Name Charles Bulkeley-Johnson Died 1917 | Parents Francis Bulkeley Johnson | |
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Brigadier General Charles Bulkeley Bulkeley-Johnson (1867 –1917) was a British and Egyptian Army officer who served in the Mahdist War and the First World War, in which he was killed.
He is somewhat famous in Russia for been the only foreigner during WWI — among a very small company of Russians — to receive the Russian Imperial Order of St. George Cross both IVth and IIIrd class for his outstanding personal bravery.
Biography
The son of Francis Bulkeley Johnson, he was born in 1867. He was educated at Harrow School and graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
On 5 February 1887 he was commissioned into the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), and he was promoted Lieutenant on 16 March 1889 and Captain on 13 June 1894. He served in the Egyptian Army from January 1899 to January 1903. He participated in the Nile Expedition. He also participated in operations that resulted in the defeat of the Khalifa, when he was in command of a squadron of cavalry during the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 (mentioned in despatches 25 November 1899). On 19 August 1911, at 43 years of age, Bulkeley-Johnson was appointed as the CO of the Royal Scots Greys. On 23 November 1914 he was promoted to the GOC of the 8th Cavalry Brigade of the 3rd Cavalry Division and he commanded this brigade until his death.
For his exploits he has been awarded the two Crosses of the Russian Order of St. George — which makes him the only Allied Officer during WWI ever to achieve such a level of recognition.
On 11 April 1917, during the Battle of Arras, British infantry were pinned down in front of the village of Monchy under very heavy machine-gun fire from the north ridge of Scarpe. The brigadier was mortally wounded and died at age 49 in Monchy-le-Preux, France. His burial site is the Grouy-en-Artois Communal Cemetery Extension.