John Ponsonby (British Army officer)

Major-General

Sir John Ponsonby

KCB CMG DSO
Born(1866-03-25)25 March 1866
Windsor, Berkshire, England[1]
Died26 March 1952(1952-03-26) (aged 86)
Haile, Cumbria, England
Buried
Haile Parish Church, Haile, Cumbria, England[1]
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
BranchBritish Army
Service years1888–1928
RankMajor-General
UnitColdstream Guards
CommandsMadras District
5th Division
40th Division
2nd Guards Brigade
ConflictsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Distinguished Service Order[2]
Mentioned in dispatches

Major-General Sir John Ponsonby, KCB, CMG, DSO (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952) was a British Army officer who commanded the 5th Division during the last year of the First World War.

Military career

Born the son of Sir Henry Ponsonby and educated at Eton College, Ponsonby was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 3rd (2nd Derbyshire Militia) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, in March 1886.[3] After obtaining a Regular Army commission in the Royal Irish Rifles (later the Royal Ulster Rifles) in November 1887,[4] he transferred into the Coldstream Guards in August 1888.[5][6]

Eighteen Old Etonian generals revisit Eton, May 1919. Major General Ponsonby is stood in the back row on the extreme left.

After being seconded for service by the Foreign Office in January 1898,[7] he served in Uganda later that year and was seconded for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa in March 1900, and attached to the Rhodesian Field Force.[8] By now a captain, having been promoted to that rank in July 1901,[9] he was again sent to South Africa in February 1902.[10][6]

In October 1913 he was made a lieutenant colonel and succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Sutton as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade.[11]

Ponsonby fought in the First World War and had been appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in February 1915.[12] He received a promotion to the temporary rank of brigadier general in August 1915,[13] when he was made general officer commanding of the 2nd Guards Brigade, part of the Guards Division, which he led at the Battle of Loos. He was promoted to brevet colonel in January 1916[14] and remained in command of his brigade throughout the rest of the year, including during the Battle of the Somme. After being promoted to temporary major general in September 1917,[15][16] succeeded Major General Harold Ruggles-Brise as GOC of the 40th Division, leading his division at the Battle of Cambrai later that year.[17] His substantive rank was advanced to colonel in November 1917.[18] In July 1918 he went on to become GOC 5th Division, remaining in that role until the end of the war, leading it throughout the Hundred Days Offensive until the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended the war.[17]

After the war Ponsonby, whose rank of major general was made permanent in January 1919,[19] became GOC Madras District of India.[17] In May 1925, after the death of General Sir Thomas Morland, he was appointed as colonel of the Suffolk Regiment.[20] He retired from the army in June 1927.[21][22]

Family

In 1935 Ponsonby married Mary (Mollie) Robley; they had no children.[17] He lived at Haile Hall near Beckermet in Cumbria.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b "Major General Sir John Ponsonby (1866-1952) -..." www.findagrave.com.
  2. ^ "No. 11343". The Edinburgh Gazette. 1 October 1901. p. 1078.
  3. ^ "No. 25571". The London Gazette. 23 March 1886. p. 1414.
  4. ^ "No. 25758". The London Gazette. 15 November 1887. p. 6066.
  5. ^ "No. 25846". The London Gazette. 14 August 1888. p. 4367.
  6. ^ a b Armorial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour (Volume 2) by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, p. 132.
  7. ^ "No. 26934". The London Gazette. 1 February 1898. p. 578.
  8. ^ "The War – The Rhodesian Field Force". The Times. No. 36091. London. 16 March 1900. p. 6.
  9. ^ "No. 27335". The London Gazette. 19 July 1901. p. 4781.
  10. ^ "No. 27413". The London Gazette. 4 March 1902. p. 1538.
  11. ^ "No. 28770". The London Gazette. 4 November 1913. p. 7679.
  12. ^ "No. 29074". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 February 1915. p. 1691.
  13. ^ "No. 29307". The London Gazette. 24 September 1915. p. 9436.
  14. ^ "No. 12894". The Edinburgh Gazette. 17 January 1916. p. 86.
  15. ^ "No. 30325". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 October 1917. p. 10352.
  16. ^ "No. 30438". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 December 1917. p. 13330.
  17. ^ a b c d e The Times, 20 May 2004.
  18. ^ "No. 30382". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 November 1917. p. 11796.
  19. ^ "No. 31092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1918. p. 13.
  20. ^ "No. 33060". The London Gazette. 26 June 1925. p. 4277.
  21. ^ "Army Commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  22. ^ "No. 33289". The London Gazette. 28 June 1927. p. 4141.
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