George Jeffreys , 1st Baron Jeffreys ( second creation ) 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 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 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 . Early life and family . 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 . Jeffreys was educated at Eton College before entering the Royal Military College , Sandhurst . He passed out of Sandhurst in 1897 , and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 3 May . In 1905 , he married Dorothy , Viscountess Cantelupe . She was the widow of Lionel , Viscount Cantelupe , the eldest son of the Earl De La Warr , an officer in the Royal West Kent Regiment , who had died a few months after their marriage in 1890 . The two would have one son , Christopher , a captain in the Grenadier Guards , who died in the Battle of France in 1940 . Military career . With his regiment , Jeffreys took part in the Sudan expedition of 1898 , and saw action at the Battle of Omdurman . He was promoted to lieutenant in November that year , and later served through the Second Boer War from 1900 to 1902 . He remained on regimental service , promoted to captain in October 1903 and major in October 1910 , until he was promoted to command the Guards Depôt in June 1911 . On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 , Jeffreys rejoined his regiment , and went overseas with the British Expeditionary Force . He saw service at the Battle of Mons with the 2nd Battalion , and was promoted to command it in June 1915 , with the temporary rank of lieutenant - colonel . He remained with the battalion until January 1916 , when he was promoted to command 58th Infantry Brigade in 19th ( Western ) Division , with the temporary rank of brigadier - general . He relinquished command of the brigade on 3 May , but was re - appointed to command 57th Infantry Brigade , in the same division , on 21 July , in the middle of the Battle of the Somme . On 30 December he again was transferred to command 1st ( Guards ) Brigade , holding command through most of 1917 until he returned to 19th Division as its new commander in September , with a corresponding promotion to temporary major - general . He commanded the division until the end of the war , during which time it fought at the Third Battle of Ypres , the German Spring Offensive , and the final Hundred Days Offensive . During the War , Jeffreys was severely wounded , mentioned in despatches nine times , and appointed a Companion of St . Michael and St . George ( in 1916 ) and a Companion of the Bath ( in 1918 ) . He was also awarded a series of foreign decorations ; the Russian Order of St Stanislaus ( 2nd Class ) ; the Belgian Order of the Crown ( Commander ) , Order of Leopold ( Grand Officer ) , and Croix de Guerre ; the French Legion d ' Honneur ( Commander ) and Croix de Guerre ; the Norwegian Order of St . Olaf ( Knight ) ; the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun ( 2nd Class ) ; and the Romanian Order of the Crown ( Grand Cross ) . After the Armistice in November 1918 , the division received orders to demobilise in December , and in February 1919 Jeffreys was transferred to 30th Division . The 30th Division was assigned to the rear area ports , and was correspondingly later to demobilise . He was then transferred to command the Light Division in the British Army of the Rhine , the occupation forces in Germany , and in 1920 returned to England as Major - General commanding the Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding London District . He relinquished command of London District in 1924 , and spent two years on half pay until appointed to the 43rd ( Wessex ) Division in the Territorial Army in 1926 . He was promoted to lieutenant - general in 1930 , and again placed on half - pay , but was appointed to the Southern Command in India in 1932 . This was his final active role , and he held it until 1936 , having been promoted to full general in 1935 . From 1936 to 1938 he held the ceremonial position of ADC to the King , and finally retired from the Army in 1938 . In retirement , he was the honorary colonel of 48th Searchlight Regiment , Royal Artillery ( later 583rd ( Hampshire ) Heavy AA Regiment ) from 1938 to 1948 , the Colonel of the Royal Hampshire Regiment from 1945 to 1948 , and of the Grenadier Guards from 1952 to his death . Political career . Jeffreys ' political career began in 1926 , when he was elected as a councillor to Hampshire County Council . He left the council in 1932 , during his posting to India , but was re - elected following his return in 1937 ; in 1941 , he was appointed as an alderman . From 1938 he was appointed chair of the Hampshire Territorial Army Association and the County Civil Defence Committee , and in 1940 , on the formation of the Home Guard , became its County Organizer . He also worked as a magistrate , becoming Chair of the Basingstoke County Bench in 1925 , and continuing to sit until 1952 , with the exception of a four - year gap during his Indian posting . In a 1941 wartime by - election , he was elected as a Conservative to the House of Commons for Petersfield in Hampshire ; he would hold the seat until his retirement in 1951 . The following year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Jeffreys , of Burkham in the County of Southampton . In December 1960 , he died aged 82 , and was succeeded in the barony by his grandson Mark , his son Christopher having been killed in action in May 1940 . External links .