The Lord Jeffreys | |
---|---|
Major General George Jeffreys in 1920
|
|
Born | 8 March 1878 |
Died | 19 December 1960 | (aged 82)
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/branch | British Army |
Years of service | 1897–1938 |
Rank | General |
Commands held |
Southern Command, India 43rd (Wessex) Division London District Light Division 30th Division 19th Division 1st Guards Brigade 57th Brigade 58th Brigade 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards |
Battles/wars |
Mahdist War Second Boer War First World War |
Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Mentioned in Despatches (9) |
General George Darell Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys KCB, KCVO, CMG, DL (8 March 1878 – 19 December 1960) was a British military commander and Conservative Member of Parliament.
Jeffreys attended Eton and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards. He saw action in Africa and in the Second Boer War as a young officer, and went to France with his battalion at the start of the First World War. He served on the Western Front throughout the war, rising to command the 2nd Grenadier Guards, then a series of infantry brigades, before being promoted to command the 19th (Western) Division from September 1917 until the end of the war. Following the armistice, he commanded a division in the forces occupying Germany, and then held various commands until he retired from the army in 1938.
From 1925 onwards he served as a magistrate and county councillor in Hampshire, and after retirement increased his involvement with local administration. He chaired a series of local bodies, and in 1941 was elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of Petersfield. He retired from Parliament at the 1951 election, and was created a peer the following year, as Baron Jeffreys. He continued to sit in the House of Lords until his death in 1960.
George Darrell Jeffreys was born on 8 March 1878. His father, Arthur Frederick Jeffreys, was a rural landowner, with an estate at Burkham, near Alton, Hampshire; he would later be elected to Parliament, as a Conservative, and hold the seat for almost thirty years. He had married Amy Fenwick in 1877; they would have four children, George and his three younger sisters.