List of generals of the British Empire who died during the First World War

General officer ranks in the armies of the British Empire of the First World War were, in descending order of seniority: field marshal, general, lieutenant-general, major-general, and brigadier-general. Field marshal was usually an honorary appointment, with the most senior active duty officers being generals.^[1] Generals typically commanded field armies, lieutenant-generals corps, major-generals divisions, and brigadier-generals brigades. At the start of the war the British Army contained 9 field marshals, 19 generals, 28 lieutenant-generals, 114 major-generals, and 180 brigadier-generals. At the end of the war in 1918, the expansion of the army had seen this rise to 8 field marshals, 29 generals, 47 lieutenant-generals, 219 major-generals, and 600 brigadier-generals.^[2]

There has long been a view that British generals of the First World War were isolated from their men, issuing orders from châteaux far behind the front line with little thought for the reality in the trenches.^[3][4] This view has been criticised by Davis and Maddocks among others. The role of the general officers was not to oversee troops directly but to maintain a headquarters from which they could receive information and direct the battle.^[2] In the early months of the war casualties among British general officers were high; indeed in a period of nine days in late September and early October 1914 eight generals were killed, wounded, or captured, a considerable loss of leadership and command experience.^[5] On 3 October 1915 following the loss of three division commanders killed in action in a week, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Lieutenant-General William Robertson ordered corps and division commanders of the armies on the Western Front not to expose themselves to danger during battle.^[6]

One of the most prominent persons to propagate the "chateau generals" view, was wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd George in his 1933 War Memoirs.^[7] The view was advocated by Alan Clark's 1961 book The Donkeys and the 1964 BBC documentary series The Great War.^[8]

Since the 1980s military historians including Shelford Bidwell, Tim Travers, John Terraine, and Williamson Murray have stated that rather than being châteaux generals who hid in the rear, the British Army leadership of the war were creative innovators, keen to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare.^[9]

Historians Frank Davis and Graham Maddocks published, in 1995, Bloody Red Tabs, that attempted to list all British generals killed in action, died of wounds, or as a result of active service. They found 78 general officers in these categories.^[10] Although Maddocks and Davis could not find a conclusive cause of death in some cases they assessed that 34 of the deaths were caused by artillery fire, 22 by small arms fire, three from drowning, four from accidents, and one from cholera. None of the generals were killed in their châteaux (though two were wounded non-fatally there). The proportion of deaths by shell fire is lower than that for general British Army casualties and a disproportionate number killed by small arms fire, indicating a presence in the front lines.^[11] A further 146 generals were either wounded or taken prisoner during the war.^[12]

Bailey, Hatton, and Inwood (2023) report that, of those who joined the British Army in 1914, 74% of officers and 85% of other ranks survived to the end of the conflict.^[13] French Marshal Ferdinand Foch listed 41 of his generals killed in action during the war, whose names were engraved on a memorial at Les Invalides.^[14] A wider listing of all those mort pour la France by Gerard Gehin for Le Souvenir français gives 81 generals.^[15] French historian Laurent Guillemot working from a definition similar to Foch gives numbers of 76 British, 42 French, 2 Belgian, 2 Italian, and 2 Romanian generals killed on the Allied side and around 70 German, 40 Austro-Hungarian, and 1 Ottoman on the Central Powers side.^[16]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list all those who "died while serving in the Commonwealth forces during the war", including those not on active duty, and their records include other general officers not listed by Davis and Maddocks.^[17]

The First World War is usually held to have ended with the armistice of 11 November 1918 though the peace treaties officially ending the war took some years to agree and sign. Under the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act 1918 the end of the war was defined for general purposes by the British parliament as 31 August 1921. This is the same date that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission uses for its casualty records. The following generals of the British Empire died between the armistice and 31 August 1921.^[195]

Image	Name	Branch	Command	Date of death	Place of death	Cause of death	Ref.
	Sir David Henderson	Royal Air Force	Director-General League of Red Cross Societies	17 August 1921	Geneva, Switzerland		[196][197]

Image	Name	Branch	Command	Date of Death	Place of Death	Cause of Death	Ref.
	Thomas Hemming	Canadian Expeditionary Force	Formerly 3rd (Eastern Ontario) Military District	8 January 1919	Kingston, Canada	Illness	[198][199]
	John Henderson	Indian Army	Formerly Madras Medical Service	12 April 1919	Upper Norwood, United Kingdom		[200][201]
	Sir William Williams	Australian Army	Formerly Deputy Director Army Medical Services (Australian Troops in England)	10 May 1919	No. 11 Australian General Hospital, Caulfield, Australia		[202][203][204]
	Sir Henry Macandrew	Indian Army	5th Cavalry Division	16 July 1919	Aleppo, Ottoman Empire	Accident	[205][206]
	Nathaniel Barnardiston	British Army	British Military Mission to Portugal	18 August 1919	Felixstowe Cottage Hospital, United Kingdom	Operation	[207][208][209]
	Sir John Sym	Indian Army		3 October 1919	Edinburgh, United Kingdom		[210][211]
	Sir Charles Dawkins	British Army	Deputy Quartermaster General, GHQ	4 October 1919		Illness	[212][213]
	Spencer Scrase-Dickins	British Army	Formerly 37th Division	23 October 1919	Horsham, United Kingdom		[214][215]
	James Clery	British Army	Formerly of the Royal Army Medical Corps	10 February 1920	Blackheath, United Kingdom		[216][217]
	Sir David Mercer	Royal Marines	Adjutant General Royal Marines	1 July 1920	London, United Kingdom	Operation	[218][219][220]
	Gunning Campbell	Royal Marines	Adjutant General Royal Marines	29 November 1920	London, United Kingdom		[221][222]
	Frederick Wadeson	Indian Army		10 December 1920	Exmouth, United Kingdom		[223][224]
	Charles Blackader	British Army	Formerly 38th Division	2 April 1921	Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, United Kingdom	Illness	[225][226]
	Charles Budworth	British Army	Artillery Technical Adviser, India	5 July 1921	Simla, India	Illness	[227][228]
	Benjamin Burton	British Army		6 August 1921			[229]

Image	Name	Branch	Command	Date of Death	Place of Death	Cause of Death	Ref.
	Ernest Pratt	British Army	Inspector of Infantry Home Forces	24 November 1918	Belgravia, United Kingdom		[230][231]
	Arthur Wolfe-Murray	British Army		7 December 1918	London, United Kingdom	Illness	[232][233][234]
	Alexander Hamilton	British Army	Embarkation Commandant, Southern Command	30 December 1918	Weymouth, United Kingdom		[235][236]
	Sir Godfrey Thomas	British Army	Royal Artillery, 24th Division	17 February 1919	Harlow, United Kingdom	Illness	[237][238][239]
	John Doyle	British Army	Royal Artillery, III Corps	19 February 1919	Halle, Belgium	Illness	[240][241]
	Lord Basing	British Army	Staff Officer for Volunteer Services	8 April 1919	Upton Grey, United Kingdom		[242][243][244]
	Michael Goring-Jones	British Army	57th Brigade	19 May 1919	Seaview, United Kingdom		[245][246]
	Alfred Lovett	British Army	Yorkshire Coastal Defences	27 May 1919	Scarborough, United Kingdom		[247][248]
	John Geddes	British Army	Shoreham District	26 August 1919	Shoreham, United Kingdom	Illness	[249][250]
	Alfred Ollivant	British Army		31 August 1919	St James's, United Kingdom	Illness	[251][252]
	Francis Lafferty	Canadian Expeditionary Force	Superintendent of Arsenals in Canada, on the Permanent Staff of the Canadian Artillery	29 November 1919	Quebec, Canada	Illness	[253][254][255]
	Richard Helmer	Canadian Expeditionary Force	Director-general of musketry, Department of Militia and Defense	1 February 1920	Ottawa, Canada	Illness	[256][257]
	Ryves Currie	British Army		30 March 1920	37 Casualty Clearing Station, Danzig, East Prussia	Illness	[258][259]
	Frederick Dawson	South African Army	Instructional and Administrative Staff	26 October 1920	Irangi, Kenya	Illness	[260][261][262]
	Herbert Jennings	British Army		15 January 1921	India	Suicide	[263][264]
	Hanway Robert Cumming	British Army	Kerry Infantry Brigade	5 March 1921	Clonbanin, United Kingdom	Killed in action	[265][266]
	Thomas Stanton Lambert[Note 4]	British Army	13th Brigade	20 June 1921	Athlone, United Kingdom	Wounds received	[268][269][270]
	George Milner	British Army	1st Reserve Cavalry Brigade	20 June 1921	London, United Kingdom		[271][272]

• List of French generals who died during the First World War
• List of Royal Navy flag officers who died during the First World War

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