Charles Howard Foulkes

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Major General Charles Howard Foulkes (1875-1969) was an engineer in the British Army. He saw service in World War I and, following the first German use of gas on 22 April 1915 at Ypres, became Britain's chief advisor on gas warfare. He also advised on the use of gas to suppress the uprisings in Afghanistan (1919) and Waziristan (1920), but mercifully gas was never deployed in these conflicts.

[edit] Biography

  • Born in India, 1875
  • Commissioned into the British Army as 2nd Lt, Royal Engineers, 1894
  • Sierra Leone, West Africa, 1897-1899
  • Boer War, 1899-1900
  • Assistant commander on the Anglo-French Boundary Commission, Northern Nigeria, 1902-1904
  • Kano-Sokoto expedition, Nigeria 1903
  • Appointed Capt and married Dorothea Oakey, 1904
  • Command of the Ordnance Survey of Scotland, 1904-1909
  • Command of 31 (Fortress) Company, Ceylon, 1909-1912
  • Command of 'L' Company, Royal Engineers' Depot, Chatham, 1913
  • Appointed Major, 1914
  • Western Front, World War I, 1914-1918
  • North West Frontier Province, India, 1919-1920
  • Appointed Lt Col, Commander, Royal Engineers in Fermoy, Ireland and Director of Irish Propaganda, 1921
  • Commander, Royal Engineers in Northumbria, 1922
  • Appointed Col and Deputy Chief Engineer, Southern Command, 1924
  • Chief Engineer, Aldershot Command, 1926-1930
  • Aide-de-camp to the King 1928
  • Appointed Maj Gen, 1930
  • Retired, 1930
  • Publication of Gas! The Story of the Special Brigade, 1934
  • Colonel Commandant, Royal Engineers, 1937-1945
  • Publication of Commonsense and ARP, a practical guide for householders and business managers, 1939
  • Awarded Gold Medal of the Institution of Royal Engineers, 1964
  • Died in Hampshire, 1969

Source: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

[edit] Publications

  • Foulkes, C.H., Gas! The Story of the Special Brigade (W Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1934)
  • Foulkes, C.H., Commonsense and ARP, a practical guide for householders and business managers (C Arthur Pearson, London, 1939)