Beauchamp Doran Major - General Beauchamp John Colclough Doran , CB , ( 24 September 1860 – 23 November 1943 ) was a British Army officer who commanded the 25th Division during the First World War . Commissioned in 1880 , Doran saw service on the staff and with the Royal Irish Regiment through a number of colonial campaigns in the late nineteenth century , culminating in command of a mobile column in the Boer War , where he was seriously wounded . He then commanded a battalion of his regiment , followed by a brigade in the British Expeditionary Force . His brigade was mobilised in 1914 , and he saw service during the first months of the First World War before being dismissed in October . He was later reinstated as commander of a brigade in the New Armies , and promoted to the 25th Division before it was sent to France in 1915 ; he led it on the Western Front until June 1916 , when he was relieved and sent home . From 1916 to 1918 he commanded the Army forces in southern Ireland , and then held an administrative post in France before retiring in 1920 . Early career . The eldest son of General Sir John Doran , Beauchamp Doran joined the 16th Regiment of Foot in January 1880 , transferring to the 18th Foot ( shortly to become the Royal Irish Regiment ) in February . He served with the 1st Battalion in the Second Anglo - Afghan War that same year , and was promoted to lieutenant in 1881 . He later participated in the 1884 - 85 Nile Expedition , where he was mentioned in despatches and given a brevet promotion to Major , in the Hazara Expedition of 1888 , and in the Miranzai Expedition of 1891 , where he acted as brigade major . In November 1891 he was appointed to a staff position overseeing musketry standards in the Bengal Army , transferring to the Punjab to take up the same post in 1895 . In 1897 , he was mentioned in despatches for his service in staff duties with the Kohat - Kurram expedition , and again in 1898 for his work as deputy assistant adjutant - general in the Tirah Expedition , both on the North - West Frontier of India . During the Boer War he was first posted on staff duties , as a press censor , and then made a brigade major . He commanded the garrison at Rustenburg in early 1900 , and later oversaw the remount depot at Cape Town . He first saw field service in May 1901 , when he was given command of a mounted column ; that November , he was severely wounded and had a horse killed under him , but continued with the column until the end of the war . He was given a brevet promotion to lieutenant - colonel , twice mentioned in despatches , and made a Companion of the Bath . Senior command . After the end of hostilities in South Africa , Doran returned home to marry Mary MacGeough Bond , a widow ; the couple would be married for thirty years before Mary ' s death , but with no children . In 1904 , he was posted to command his battalion , the 1st Royal Irish Regiment , with a brevet promotion to colonel in 1905 . He moved to staff duties in 1908 , as assistant adjutant - general of Southern Command and then assistant quartermaster - general of Irish Command , but returned to a field position in 1912 , when he was appointed to command 8th Infantry Brigade , a regular unit on home service . Doran was in command of 8th Brigade when the First World War broke out in August 1914 , and the British Expeditionary Force was mobilised for service . His younger brother , W . R . B . Doran , also commanded a brigade of the Expeditionary Force ; 17th Infantry Brigade in 6th Division . He took the brigade to France and commanded it through the Retreat from Mons , the Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne . On 20 October , one of his battalions - the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment - was surrounded during the Battle of La Bassée and effectively destroyed for lack of support ; on 23 October , he was relieved of command of 8th Brigade and sent home . The following month , Doran was assigned to command 68th Brigade , a group of volunteer New Army battalions in 23rd Division . He was promoted to major - general in February 1915 , and in May was given command of the 25th Division , another New Army formation completing its training in England . He took it to France that September , where it moved into a quiet sector of the line in late 1915 . It remained in quiet sectors until May 1916 , when it was moved south to Vimy Ridge , and was involved in defending against a German attack . Doran was relieved of command the following month , and transferred to home service as the commander of the Southern District in Ireland . In 1919 he was appointed to command No . 5 Area in France as part of the demobilisation of the Army , and retired in 1920 . Through the War , he had been mentioned in despatches four times . Retirement . In retirement , Doran was appointed the High Sheriff for the county of Wexford , serving from 1920 to 1921 , and as a Deputy Lieutenant for the same county . He lived in Wexford through his retirement , at Ely House ; during the unrest leading up to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War , in May 1922 , he was arrested and beaten by men rumoured to represent the Provisional Government . After Mary ' s death in 1932 , he remarried an American , Florence Fairchild . He died in 1943 , aged 83 . References .