General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Sir William Henry Mackinnon, (15 December 1852 – 17 March 1929) 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 ...

General during

World War I 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

Rose Hill School Rose Hill School is a co-educational preparatory school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. It is a member of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools The Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS, formerly Independent As ...

and then

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, Henry Mackinnon was commissioned into the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

in 1870.William Mackinnon
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved on 2014-06-02. He was appointed Military Secretary to Governor of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in 1884 and then Private Secretary to the Governor of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1885–1887.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2014-06-02. He then became Assistant Adjutant General at Home District in 1893. After the outbreak of 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 October 1899, a corps of imperial volunteers from London was formed in late December 1899. The corps included infantry, mounted infantry and artillery (the latter including members of the

Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...

and the

City of London Artillery The 1st London Artillery Brigade or City of London Artillery was a Volunteer Force (Great Britain), volunteer field artillery unit of the British Army, part of the Territorial Force and later the Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Territorial Army, ...

), and was authorized with the name

City of London Imperial Volunteers The City of London Imperial Volunteers (CIV) was a British corps of volunteers during the Second Boer War. After the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, volunteer corps were established in most counties of the United Kingdom to prov ...

. It proceeded to South Africa in January 1900, returned in October the same year, and was disbanded in December 1900. Colonel Mackinnon was appointed Colonel commandant of the corps 22 December 1899, and served as such until it was disbanded. He was invested as a Commander of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

(CVO) on 11 August 1902. He was later appointed Director of

Auxiliary Forces The General Inspectorate of Auxiliary Forces ( ar, القوات المساعدة, alquwaat almusa'ida; ber, ⵉⴷⵡⴰⵙⴻⵏ ⵉⵎⴰⵡⵡⴰⵙⴻⵏ, idwasen imawwasen; french: Forces Auxiliaires) is a security institution in Morocco, ...

in 1905 and Director General of the

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

in 1908. He was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Western Command in 1910; he retired in 1916. He lived at Carlisle Place in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Family

In 1881 he married Madeleine Frances Hatton and they went on to have one daughter.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackinnon, Henry 1852 births 1929 deaths British Army generals People educated at Harrow School British Army generals of World War I Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War