James Edward Edmonds
| Sir James Edward Edmonds | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 December 1861 London, England |
| Died | 2 August 1956 (aged 94) Sherborne, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands held |
Secret Service Bureau Chief of Staff, 4th Division (1914) Historical Section, Committee of Imperial Defence |
| Battles/wars |
Second Boer War Russo-Japanese War First World War |
| Awards |
Knight Bachelor Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Mentioned in Despatches |
Brigadier General Sir James Edward Edmonds CB, CMG (25 December 1861 – 2 August 1956) was a British First World War officer of the Royal Engineers. Edmonds became the Director of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence on 1 April 1919 and was responsible for the post-war compilation of the 28-volume History of the Great War. Edmonds wrote nearly half the volumes, including eleven of the 14 volumes dealing with the Western Front (Military Operations, France and Belgium). His task was not completed until the final volume was published in 1949.
Edmonds was educated at King's College School, London and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Edmonds passed into the Royal Military Academy with the highest marks instructors could remember, won the Sword of Honour for the Best Gentleman Cadet and was commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1881. In the Royal Engineers, his intellect earned him the nickname Archimedes.
Edmonds possessed a considerable intellect and was fluent in many European and Asian languages. In 1896, he entered the Staff College, Camberley, achieving the highest score of his class on the entrance exam. His classmates included Douglas Haig, who became Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in December 1915, during the First World War; Edmund Allenby, who led British forces in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign from 1917–18 and William Robertson, who became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1916.
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