Charles Sackville-West, 4th Baron Sackville

Major-General Charles John Sackville-West, 4th Baron Sackville, KBE, CB, CMG (10 August 1870 – 8 May 1962) was a British Army general and peer who served throughout the First World War and reached the rank of major general. In 1919, Sackville-West was British Military Representative on the Supreme War Council and from 1920 to 1924 he was military attaché in Paris. He inherited his title on 28 January 1928 on the death of his brother, Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville.

Life

Sackville-West was born in 1870, the second son of Colonel Hon. W. E. Sackville-West and Georgina Dodwell and educated at Winchester School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1889, Sackville-West joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps as a subaltern and participated in the 1891 expedition to Manipur and the 1892 expedition to Burma. By the mid-1890s, Sackville-West was serving as a staff officer in a number of posts, eventually being attached to the staff of General Sir Redvers Buller during the Second Boer War. He married Maude Cecilia Bell in 1897, with whom he had one son and one daughter. His son Edward later became a noted author.^[1]

In 1906, Sackville-West was attached to the Staff College, Camberley and in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, he was at the War Office. However, the need for experienced officers in the field prompted his movement to the Indian Army Corps on the Western Front until December 1915, when he was given command of the 21st Infantry Brigade. He was also made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the same year.^[1]

On 30 July 1916, at the height of the Battle of the Somme, Sackville-West was wounded in an attack by a German bomber on his brigade headquarters. Evacuated to Britain, he had recovered by October, when he took over the 190th Infantry Brigade. Within days of this posting however Sackvill-West was wounded in the jaw when a high-explosive shell detonated in the midst of his command group as he inspected the trenches in front of Hamel. Although wounded, dazed and partially buried, Sackville-West was able to reach the casualty clearing station unaided, and was again evacuated to Britain to recover.^[1]

Returning to the Western Front for the third time in March 1917, Sackville-West commanded the 182nd Infantry Brigade until November when he was made a major general and attached to the General Staff. In 1919 he served on the Supreme War Council and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a Companion of the Order of the Bath by 1921. Between 1920 and 1924 he was military attaché in Paris and from 1925 to his retirement in 1929 he served as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey. In 1924 he married for a second time, to Mrs Anne Meredith Bigelow.^[1] In 1928, on the death of his elder brother Lionel Sackville-West, Charles inherited his uncle's title of Baron Sackville and sat in the House of Lords until his death in 1962. His son inherited the title.^[1]

Notes

References

• Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (1995). Bloody Red Tabs. Leo Cooper.