, C-in-C of the BEF, Lieutenant General Sir George Fowke, adjutant general of the BEF, Lieutenant General Sir Ronald Maxwell, Quartermaster-General of the BEF, and
Ben Tillett, trade union leader and founding member of the Labour Party, at Beauquesne, France, November 1916. Fowke joined the
Royal Engineers as a
lieutenant on 15 February 1884, and was promoted to
captain on 19 July 1892. He saw active service in
South Africa during the
Second Boer War, where he was present at the
Defence of Ladysmith, for which he was
mentioned in despatches. During the war he received a
brevet promotion to
major on 29 November 1900, and was confirmed with the substantive rank of major on 22 February 1901. The war ended in June 1902 with the
Peace of Vereeniging, and for his service he received a brevet promotion as
lieutenant-colonel on 22 August 1902. After the war, he stayed in South Africa and was appointed as Director of Public Works in the
Transvaal and was a member of the
Transvaal Legislative Council from 1902 to 1904. During the
Russo-Japanese War, he was an observer attached to the
Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria, and then lectured on fortifications at the
School of Military Engineering. and then to lieutenant colonel in October, he was appointed the assistant adjutant general at the
War Office in June 1910. He was made a colonel with effect from the same date. He then succeeded Colonel
Frederick Heath as inspector of Royal Engineers in April 1913, which saw him advanced to the rank of temporary brigadier general. On the outbreak of the
First World War in August 1914, he was promoted again to the temporary rank of brigadier general and appointed to the post of brigadier general, Royal Engineers in the
British Expeditionary Force, the senior engineering advisor. and then to engineer-in-chief, for which he was raised to the temporary rank of major general in April 1915. He was made a Companion of the
Order of the Bath in February 1915 and his major general's rank became substantive in June and rewarded "for distinguished service in the Field". It was in this position, that he agreed the formation of the
Royal Engineer tunnelling companies, after a proposal from
John Norton-Griffiths. In February 1916, he succeeded Lieutenant General
Sir Nevil Macready in the important post of
adjutant general of the BEF and was raised to temporary lieutenant general while so employed. He held this post until the end of the war, and, having been made a substantive lieutenant general in January 1919, retired from the army in April 1922. In addition to his British decorations and awards, he was also awarded the
Army Distinguished Service Medal by the United States, with the citation for the medal reading: == Personal life ==