Major-General Sir Cecil Edward Pereira, (24 July 1869 – 26 October 1942) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who commanded the 2nd Division during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Military career

Educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston, Pereira was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1890.Lane Fox of Bramham
He served in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

from 1898 and was seconded for service in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

in South Africa in March 1900, and attached to the Rhodesian Field Force. He then served in the

and was appointed Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards in 1914, commander of 85th Brigade (which he led at the Battle of Loos) in 1915 and commander of 1st Guards Brigade in January 1916, before being made General Officer Commanding 2nd Division in December 1916.Army Commands
After the war he became General Officer Commanding

56th (London) Infantry Division The 56th (London) Infantry Division was a Territorial Army infantry division of the British Army, which served under several different titles and designations. The division served in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. ...

from 1919 until his retirement in 1923. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Pereira commanded the

Local Defence Volunteers The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an armed citizen militia supporting the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard had 1.5 million local volunteers otherwise ineligible f ...

in London.

Family

In 1903 Pereira married Helen Mary Josephine (Nellie)

Lane Fox ''Lane Fox'' or ''Lane-Fox'' is a double-barrelled English surname (see also the surnames Lane and Fox). Notable bearers of the surname include: *George Lane-Fox (MP) (1793–1848), English landowner and Tory MP *Sackville Lane-Fox (1797–1874), ...

; they had three sons and two daughters. His brothers were George Pereira, a soldier and explorer, and

Edward Pereira Edward Thomas Pereira (26 September 1866 – 25 February 1939) was an English priest and schoolmaster, and a cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1895 and 1900 for Warwickshire and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He was born in C ...

, a priest, schoolmaster and cricketer. He settled after 1924 at Caversham Place, near

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, a house designed for him by Clough Williams-Ellis.

Correspondence

His letters were edited by his grandson, E.A. Pereira & others, as ''Catholic General: The Private Wartime Correspondence of Maj-Gen Sir Cecil Edward Pereira, 1914–19'' (Helion, 2020).

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Cecil 1869 births 1942 deaths British Army generals of World War I Coldstream Guards officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George English people of Portuguese descent British Home Guard officers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at The Oratory School Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) British Army major generals British people in British Uganda