Harold Stephen Langhorne Harold Stephen Langhorne ( 17 September 1866 Bordyke , Tonbridge , Kent , England and died Barnwood , Gloucester on 26 June 1932 ) was a Brigadier - General in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps of the British army and served in India , Burma , Hong Kong , South Africa and France . Early life . He was the son of Reverend John Langhorne , headmaster of King ' s School , Rochester and Henrietta Long of Harston Hall , Harston , Cambridgeshire and Landemere Hall , Thorpe - le - Soken . He attended Tonbridge School and then went to the King ' s School , Rochester . He went to the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , London , England , which was established in 1741 to educate the military branch of the Board of Ordnance to produce officers for the Artillery and Engineers . He entered the Royal Artillery in 1885 and was promoted to Captain ( 1895 ) , Major ( 1904 ) , Lieutenant - Colonel ( 1907 ) , and Colonel ( 1914 ) . His ordnance formation was as follows : Ordnance Officer 4th Class 1896 - 1902 , 3rd Class 1902 - 7 , 2nd Class 1907 - 14 , 1st class 1914 On 1 April 1896 he was seconded for service with the Inspection Branch Family , Marriage and Children . His brother John Langhorne became principal of John Watson ' s Institution , Edinburgh . Two of his half - brothers also became senior army officers : Major - General Algernon Philip Yorke Langhorne and Brigadier James Archibald Dunboyne Langhorne . Harold Stephen Langhorne met his future wife after he fell from a horse during a polo match in India . In order to recover from the fall he was seated beside her and her father Major General Frederick Edward Hadow , believed to have been commanding Officer of the Hyderabad Contingent Force . He married Amy Helen Francis Hadow ( born Toghoo , Bengal 21 December 1867 died Cheltenham , Gloucester , England 17 July 1953 ) at Allahabad , Uttar Pradesh , India on 28 December 1891 . They had five children : Later life . He was responsible for supervising munitions in Hong Kong ( c . 1900 ) . At the close of the Boer war he was sent to South Africa . He also worked with munitions at Ormskirk , Lancashire . Prior to the outbreak of and during the beginning of the first world war he was working and living at the Royal Army Clothing Depot , Grosvenor Road , Pimlico , London . His daughter , Elizabeth Vowles , who lived there during the first world war described the depot and his role there thus : he was literally a factory manager , making clothing , from boots and socks up to ceremonial scarlet uniforms . . . After the Boer war till a scramble to enlist in 1914 it sufficed one clothing factory to keep it ( the British Army ) clad . . . . By 1915 or so my father , in uniform would bring in his two officers to lunch with us , suggesting pressure in the office . The factory employed civilians in the sawing shed for packing - cases and women in the sewing rooms . By 1916 we were ejected from the Royal Army Clothing Department and the whole place given up to machines and packing ; father must have been busy well before that in organising extended work in the hugh Olympia and the White City . He was still I suppose working there in 1917 as he was living at home but by 1918 he was constantly away , at first in France behind the lines I suppose laying lines for supply to the Big Push which finally drove the Germans back by November 1918 . He was later sent to Salonika in the East Mediterranean . According to his daughter the reason for his being there was " presumably the remaining war to control Palestine and Cairo " and its preparations . " Salonika was the main base , but he certainly went beyond that . " On 29 September 1918 his oldest son Lieutenant Francis Harold Langhorne was killed in action while serving with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in northern France . After the first world war he visited the grave at Borlon wood , arranging for an epitaph to be added . He went to Cairo in 1919 as Deputy Director of Ordnance Supplies for General Edmund Allenby , 1st Viscount Allenby . Based at Halouan , outside Cairo , and Heliopolis . His postal address was the Eden Palace Hotel , Cairo . As part of his work he had to travel to Tanta . In the summer of 1923 his wife suffered a bad bout of typhoid in Cairo . He came home from Cairo and retired to Gloucestershire in 1924 to pursue gardening . He played polo , cricket and tennis and was a keen pianist , enjoying in particular the works of Sibelius and Debussy . He was interested in the ideas of Ruskin . He received the following awards : Commander of the Order of the Bath ( 1915 ) , Commander of Michael and George ( 1918 ) . According to an account of his life left by his daughter he declined a knighthood on the basis that " he didn ' t like the company he ' d be in and above all , wouldn ' t shake hands with Maundy Gregory for the fear the mud would stick to his ! " . Langhorne died in Barnwood , Gloucester , England , 26 June 1932 . Plaque in Rochester Cathedral . A brass plaque was put up in his memory at Rochester Cathedral . It reads : " In loving memory of Brig General Harold Stephen Langhorne CB CMG Royal army ordnance corps . A Kings scholar 1879 - 1883 . Died 26 June 1932 aged 65 " . References . The personal information on this page has come from the papers of his daughters Mary Langhorne and Elizabeth Vowles née Langhorne , both formerly of the Old Rectory , Whaddon , Gloucestershire , England ) .