Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle

Sir Beauvoir De Lisle

Sir (Henry de) Beauvoir De Lisle KCB KCMG DSO (* 27 July 1864 on Guernsey ; † 16th July 1955 ) was a British general in the First World War .

Life

De Lisle received his education in Jersey and then attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst . In 1883 he became an officer in the 2nd Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry (mounted infantry) on Gibraltar .

In the following years it went through the usual colonial uses. He served in the mounted infantry of the Frontier Field Force in Egypt and Sudan from 1885 to 1886 , where he participated in the Battle of Ginnis in 1885. The following year he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in Egypt . In 1891 he was promoted to captain and was adjutant in the 2nd Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry in Poona , India from 1892 to 1896 . Here he makes a name for himself above all as a passionate and successful polo player. In 1898 he and his team won the Championship of India for his regiment.

In 1899 he attended Staff College in Camberley then went to South Africa to participate in the second Boer War (1899-1902). He was involved in the relief of Kimberley in the Orange Free State in 1900 and received the CB in the same year . He then commanded a unit of the mounted infantry in South Africa, which he had set up himself, and in 1902 became major and brevet lieutenant colonel.

In 1902 De Lisle switched from mounted infantry to the 5th Dragoon Guards , a unit of the cavalry. In the same year he became the commanding officer of the 2nd Provincial Regiment of Hussars in Hounslow , Middlesex and in 1903 deputy commander of the 1st Royal Dragoons , of which he was in command from 1906 to 1910. In 1906 promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Brevet Colonel , he received the full rank of Colonel in 1910 .

In 1910, De Lisle moved to the Aldershot Command as a first grade general staff officer . Appointed temporary brigadier general in 1911, he was first commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade belonging to the Eastern Command , then in the same year commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade belonging to the Southern Command . He stayed in this position until the First World War.

After the war began, he led his 2nd Brigade and then the 1st Cavalry Division within the British Expeditionary Force in France and was appointed temporary major general in 1914 and then regular major general in 1915. In June of that year he was sent to Gallipoli to take command of the 29th Division . On August 16, 1915, he was appointed temporary commander of the IX Corps until Byng's arrival .

After the demolition of the Dardanelles company, he returned to his old position as commander of the 29th Division, with which he participated on the Western Front in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the Third Battle of Flanders and the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. In March 1918 he received the command of the XIII with the temporary rank of Lieutenant General. Corps, a month later via the XV. Corps. With the latter he took part in the Fourth Battle of Flanders and the Hundred Days Offensive .

After the end of the war, he was promoted to substantial lieutenant general in 1919 and appointed commander of the Western Command , which he remained until 1923. In 1926 he retired from active service with the rank of general.

De Lisle's awards are on display today at the Durham Light Infantry Museum (DLI Museum).

Works

• Polo in India . - Thacker & Company, Bombay, India, 1907
• Tournament polo . - Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1938
• Reminiscences of sport and war . - Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1939

Web links

• Biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Career stations at the Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives