Charles Granville Fortescue Brigadier - General The Hon . Charles Granville Fortescue , CB , CMG , DSO , ( 1861 – 1951 ) was an officer of the British Army in the colonial wars of the late 19th century , the Second Boer War and World War I . Early life . The Honourable Charles Granville Fortescue was born on 30 October 1861 , the sixth and youngest son of Hugh , 3rd Earl Fortescue . Sir John Fortescue , the historian of the British Army , was his elder brother . Fortescue was educated at Harrow School and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade in 1881 , rising to Lieutenant later that year . Military career . Fortescue saw his first active service with the 4th Battalion of his regiment in 1888 – 9 during the pacification operations in Upper Burma that followed the Third Anglo - Burmese War . Promoted to Captain in 1890 , he became adjutant of 4th Rifle Brigade in 1895 . In 1897 he was employed by the Colonial Office in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast , including an expedition to Karaga , receiving a Mention in Dispatches and a CMG . Having achieved the rank of Major at the end of 1898 , he was also promoted to Brevet Lieutenant - Colonel . Fortescue returned from West Africa in 1899 to take up the post of private secretary to the Secretary of State for War , the Marquess of Lansdowne , but just before the outbreak of the Second Boer War he went to South Africa as a Brigade Major in the Natal Field Force under Sir George White . He was in the Siege of Ladysmith , and afterwards served as a staff officer in the operations in Northern Natal ( including the action at Laing ' s Nek ) and in Eastern Transvaal ( including the actions at Belfast and Lydenburg ) . For the last six months of the war he relinquished staff work and commanded a column in the field . He was mentioned in dispatches four times during the war and awarded the Distinguished Service Order . After the war ended Fortescue stayed on for four months as military secretary to the general commanding the occupation force before returning to regimental duty . In April 1912 , Fortescue was appointed Brigadier - General , General Staff , ( BGGS ) in Eastern Command . On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 he became BGGS to Third Army of Central Force within Home Forces , but shortly afterwards he was appointed to command a brigade of Regular Army troops returning from overseas garrisons for service on the Western Front . This became 80th Brigade in 27th Division and assembled around Winchester . The brigade included his old battalion , the 4th Rifle Brigade , returned from India , and the first Canadian volunteer unit to arrive in Europe , Princess Patricia ' s Canadian Light Infantry . 27th Division landed in France in December 1914 and was concentrated by 25 December . In February 1915 it was holding the line near St Eloi , with localised fighting going on . On 28 February the ' Princess Pat ' s ' carried out a successful local attack . On 14 March the Germans made a surprise attack on 80th Brigade in the late afternoon , firing two mines and capturing St Eloi village , the surrounding trenches , and an artificial heap of earth known as ' The Mound ' . There was severe hand - to - hand fighting in which the 2nd King ' s Shropshire Light Infantry and 4th Rifle Brigade distinguished themselves , but Fortescue was unable to make an immediate counter - attack because no reserves were on hand . The neighbouring 82nd Brigade did make a counter - attack after midnight that included 4th King ' s Royal Rifle Corps of 80th Brigade and retook some of the ground , but the Germans had already consolidated their hold on The Mound . Shortly after St Eloi , Fortescue returned to Home Forces to take up the position of BGGS with First Army of Central Force . In November 1916 he received command of 212th Brigade of 71st Division , a new Home Defence formation composed of men who were unfit for overseas service . Once it had formed , 71st Division was assigned to guard the coast of Essex . After a year in command of 212th Brigade , Fortescue took over 226th Mixed Brigade , which was attached to 71st Division . In January 1918 the War Office decided to break up 71st Division by mid - March . Fortescue was then sent as part of a military mission to the Serbs fighting on the Macedonian front until the end of the war . Fortescue was awarded the Order of the White Eagle ( Serbia ) 1st Class , with swords . He retired from the British Army on 31 October 1919 with the honorary rank of Brigadier - General . Family . In 1906 Fortescue married Ethel Rosa , daughter of General Sir Charles Clarke , 3rd Baronet and widow of Captain Ernest Campbell . They had two daughters : Before World War I , Fortescue had accompanied his historian brother to some of the old battlefields of Europe , and he did a considerable amount of research for the last volume of Sir John ' s " History of the British Army " , which appeared in 1930 . Charles Fortescue died on 1 February 1951 .