Lothian Nicholson (British Army officer, died 1933)

Sir Lothian Nicholson
Nicholson in 1919
Birth nameCecil Lothian Nicholson
Born(1865-11-01)1 November 1865
Kensington, London, England
Died3 March 1933(1933-03-03) (aged 67)
Elham, Kent,[1] England
Service / branch British Army
RankMajor-general
Commands
Battles / warsFirst World War
Awards

Major-General Sir Cecil Lothian Nicholson KCB CMG (1 November 1865 – 3 March 1933) was a British Army officer.

Military career

Born in Kensington,[2] London, the son of Sir Lothian Nicholson, a former Governor of Gibraltar, and Mary Romilly, Nicholson was commissioned into the Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment on 29 August 1885.[3] He was promoted to lieutenant in February 1893.[4]

He became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment in November 1914 and commanded his battalion at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 where he was wounded.[5] He was promoted to brevet colonel in June 1915.[6] Two months after being promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general, in June 1915,[7] he went on to succeed Edward Ingouville-Williams in command of the 16th Infantry Brigade, and led the brigade at Hooge in August. He then became general officer commanding (GOC) 34th Division, again taking over from Ingouville-Williams, who had been killed, commanding it at the Battle of the Somme in the autumn of 1916, the Battle of Arras in April 1917 and the Battle of the Lys in April 1918 as well as subsequent battles on the Western Front.[5] He was promoted to major general in June 1918.[8]

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1916 Birthday Honours[9] and a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1918 New Year Honours.[10] He was then advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 Birthday Honours.[11]

He went on to become GOC the Eastern Division of the British Army of the Rhine in March 1919 and then GOC 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division in April 1921 before retiring in April 1925.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  3. ^ "No. 25506". The London Gazette. 28 August 1885. p. 4083.
  4. ^ "No. 26395". The London Gazette. 25 April 1893. p. 2419.
  5. ^ a b "Private Papers of Major-General Sir (Cecil) Lothian Nicholson KCMG, KCB". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  6. ^ "No. 12824". The Edinburgh Gazette. 29 June 1915. p. 929.
  7. ^ "No. 29232". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 July 1915. p. 6963.
  8. ^ "No. 30716". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1918. p. 6455.
  9. ^ "No. 29608". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1916. p. 5558.
  10. ^ "No. 13186". The Edinburgh Gazette. 2 January 1918. p. 8.
  11. ^ "No. 13462". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 June 1919. p. 2136.
  12. ^ "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 30 May 2020.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 34th Division
1916–1919
Succeeded by
Post disbanded
Preceded by GOC 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division
1921–1925
Succeeded by