Launcelot Kiggell

Sir Launcelot Kiggell
Kiggell circa 1915
Born	2 October 1862 Ballingarry, County Limerick
Died	23 February 1954 (aged 91) Felixstowe, Suffolk
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1882–1920
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	Staff College, Camberley
Battles/wars	Second Boer War World War I
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

Lieutenant General Sir Launcelot Edward Kiggell KCB, KCMG (2 October 1862 – 23 February 1954) was a British Army officer who became Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey.

Military career

Kiggell was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1882.^[1] He was appointed Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment in 1886 and then became an instructor at the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1895.^[1] He went on to be Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at Headquarters South Eastern District in 1897 and was placed on General Sir Redvers Buller's staff for the Second Boer War in 1899.^[1]

He was made Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the Staff College, Camberley in 1904 and became a General Staff Officer at Army Headquarters at Horse Guards in 1907.^[1] He was appointed Brigadier General in charge of Administration at Scottish Command in 1909, Director of Staff Duties at the War Office later in 1909 and Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley in 1913.^[1] He served in World War I as Director of Military Training at the War Office from 1914, as Director of Home Defence at the War Office from later that year and briefly as Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff at the end of 1915^[2] before becoming Chief of General Staff for the British Armies in France under Sir Douglas Haig from late 1915 to 1918.^[1] On 1 January 1917, he was promoted to Lieutenant General "for distinguished service in the field".^[3] Wilson, liaising with French Grand Quartier General early in 1917, claimed that Kiggell “hated the French”.^[4] Kiggell was dismissed as a result of political pressure from Prime Minister David Lloyd George following the failure of allied forces to achieve a decisive result at the Battle of Passchendaele.^[5]

After the War he became Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey before retiring in 1920.^[1] He died on 23 February 1954.

References

1. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
2. Army Commands
3. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29886. p. 15. 29 December 1916. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
4. Jeffery 2006, pp 190–1
5. Sir Launcelot Kiggell at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

• Jeffery, Keith (2006). Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820358-2.