List of generals of the British Empire who died during the First World War

, killed 30 November 1917 General officer ranks in the armies of the British Empire of the First World War were, in descending order of seniority: field marshal, general, lieutenant-general, major-general, and brigadier-general. Field marshal was usually an honorary appointment, with the most senior active duty officers being generals. Generals typically commanded field armies, lieutenant-generals corps, major-generals divisions, and brigadier-generals brigades. Other generals served in staff roles. At the start of the war the British Army contained 9 field marshals, 19 generals, 28 lieutenant-generals, 114 major-generals, and 180 brigadier-generals. At the end of the war in 1918, the expansion of the army had seen this rise to 8 field marshals, 29 generals, 47 lieutenant-generals, 219 major-generals, and 600 brigadier-generals. The armies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, all of which were dominions of the British Empire, were generally much smaller than the British Army in 1914. The Indian Army, based in and recruiting from British-administered India, was comparable in size. All of the British Empire armies expanded greatly during the war and by 1918 some 80 British Empire divisions were in the field. At the start of the war most of the senior commanders in the dominion armies were British officers provided on loan. The South African army was an exception, containing only five British officers in 1914 and fought throughout the war largely under command of South African officers and generals. During the war the other dominion armies introduced policies that sought to increase the number of senior commanders drawn from dominion personnel as they became more experienced, although British officers continued to serve in their armies until the end of the war. During the war senior officers of the Indian Army with full right to command were exclusively white, Indian officers were not permitted to command white troops until after the war. ==Châteaux generals view==

There has long been a view that British generals of the First World War were isolated from their men, issuing orders from châteaux far behind the front line with little thought for the reality in the trenches. This view has been criticised by Davis and Maddocks among others. The role of the general officers was not to oversee troops directly but to maintain a headquarters from which they could receive information and direct the battle. In the early months of the war casualties among British general officers were high; indeed in a period of nine days in late September and early October 1914 eight generals were killed, wounded, or captured, a considerable loss of leadership and command experience. On 3 October 1915 following the loss of three division commanders killed in action in a week, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Lieutenant-General William Robertson ordered corps and division commanders of the armies on the Western Front not to expose themselves to danger during battle. One of the most prominent persons to propagate the "chateau generals" view, was wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd George in his 1933 War Memoirs. The view was advocated by Alan Clark's 1961 book The Donkeys and the 1964 BBC documentary series The Great War. Since the 1980s military historians including Shelford Bidwell, Tim Travers, John Terraine, and Williamson Murray have stated that rather than being châteaux generals who hid in the rear, the British Army leadership of the war were creative innovators, keen to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. ==Causes of death==

, 18 August 1917 Historians Frank Davis and Graham Maddocks published, in 1995, Bloody Red Tabs, that attempted to list all British Empire generals who had been killed in action, died of wounds, or died as a result of active service during the war. They found 78 general officers in these categories. Although Maddocks and Davis could not find a conclusive cause of death in some cases they assessed that 34 of the deaths were caused by artillery fire, 22 by small arms fire, three from drowning, four from accidents, and one from cholera. None of the generals were killed in their châteaux (though two were wounded non-fatally there). The proportion of deaths by shell fire is lower than that for British Army casualties as a whole and a disproportionate number of generals were killed by small arms fire, indicating a presence in the front lines. A further 146 generals were either wounded or taken prisoner during the war. ==Comparisons==

British historians of economics Roy Bailey and Timothy Hatton and Canadian health historian Kris Inwood in a 2003 study found that of all those that served in the British Army during the war around 11% died. They found that the average rate of death for officers was higher than for those serving in other positions throughout the war: officers were 1.85 times more likely to die than other ranks. Taking those that joined the British Army in 1914, 74% of officers and 85% of other ranks survived to the end of the conflict in 1918. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch listed 41 of his generals killed in action during the war, whose names were engraved on a memorial at Les Invalides. A wider listing of all those mort pour la France by Gerard Gehin for Le Souvenir français gives 81 generals. French historian Laurent Guillemot working from a definition similar to Foch gives numbers of 76 British, 42 French, 2 Belgian, 2 Italian, and 2 Romanian generals killed on the Allied side and around 70 German, 40 Austro-Hungarian, and 1 Ottoman on the Central Powers side. The American Battle Monuments Commission records three generals (all brigadier generals) in its listing of First World War deaths; one died during the war in 1918, one in 1919 and one in 1923. ==Inclusion criteria==

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was formed during the war as the Imperial War Graves Commission to maintain records and graves of all known war dead from the Imperial armed forces. Their records list all those known to have "died while serving in the Commonwealth forces during the war" while on "active service" from any cause. They also list those who died after discharge from the armed forces where that death was a result of wounds, accident or disease contracted on active service or from a disease that was aggravated by active service. Their definition of "active service" includes all officers in full-time service in the armed forces and those in part-time service if they were on active duty at the time of their death. Their records include other general officers not listed by Davis and Maddocks. ==Pre-armistice deaths==

Field Marshals Generals Lieutenant-Generals Major-Generals Brigadier-Generals ==Post-armistice deaths==

The First World War is usually held to have ended with the armistice of 11 November 1918 though the peace treaties officially ending the war took some years to agree and sign. By an Order in Council made by George V under the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act 1918 the end of the war was defined for general purposes by the British parliament as 31 August 1921. This is the same date that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission uses for its casualty records. The following generals of the British Empire died between the armistice and 31 August 1921. Lieutenant-Generals Major-Generals Brigadier-Generals ==See also==