Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir James Ronald Edmondston Charles, (26 June 1875 – 24 December 1955) was a senior

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 in the Royal Engineers.

Family

Charles was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, British India, the son of Thomas Edmondston Charles, later honorary physician to King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

, and Ada Henrietta Charles. He had two older sisters, Bessie and Ethel, who both studied architecture and became the first women members of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

Military career

Charles was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1894.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He served 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 South ...

(1899–1901), was mentioned in despatches (31 March 1900), and received the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

in November 1900. He was part of the Bazar Valley and Mohmand Field Forces in 1908. Charles spent most of 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 ...

in the General Staff until being promoted to command a re-constituted 25th Division in August 1918.Centre for First World War Studies
/ref> He was appointed commander of the

Waziristan Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...

Force in India in 1923 and then became

commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1924. He was Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

from 1926 and

Master-General of the Ordnance The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...

from 1931. He retired in 1934. Charles' nickname among the troops was '

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

', deriving from his commanding personality and his height of 6’ 4". He was also commandant of the Royal Engineers from 1931 to 1945 and

Chief Royal Engineer The Chief Royal Engineer (CRE) is the official head of the Corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army. Origin and development Before the English Restoration a Chief Engineer was a pay grade and not defined. In 1660 King Charles II appointed ...

from 1940 to 1946.

Civilian roles

From 1934 to 1953, Charles was a director of

British Aluminium Company British Aluminium was an aluminium production company. It was originally formed as the British Aluminium Company Ltd on 7 May 1894 and was subsequently known as British Alcan Aluminium plc (1982-1996). History In the late 1880s and early 1890s, ...

, appointed for his high level connections and knowledge of defence procurement procedures gained at the War Office and as Master General of the Ordnance.Perchard, Andrew (2010)
Land and Empire: Politics and the British Aluminium Company
'. University of Strathclyde. Retrieved: 17 September 2021.

References

, - , - , - 1875 births 1955 deaths People educated at Winchester College British Army generals of World War I British Army personnel of World War II British Army lieutenant generals Commandants of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Royal Engineers officers British people in colonial India {{UK-army-bio-stub