Wyndham Childs Major - General Sir Borlase Elward Wyndham Childs KCMG KBE CB ( 15 December 1876 – 27 November 1946 ) was a British Army officer who also served as Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 1921 to 1928 . Military career . Childs was born in Cornwall , the son of a solicitor . He initially entered the law himself , as an articled clerk to his father . He was also a Captain in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall ' s Light Infantry . When the Second Boer War broke out he volunteered for overseas service , but was turned down . He decided to volunteer for regular service instead , intending to return to the law after the war , and in 1900 was commissioned into the regular DCLI , being immediately posted to the 1st Battalion in Dum Dum , India . Shortly afterwards , the battalion moved to Ceylon as a guard battalion for the Boer prisoner of war camp . After two years , the battalion was finally posted to South Africa , where Childs was appointed adjutant and quartermaster of the rest camp at Stellenbosch . There he came to the attention of Colonel Nevil Macready , then Chief Staff Officer at Cape Colony , who appointed him garrison adjutant of Cape Town Castle . He was promoted Lieutenant in April 1904 and returned to England in 1905 , where he became adjutant of his battalion . He transferred to the Royal Irish Regiment as a Captain in 1910 . In February 1911 he was seconded to the War Office as a Staff Captain . In November 1910 he accompanied his old friend , Macready , by then Director of Personal Services , as his staff officer to Tonypandy in South Wales , where rioting had broken out . In February 1912 he was promoted to the brevet rank of Major . In April 1914 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant - General at the War Office and in September 1914 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant - General with the British Expeditionary Force and promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant - Colonel and shortly afterwards to the temporary rank of Colonel . While with the BEF , he instituted court martial reforms that increased the remission of death sentences for deserter s to 89 per cent of all those sentenced to death by military courts . In 1916 he returned to the War Office as Assistant Adjutant - General , mainly dealing with conscientious objector s , and later the same year was appointed Director of Personal Services , in charge of Army discipline . In September 1915 he was given the substantive rank of Major in the DCLI , in 1916 he became a Brevet Lieutenant - Colonel , in 1917 a Brevet Colonel , and in 1919 a Temporary Major - General . In 1919 he also became a Deputy Adjutant - General . Police career . Childs was appointed Assistant Commissioner " C " ( Crime ) in December 1921 . He retired from the Army in December 1922 with the honorary rank of Major - General . While Assistant Commissioner he attempted with some success to stamp out the illegal arms trade . He resigned from the Metropolitan Police on 6 November 1928 . He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in 1916 , Companion of the Order of the Bath ( CB ) in 1918 , Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George ( KCMG ) in 1919 , and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( KBE ) in February 1921 .