Thompson Capper Major General Sir Thompson Capper KCMG CB DSO ( 20 October 1863 – 27 September 1915 ) was a highly decorated and senior British Army officer who served with distinction in the Second Boer War and was a divisional commander during the First World War . At the Battle of Loos in 1915 , Capper was shot by a sniper as he reconnoitred the front line during an assault by his division on German positions . He died the next day in a casualty clearing station from wounds to both lungs ; his grave is in the nearby Lillers Communal Cemetery . Capper was an active and vigorous soldier who had been wounded just six months before his death in an accidental grenade detonation . Shortly before this wound he had been knighted by King George V for his service in command of his division during the First Battle of Ypres . Field Marshal Sir John French commented upon his death that " he was a most distinguished and capable leader and his death will be severely felt . " He was also a keen military historian and his collected papers are currently stored at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King ' s College London . Early career . Thompson Capper was born in October 1863 to William and Sarah Capper ( " neé " Copeland ) . William Capper was a civil servant with the Bengal Civil Service and Sarah was the daughter of industrialist William Copeland . Thompson and his elder brother John were born in Lucknow but at a young age were sent to England for their education . Thompson Capper attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College and the Royal Military Academy , Sandhurst before being commissioned into the East Lancashire Regiment as a junior officer in 1882 . He was employed on home service for the next ten years and whilst serving as regimental adjutant was made up to captain in 1891 , attending Staff College before being transferred with his unit to India . It was in India that Capper saw his first action , when in 1895 his regiment was attached to a force sent to the Indian - Afghan border to relieve a trapped British force in Chitral . Three years later as a Brevet major , he was again in action as an advisor to an Egyptian unit of the Anglo - Egyptian army under Horatio Kitchener which travelled down the Nile in the final campaign of the Mahdist War . During these operations , Capper participated in the battle of Atbara and was with the force which fought in the culminating Battle of Omdurman . South African service . The following year , 1899 , Capper and his regiment were again engaged in Africa , being transported to South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War . There Capper performed his duties with distinction for the next three years , being heavily engaged at the defeat of Spion Kop and participating in the relief of Ladysmith in 1900 . He remained in South Africa engaged in guerilla operations against the Boer forces until the armistice of 1902 , commanding a flying column in the Cape Colony . He was promoted to substantive major in December 1901 . Following the war ' s conclusion , Capper was promoted and awarded the Distinguished Service Order on his return home . He was also awarded the Queen ' s South Africa Medal with six clasps and the King ' s South Africa Medal with two clasps in recognition of his long service in the colony , and was twice Mentioned in Despatches . Staff career . As an experienced staff officer , he was given a post as a professor at the Staff College , Camberley from 1902 to 1904 . He was promoted to Brevet Colonel on 11 December 1904 . He was then transferred to the Staff College , Quetta in India as commandant ( and substantive colonel ) . It has been suggested that this move was initiated by jealous colleagues at the college due to his ability as a teacher and tactician . He retained this position until 1911 , teaching the lessons of the Russo - Japanese War and emphasising the importance of " attacking dash " as the best means of overcoming entrenched positions . He came into contact with numerous important figures of the First World War through this work , including Douglas Haig , with whom he did not get on and Hubert Gough , who admired his " spirit of self - sacrifice and duty , instead of the idea of playing for safety and seeking only to avoid getting into trouble " . He also amassed a prodigious collection of military literature during his research and teaching . In 1906 he was promoted to temporary Brigadier – General and in 1908 he married Winifride Mary , with whom he would have one son . In 1910 his work at the staff college was recognised with the award of the Companion of the Order of the Bath ( CB ) in the King ' s Birthday Honours . In 1911 , after a brief period of half - pay in his permanent rank of Colonel , Capper was transferred from India to Ireland , where he commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade until 1913 . He returned to Ireland briefly a year later in the aftermath of the Curragh Incident , to support his friend Hubert Gough . During early 1914 , Capper was briefly the Inspector of Infantry but in the emergency of the summer of 1914 he was promoted to substantive Major - General and posted to the regular 7th Infantry Division , which was sent to the Western Front . First World War . During the opening months of the war , Capper busied himself with organising the new division placed under his command ; the work involved in this task meant that the division was not ready for action until October 1914 . On 6 October 7 Division arrived at Zeebrugge just as the German forces began to push into that area as part of the " Race for the Sea " . Initially forced back , Capper ' s division covered the Belgian withdrawal to the Yser and then held the line near the town of Ypres . For the next two months , the 7th Division was embroiled in bitter fighting at the First Battle of Ypres , when they were crucial in stopping the German advance but lost over 10 , 000 men . The Times later stated that " no one but Capper himself could , night after night , by the sheer force of his personality , have reconstituted from the shattered fragments of battalions a fighting line that could last through tomorrow " . For the service he and his men provided during the battle , Capper was awarded a knighthood as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in early 1915 . Remaining on the front lines during the winter of 1914 – 1915 , Capper ' s men held the German advance and were given some respite in early 1915 with the arrival of territorial divisions . It was during one of these rest periods that Capper was seriously wounded when in April 1915 he was struck in the shoulder by shrapnel from a " Jam - tin bomb " during a demonstration of improvised grenades being held behind the lines . He was temporarily replaced by General Gough and returned to England to convalesce , but was back with the 7th Division on 19 July 1915 . Battle of Loos . In late September 1915 , the division was assigned to participate in the Battle of Loos against fortified German positions at Loos - en - Gohelle and Hulluch . Advancing on 26 September against furious German opposition , the 7th Division was held up several times and Capper visited the frontline to view the enemy for himself from the captured trenches . Urging his men into a final assault , Capper stayed behind to view the field and was struck by a sniper ' s bullet fired from houses along the line of advance which were thought to have been abandoned . The assault failed and Capper was discovered by his retreating units and taken to Number 6 Casualty Clearing Station to the rear of British lines . The bullet had penetrated both lungs , and doctors gave no hope of survival . Major – General Sir Thompson Capper died the following day , on 27 September 1915 in the casualty clearing station . His division had lost over 5 , 200 men killed or wounded in just three days of fighting . Following his death , a rumour abounded that he had been killed charging the German lines on horseback . This story has persisted despite eye - witness accounts to the contrary . Capper was buried in Lillers Communal Cemetery behind British lines and his grave is surmounted by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone . He is also commemorated on the War Memorial in Rayne , Essex , where he spent much of his boyhood with his uncle , the Rector of Rayne , Rev W S Hemming . His collected papers were donated to King ' s College in 1971 , where they are still available to researchers and contain a wide selection of primary materials concerning the warfare of the early twentieth century .