Gerald Kitson

Major-General Sir Gerald Charles Kitson KCVO CB CMG (1856 – 1950) was a British Army officer who became Commandant of the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

Military career

Born the youngest son of the late Rev. James Buller Kitson and educated at Winchester College and Royal Military College Sandhurst, Gerald Kitson was commissioned into the 1st Regiment of Foot in 1875 and transferred to the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1876.^[1] After serving as aide-de-camp to the Viceroy of India from 1879 and then as aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding Western District from 1884,^[1] he was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General in Meerut in 1890, Assistant Adjutant-General in Ambala in 1892 and Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston in 1896.^[2] In Canada he introduced major reforms clearing out the staff and reducing the College programme from four years to three years.^[3]

He went on to be military attaché in Washington D. C. in 1900 and Commandant of the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1902.^[2] He was given command of the Jubbulpore Brigade in India in 1907 and of the Jullundur Brigade in 1908 before becoming Quartermaster-General in India in 1909.^[2] He commanded the 2nd Division in India from 1912 through World War I until 1916^[2] and retired in 1918.^[1]

He lived at Wendlebury House near Bicester in Oxfordshire.^[4] In 1939 he gave his support to a campaign to stop the abolition of the kilt in the British Army.^[5]

References