Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 Alfred Edward John Cavendish CMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 (1859-1943) was a British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 general who served in the South African War and First World War as a staff officer.

In 1880 he was commissioned in the 91st (Princess Louise's Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment, later the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland....

. He served as Adjutant to the 1st Battalion from 1885 to 1887, then passed through the Staff College

Staff college

Staff colleges train military officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career...

 and entered a career of staff posts.

During the First Sino-Japanese War

First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...

 he was an attaché with the Chinese Army

Chinese Army

Two modern armies have been known in English as the Chinese Army:* People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China* Republic of China Army , which succeeded the National Revolutionary Army in 1947For Chinese armies before 1912, see:...

. After service as the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for Dublin and Aldershot Districts, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for the force sent to the South African War. He saw a brief spell of regimental service from 1907 to 1902, commanding his old battalion, the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, before being posted as Assistant Adjutant General of Southern Command.

On the outbreak of the First World War he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General of the British Expeditionary Force, then promoted to Brigadier-General and assigned to the staff of V Corps

V Corps (United Kingdom)

V Corps was an army corps of the British Army in both the First and Second World War. It was first organised in February 1915 and fought through World War I on the Western front...

 in early 1915. He later served as Assistant Adjutant General to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was part of the British Army during World War I, that commanded all Allied forces at Gallipoli and Salonika. This included the initial naval operation to force the straits of the Dardanelles. Its headquarters was formed in March 1915...

 and the Dardanelles Army, and from 1916 was commanding South African Command.