Key Information
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Spears, Sir Edward Louis, 1886-1974, 1st Baronet, Major General
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Description area
Dates of existence
1886-1974
History
Born 1886 as Edward Louis Spiers; educated privately; Kildare Militia, 1903; gazetted 8 Hussars, 1906; 11 Hussars, 1910; World War One, 1914-1918; appointed liaison officer between British C-in-C Sir John French, and General Charles Lanrezac of the French 5 Army at the outbreak of War; Head of British Military Mission, Paris, 1917-1920; changed spelling of surname from Spiers to Spears in 1918; Member of Parliament, Loughborough (National Liberal), 1922-1924; Member of Parliament, Carlisle (Conservative), 1931-1945; Maj Gen, 1940; Personal representative for the British Prime Minister with the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, May-Jun 1940; Head of British Mission to General Charles de Gaulle, Jun 1940; Head of Mission to Syria and Lebanon, 1942-1944; a leading figure in the foundation of the Institute of Directors and Chairman of the Council of the Institute until 1965; died 1974.
Publications: Prelude to victory (Cape, 1939), Assignment to catastrophe (William Heinemann: London, 1954), Liaison (William Heinemann, 1930), Lessons of the Russo-Japanese War , translated by E. L. Spiers (Hugh Rees, London, 1906), Two men who saved France (Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1966), The picnic basket (Secker & Warburg, London, 1967).
Relationships area
Access points area
Subjects
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
0099 KCLMA
Status
Final
Level of detail
Partial
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Further information is available at the National Archives (F57655)