# List of commanders of the British 5th Division

The 5th Division was an infantry division of the British Army and was first formed in 1809 and disbanded for the final time in 2012. The division was commanded by a general officer commanding (GOC). In this role, the GOC received orders from a level above him in the chain of command, and then used the forces within the division to undertake the mission assigned. In addition to directing the tactical battle in which the division was involved, the GOC oversaw a staff and the administrative, logistical, medical, training, and discipline of the division.
Prior to 1809, the British Army did not use divisional formations. As the British military grew in size during the Napoleonic Wars, the need arose for such an implementation in order to better organise forces for administrative, logistical, and tactical reasons. The 5th Division was formed in 1810 by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley, and served in the Peninsular War (part of the Napoleonic Wars).

## General officer commanding

General officer commanding :
| No. | Appointment date | Rank | General officer commanding | Notes |
| 1 | April 1810 | Major-General | James Leith | Leith arrived in Portugal, in April 1810, with a brigade of British infantry. These men had come from fighting in the Walcheren Campaign, were stricken with fever and not ready for service until July. Over the following months, the 5th Division was built around this brigade. |
| Acting | 4 August 1810 | Lieutenant-Colonel | James Barnes | |
| Acting | 30 September 1810 | Brigadier-General | Andrew Hay | |
| 1 | 6 October 1810 | Major-General | James Leith | On this date, the division was officially formed, and Leith formally made the first general officer commanding |
| Acting | 1 February 1811 | Major-General | James Dunlop | |
| 2 | 6 February 1811 | Major-General | William Erskine | |
| Acting | 7 March 1811 | Major-General | James Dunlop | |
| 2 | 23 April 1811 | Major-General | William Erskine | |
| Acting | 11 May 1811 | Major-General | James Dunlop | |
| Acting | 2 October 1811 | Major-General | George Walker | |
| 1 | 1 December 1811 | Major-General | James Leith | Leith was wounded in action during the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812 |
| Acting | 22 July 1812 | Major-General | William Pringle | Assumed temporary command when Leith was wounded |
| 3 | 31 July 1812 | Major-General | Richard Hulse | Hulse died of typhus on 7 September 1812 |
| Acting | 7 September 1812 | Major-General | William Pringle | |
| 4 | 25 October 1812 | Major-General | John Oswald | |
| Acting | January 1813 | Major-General | Andrew Hay | |
| 4 | April 1813 | Major-General | John Oswald | |
| 1 | 30 August 1813 | Major-General | James Leith | Leith was seriously wounded in action, during the Siege of San Sebastián on 31 August/1 September 1813 |
| Acting | 1 September 1813 | Major-General | John Oswald | Oswald was wounded during the Siege of San Sebastián on 31 August/1 September 1813 |
| Acting | 9 October 1813 | Major-General | Andrew Hay | |
| 5 | December 1813 | Major-General | Charles Colville | |
| Acting | 14 April 1814 | Major-General | Frederick Robinson | When John Hope was captured at the Battle of Bayonne Colville took command of his corps, leaving Robinson in command of the division for a brief period. |
| 5 | April 1814 | Major-General | Charles Colville | At the conclusion of the Peninsular War, in 1814, the division was disbanded in France. The final troops departed in June. |
| 6 | 11 April 1815 | Lieutenant-General | Thomas Picton | On 11 April 1815, the division was reformed in Southern Netherlands. Following the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the British military in France was reorganised into three divisions. The remaining forces, including the 4th Division, were stood down. |
| 7 | 14 November 1899 | Lieutenant-General | Charles Warren | Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War, the division was ordered to be formed on 9 November. Warren was appointed as commander five days later, and the division arrived in southern Africa the following month. |
| 8 | 20 April 1900 | Lieutenant-General | Henry Hildyard | At the end of 1900, while still in southern Africa, the division was broken-up. |
| 9 | 14 May 1902 | Major-General | Leslie Rundle | The division was reformed in Dover, England |
| 10 | 10 November 1903 | Major-General | Henry Grant | |
| 11 | 1907 | Major-General | Herbert Plumer | In 1907, the division was reformed in Ireland when the 7th Division was renumbered. |
| 12 | 4 February 1909 | Major-General | William Campbell | |
| 13 | 4 February 1913 | Major-General | Charles Fergusson | Under Fergusson, the division mobilised for the First World War and moved to France in September 1914 and fought on the Western Front. |
| 14 | 18 October 1914 | Major-General | Thomas Morland | |
| 15 | 15 July 1915 | Major-General | Charles Kavanagh | |
| 16 | 1 April 1916 | Major-General | Reginald Stephens | |
| 17 | 4 July 1918 | Major-General | John Ponsonby | At the end of the First World War, the division moved into Belgium where it demobilized. |
| 18 | 27 October 1919 | Major-General | Hugh Jeudwine | The division was reformed in Ireland, and took part in the Irish War of Independence. Following the conclusion of the war, there was no room for the division to be based in Northern Ireland and was disbanded in 1923. |
| 19 | 13 December 1929 | Major-General | Walter Kirke | The division was reformed in England |
| 20 | 30 September 1931 | Major-General | Thomas Humphreys | |
| 21 | 30 March 1934 | Major-General | Geoffrey Howard | |
| 22 | 19 May 1937 | Major-General | Guy Williams | |
| Acting | 27 September 1938 | Brigadier | Unknown | An unknown interim commander looked after the division between Williams being appointed and Franklyn assuming command |
| 23 | 20 December 1938 | Major-General | Harold Franklyn | Under Franklyn, the division mobilized for service in the Second World War and moved to France in December 1939. Following the Battle of France, in mid 1940, the division was evacuated back to the UK. |
| 24 | 19 July 1940 | Major-General | Horatio Berney-Ficklin | During Berney-Ficklin's tenure, the division was transferred to British India, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Egypt, and Italy where it served during the Allied invasion of Sicily. |
| 25 | 3 August 1943 | Major-General | Gerard Bucknall | The division fought in the Italian campaign |
| 26 | 22 January 1944 | Major-General | Philip Gregson-Ellis | |
| Acting | 21 April 1944 | Brigadier | Lorne Campbell | |
| 26 | 29 April 1944 | Major-General | Philip Gregson-Ellis | During Gregson-Ellis' tenure, the division returned to Egypt and Palestine. |
| 27 | 24 November 1944 | Major-General | Richard Hull | Under Hull, the division was transferred to northwest Europe, and took part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. |
| 26 | 1946 | Major-General | Philip Gregson-Ellis | |
| 28 | July 1947 | Major-General | John Churcher | The division was disbanded in September 1947 |
| 29 | April 1958 | Major-General | Geoffrey Musson | The division was reformed, in Germany, when the 7th Armoured Division was renamed. In 1960, the division was renamed the 1st Division. |
| 30 | 1 April 1968 | Major-General | Walter Thomas | The division was reformed at Wrexham, England |
| 31 | 5 March 1970 | Major-General | Mervyn Janes | Janes relinquished command on 26 February 1971. Due to the demand to deploy troops to Northern Ireland, as part of The Troubles, the division was disbanded. |
| 32 | April 1995 | Major-General | Ian Freer | The division was reformed at Shrewsbury, England, when the Wales and Western District was redesignated. |
| 33 | 16 September 1996 | Major-General | Robin Searby | |
| 34 | 12 January 2000 | Major General | Peter Peterkin | This marks the first time the Gazette does not use the hyphen between major and general. |
| 35 | 20 December 2000 | Major General | Arthur Denaro | |
| 36 | 28 January 2003 | Major General | Nicholas Cottam | |
| 37 | 9 March 2005 | Major General | Andrew Farquhar | |
| 38 | 7 June 2008 | Major General | Martin Rutledge | Rutledge held command until the division was disbanded for the final time in April 2012, as a result of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010, and retired shortly after. |