Key Information
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Ironside, William Edmund, 1880-1959, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, Field Marshal
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Description area
Dates of existence
1880-1959
History
Born 1880; educated at Tonbridge School; Royal Military Academy Woolwich, 1898-1899; joined Royal Artillery 1899; served in Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902; served as spy in German South-West Africa, 1902-1904; served in India, 1906; Staff Captain, South Africa, 1908-1909; Brigade Major, South Africa, 1909-1912; student at Staff College Camberley, 1913 - Aug 1914; served on Western Front, World War One, 1914-1918; Staff Captain, France, Aug-Oct 1914; General Staff Officer Grade 3, 6 Infantry Division, Oct 1914 – Feb 1915, Western Front; General Staff Officer, Grade 1, 4 Canadian Division, Mar 1916 – Jan 1918; Colonel Commandant, Small Arms School, Camiers, France, Jan-Mar 1918; Brigadier General Commanding 99 Infantry Brigade, 2 Division, Western Front, Mar-Sep 1918; Chief of General Staff, Allied Expeditionary Force, Russia, Sep-Nov 1918; General Officer Commanding Allied troops, northern Russia, Nov 1918 – Mar 1919; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Allied troops, Archangel, Russia, Mar-Nov 1919; Chief of Military Mission to supervise the evacuation of Romanian troops from Hungary, Mar-May 1920; service with Allied forces in Izmit, Turkey, Jul-Aug 1920; Commander of north Persia force, Aug 1920 – Feb 1921; attended the Cairo Conference on future British policy in the Middle East, Feb-Apr 1921; injured in a plane crash, Iraq, Apr 1921; Commandant, Staff College Camberley, May 1922 – Apr 1926; Commander, 2 Division, Oct 1926 – Nov 1928; Commander, Meerut District, India, Nov 1928 – May 1931; Lieutenant of the Tower of London, Jun 1931 – Oct 1933; Quartermaster General, India, Oct 1933 – Feb 1936; General Officer Commanding Eastern Command, Apr 1936 – Nov 1938; Governor of Gibraltar, Nov 1938 – Jun 1939; Inspector General of Overseas Forces, Jul-Sep 1939; Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sep 1939 – May 1940; Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, May-Jul 1940; retired with the rank of Field Marshal, Aug 1940; created 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, Jan 1941; farmed in Norfolk; died, 1959.
Publications: Tannenberg: the first thirty days in East Prussia, 1925; Archangel, 1918-1919, 1953; The Ironside Diaries, 1937-1940, 1962; High Road to Command: the diaries of Major General Sir Edmund Ironside, 1920-1922, 1972.