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Hugh Bruce Williams

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Sir Hugh Bruce Williams
Born1865
Died1942 (aged 76–77)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1885–1923
RankMajor General
UnitRoyal Engineers
Commands37th Division (1916–19)
137th (Staffordshire) Infantry Brigade (1916)
Battles / warsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in dispatches

Major General Sir Hugh Bruce Williams, KCB, DSO (1865–1942) was a British Army officer.

Military career

[edit]

Hugh Bruce Williams was born in 1865, the son of a general in the British Army.[1] He was educated at Winchester College, followed by the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he graduated and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in April 1885.[2][1]

Williams, promoted in March 1894 to captain,[3] attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1899 and later served in the Second Boer War, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and promoted to brevet major in April 1901.[1][4][5]

He became a deputy assistant quartermaster general at the War Office in April 1904[6] and later succeeded Major Walter Braithwaite as a deputy assistant adjutant general in January 1906.[7] In October 1907 he became brigade major and secretary at the School of Military Engineering.[8] Having succeeded Colonel Aylmer Hunter-Weston as GSO2 of Eastern Command in June 1908,[9] he was made a lieutenant colonel in July.[10] After serving as a general staff officer, grade 2, he was placed on the half-pay list from October 1911[11] until January 1912, when he was again appointed as a GSO2.[12]

He was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in December 1914,[13] some four months after the First World War broke out. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in February 1915.[14] After being promoted once again, now to temporary major general[15] and succeeding Major General G. F. Milne as major general, general staff, or chief of staff, of General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army on the Western Front, Williams went on to succeed Brigadier General Edward Feetham in command of the 137th (Staffordshire) Infantry Brigade,[16] part of the 46th (North Midland) Division. In 1916 he took command of the 37th Division.[1]

Williams, made a KCB in June 1919,[17] retired from the army as a substantive major general in January 1923.[18]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Harris, Paul (26 April 2021). "Sir Hugh Bruce Williams". Paul Harris. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  2. ^ "No. 25469". The London Gazette. 12 May 1885. p. 2157.
  3. ^ "No. 26498". The London Gazette. 27 March 1894. p. 1791.
  4. ^ "No. 27307". The London Gazette. 23 April 1901. p. 2776.
  5. ^ "No. 27308". The London Gazette. 26 April 1901. p. 2855.
  6. ^ "No. 27712". The London Gazette. 9 September 1904. p. 5844.
  7. ^ "No. 27873". The London Gazette. 9 January 1906. p. 190.
  8. ^ "No. 28071". The London Gazette. 22 October 1907. p. 7041.
  9. ^ "No. 28152". The London Gazette. 26 June 1908. p. 4651.
  10. ^ "No. 28154". The London Gazette. 3 July 1908. p. 4822.
  11. ^ "No. 28548". The London Gazette. 7 November 1911. p. 8057.
  12. ^ "No. 28573". The London Gazette. 19 January 1912. p. 448.
  13. ^ "No. 29002". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 December 1914. p. 10572.
  14. ^ "No. 12780". The Edinburgh Gazette. 5 March 1915. p. 357.
  15. ^ "No. 29298". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 September 1915. p. 9202.
  16. ^ "No. 29656". The London Gazette. 7 July 1916. p. 6750.
  17. ^ "No. 31395". The London Gazette. 6 June 1919. p. 7420.
  18. ^ "No. 32793". The London Gazette. 6 February 1923. p. 909.
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