Béla Ervin ''Graf und Freiherr von'' Bothmer zu Schwegerhoff (14 October 1857 - 26 December 1940) was a Hungarian
military officer
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service.
Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
. He was born in the village of
Szőlősardó
Szőlősardó is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in northeastern Hungary.Hungarian county of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, as one of the six children of Carl Alexander Friedrich and Rosa von Szabó de Sepsi-Szent-György.
Wachtmeister
(Wm; German for 'master-sentinel' or 'watch-master') is a military rank of non-commissioned officers (NCO) in Austria and Switzerland. The was initially responsible for the guard duty of the army. Later, it became the equivalent NCO-grade of ...
, lieutenant and first lieutenant in the 5th k.u.k. Uhlanen Regiment. He was then transferred to the Royal Hungarian Honvéd-Kavallerie, earning the rank of Rittmeister on 1 November 1889, then to Major on 1 November 1897, and on 1 May 1901 he was made a Lt.-Colonel. In 1903 he was appointed as commander of the 8th Honvéd-Hussars Regiment and then later was transferred in 1907 as a regiment commander of the 10th Honvéd-Hussars Regiment. His younger brother, Arpád Albert Rudolf, became the Field Marshal of the Royal Hungarian Army.
Marriages
Béla Ervin married Mariska Jankovich de Jeszenicze in Rácz-Almás on 20 June 1885 and married his second wife, Martha Szontagh de Igló, in Budapest on 20 September 1898. Both marriages were childless.