Battles/wars Boer WarWorld War I Died 1942 Rank Brigadier | Years of service 1889-1920 Name Arthur Seton | |
Awards Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)Companion of the Distinguished Service Order and Bar (DSO & Bar)Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th ClassKnight of the Legion of HonourFrench Cross of War (1914-1918) Education Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Battles and wars Second Boer War, World War I | ||
Brigadier-General Arthur Henry Seton Hart-Synnot (1870 - 1942) was a British Army general who saw service in Japan, Hong Kong, Burma, India, and the European War of 1914 to 1918.
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Early life
Hart-Synnot was from a family with a history of military service, his father being Major General Arthur FitzRoy Hart-Synnot and his uncle, Sir Reginald Hart, had been awarded the Victoria Cross in Afghanistan. He was educated at Clifton and the Royal Military College.
Military career
After passing out from the Royal Military College, Hart-Synnot (then Hart) was commissioned into the East Surrey Regiment as a second lieutenant on 8 October 1890. He was promoted to lieutenant on 7 June 1892 and to captain on 21 June 1899. Hart-Synnot passed the Staff College in 1899, and after the Boer War his career took the staff path, first as an Aide-de-Camp to his uncle.
In 1904 he was posted to Japan, and between 1907 and 1911 served in Hong Kong. He was promoted major on 17 March 1909. After a tour in Burma with his regiment (1911–13), he was appointed general staff officer grade 2 (GSO2) at GHQ India on 27 October 1913, where he remained until October 1916, when he returned to Britain.
The Great War was now convulsing Europe, and Hart-Synnot was deployed to France on New Year’s Day 1917. Previously brevetted to lieutenant-colonel, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 17 January 1917. He again served as a GSO2 with the 17th and 40th Divisions. He became a temporary Brigadier-General when he was appointed to command 6th Infantry Brigade on 28 April 1918, where he was severely wounded, losing both legs. In the 1918 King's Birthday Honours he was awarded a Bar to his DSO. The following year, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in a special addition to the 1919 Birthday Honours. He was also made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, and awarded the French Croix de guerre. He was placed on the half-pay list and retired as an honorary brigadier-general in 1920 as a result of these wounds.
Hart-Synnot married a nurse, Violet Drower, whom he met while convalescing from his wounds.
Popular culture
In the 1980s, approximately 800 extant letters were discovered in Japan, which documented Hart-Synnot's extended love affair with a Japanese woman, by whom he had a son. This correspondence was the subject of a 2006 biography, The Sword and the Blossom by Peter Pagnamenta.