Charles Blackader

Charles Guinand Blackader
Blackader at brigade headquarters in France, 24 July 1915
Born	(1869-09-20)20 September 1869 Richmond, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Died	2 April 1921(1921-04-02) (aged 51) Millbank, City of Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Major-General
Unit	Leicestershire Regiment
Commands held	2nd Leicestershire Regiment 20th (Garhwal) Brigade 177th Brigade 38th (Welsh) Division Southern District, Irish Command
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Commander of the Order of Leopold

Major-General Charles Guinand Blackader, CB, DSO (20 September 1869 – 2 April 1921) was a British Army officer of the First World War. He commanded an Indian brigade on the Western Front in 1915, and a Territorial brigade in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916, before being appointed to command the 38th (Welsh) Division on the Western Front, a position he held until retiring due to ill-health in May 1918.

Originally joining the Army in 1888 as a junior officer in the Leicestershire Regiment, Blackader's first active posting was in the late 1890s, when he served on attachment to the West African Frontier Force, closely followed by service during the Boer War, where he commanded a company at the defence of Ladysmith. An efficient and well-regarded administrator, he commanded a series of detached stations in addition to his regimental duties for the next ten years, eventually rising to take command of the 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, in 1912. On the outbreak of the First World War, he commanded his battalion on the Western Front as part of an Indian Army formation; when his superior officer was promoted in early 1915, Blackader succeeded him as commander of the brigade, and led it through the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Loos.

After the Indian Army was withdrawn from France, Blackader was posted to a second-line Territorial Force brigade training in the United Kingdom. In 1916, it was sent to Dublin during the Easter Rising; following the Rising, Blackader presided over a number of the resulting courts-martial, including those of several of the signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Later that year, he was ordered to France to take over command of the 38th (Welsh) Division, a New Army formation which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme. He remained with the division for almost two years, helping retrain and reorganise it as an efficient fighting unit. The division would see significant successes in the Hundred Days Offensive of late 1918, but by this point Blackader was no longer in command; he had been invalided home earlier in the year. He died shortly after the war, in 1921, aged 51.