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Edward Ingouville-Williams

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Edward Ingouville-Williams
Birth nameEdward Charles Ingouville-Williams
Nickname(s)"Inky Bill"
Born(1861-12-13)13 December 1861
Purbrook, Hampshire, England
Died22 July 1916(1916-07-22) (aged 54)
Somme, France
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1881–1916
RankMajor-General
UnitBuffs (East Kent Regiment)
Worcestershire Regiment
Commands2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
16th Brigade
34th Division
Battles / warsNile Expedition

Second Boer War

First World War

AwardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in dispatches (4)

Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams CB DSO (13 December 1861 – 22 July 1916) was a British Army officer of the First World War. He was killed in action while serving as commander of the 34th Division during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.[1]

Early life and military career

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Ingouville-Williams was born in Purbrook, Hampshire, to General Sir John W. C. Williams, an officer of the Royal Marines, and Georgiana Isabella, the daughter of a wealthy landowner.[1][2]

He was commissioned as a subaltern, with the rank of second lieutenant, in the East Kent Regiment (3rd Regiment of Foot; known as "the Buffs") on 23 April 1881.[3] He participated in the Nile Expedition (1884–1885) and served as adjutant to the regiment from 1894 to 1898 after promotion to captain. He was seconded to the Egyptian Army in 1898 and 1899, during which time he took part in the Battle of Atbara, and the Battle of Khartoum, for which he was later mentioned in dispatches.[1]

From 1899 to 1902, he served under Sir Charles Warren in the Second Boer War. He was present at the Relief of Ladysmith and was twice mentioned in dispatches during the war. His brother George, a major in the South Staffordshire Regiment, was killed in action during the conflict. By the end of the war, he had been awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal King's South Africa Medal, and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), and had been promoted to lieutenant colonel,[4] after having held the local rank earlier in the war.[5] He changed his name to Ingouville-Williams in 1902, apparently in memory of his mother, whose maiden name was Ingouville.[1]

In April 1903, Ingouville-Williams was transferred from the East Kents to the Worcestershire Regiment as a major.[6] The next year he took command of the 2nd Battalion of the Worcesters, with whom he spent much of the following five years in British India, during which time he was promoted twice, first to lieutenant colonel in March 1904[7] and then to brevet colonel in December 1905.[8] After completing his tour as his battalion's commanding officer (CO), he was, after being promoted to the full rank of colonel in March 1908,[9] placed on a period of half-pay.[10]

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in June 1910[11] and went on to serve as commandant of the School of Instruction for Mounted Infantry in March.[12] After relinquishing command of the school to Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, he then took command of the 16th Infantry Brigade, part of the 6th Division, from June 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War just over two years later.[1] As a result of his new appointment, he received a temporary promotion to the rank of brigadier general.[13]

First World War

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Ingouville-Williams and his brigade, now part of the 6th Division, were ordered to France soon after the outbreak of the First World War.

He remained in command of the 16th Brigade until June 1915, when he was promoted to major-general[14] and sent home to command the newly formed 34th Division, a Kitchener's Army unit. After training in England, he took the 34th to the Western Front in January 1916 and led the division at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in summer 1916. He earned another four mentions in despatches during the war. On 22 July, Ingouville-Williams and his aide-de-camp personally inspected the ground on which the division was expected to fight the following week. On his way back, he was caught in an artillery barrage and was killed instantly after being struck by a piece of shrapnel.

He was buried at Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery extension in France.[1][2][15][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams, C.B., D.S.O." Worcestershire Regiment. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  2. ^ a b "INGOUVILLE-WILLIAMS, EDWARD CHARLES". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  3. ^ "No. 24964". The London Gazette. 22 April 1881. p. 1958.
  4. ^ "No. 27364". The London Gazette. 11 October 1901. p. 6646.
  5. ^ "No. 27294". The London Gazette. 15 March 1901. p. 1853.
  6. ^ "No. 27540". The London Gazette. 3 April 1903. p. 2232.
  7. ^ "No. 27656". The London Gazette. 11 March 1904. p. 1620.
  8. ^ "No. 27870". The London Gazette. 2 January 1906. p. 26.
  9. ^ "No. 28125". The London Gazette. 3 April 1908. p. 2568.
  10. ^ "No. 28119". The London Gazette. 13 March 1908. p. 1968.
  11. ^ "No. 28388". The London Gazette (Supplement to the London Gazette Extraordinary). 24 June 1910. p. 4476.
  12. ^ "No. 28346". The London Gazette. 8 March 1910. p. 1682.
  13. ^ "No. 28621". The London Gazette. 25 June 1912. p. 4569.
  14. ^ "No. 29202". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 June 1915. p. 6116.
  15. ^ Shakespear, Lieutenant Colonel J (1921). "Raising of the Division". The Thirty-Fourth Division, 1915–1919. London: H. F. & G. Witherby.
  16. ^ Davies 1997, p. 78.

Bibliography

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  • Davies, Frank (1997). Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918. London: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-463-5.
Military offices
Preceded by
New post
 GOC 34th Division
1915–1916 		Succeeded by
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