Francis Hoare

Major-General Francis Richard Gurney Hoare (1879-1959) was a South African military commander.

Born in England, and educated at Harrow School, he joined the British Army in 1894. He served in the Anglo-Boer War, after which he settled in the Transvaal as a civil servant.

He joined the Transvaal Horse Artillery in 1912. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was seconded to the British Army as an officer in the Army Ordnance Department. From there he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his war services.

Lt Col Hoare returned to South Africa after the war, and became a founder member of the South African Air Force on its formation in 1920. He was Staff Officer for Air Equipment at Defence Headquarters from 1921 to 1933.

From 1933 to 1937, he served as the Union Defence Forces' Director Of Technical Services, and was briefly Director of Air and Technical Services (with the rank of colonel) before retiring in 1937.

He returned to active duty in 1939 and served as Director-General of Technical Services again from 1939 to 1940. For the rest of World War II, he was involved in arms production and procurement. He retired again at the end of the war. In 1944, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.