's protégées. Anderson was given Eastern Command, his former command before taking over the First Army almost eighteen months earlier, which was widely viewed as a demotion. His career as a field commander was over and his last purely military appointment was as GOC-in-C East Africa Command. After the war he was military C-in-C and Governor of Gibraltar, where his most notable achievements were to build new houses to relieve the poor housing conditions, and the constitutional changes which established a Legislative Council. He was promoted full general in July 1949 when he was made a Knight of the Venerable Order of Saint John and retired in June 1952 and lived mainly in the south of France. His last years were filled with tragedy: his only son, Michael, a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, died in action in Malaya, aged 22, in 12 November 1949 and his daughter also died after a long illness. Anderson himself died of pneumonia in Gibraltar on 29 April 1959, at the age of 67. His death, according to Gregory Blaxland, "caused little stir. He was one of nature's losers in the contest for fame".