Years of service 1885 - 1930 Rank General officer | Died 1950 Name George Kirkpatrick Allegiance United Kingdom | |
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General Sir George Macaulay Kirkpatrick, KCMG, KCSI, CB was a Canadian born and educated soldier who served with the British Army in South Africa, Canada, India, Australia, and China. He became one of only a handful of Canadians to reach the rank of full General.
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Education
Kirkpatrick was born on 23 August 1866 to the politician Sir George Airey Kirkpatrick (1841-1899) and Frances June Macaulay of Kingston, Ontario. He enrolled at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario from 1882–85, student # 138. As a surveyor in 1892, he authored topographic maps of the 'Town and environs of the Fez Region of Morocco.
Military service
Kirkpatrick was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Engineers as a lieutenant on 30 June 1885. He was appointed Aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding, Thames District in 1892, and promoted to captain on 12 December 1894. He was deployed as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (Intelligence) during the Second Boer War, and received the brevet rank of major on 29 November 1900. Following the end of the war in June 1902, he left Cape Town on the SS Canada and returned to Southampton in late July. He served in Halifax, Nova Scotia as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General for Intelligence from 1902, and received the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel on 22 August 1902. Two years later he became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at Headquarters of the Army in 1904. He went on to be Assistant Quartermaster General at Headquarters, India in 1906 and Inspector General of the Military Forces of Australia in 1910. He served in World War I as Director of Military Operations in India from 1914 to 1916 when he became Chief of the General Staff in India.
He subsequently served as Commander of British Forces in China from 1921 to 1922 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, India from 1923 to 1927. He retired in retired 1930.
Awards and recognition
He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI).
Family
Kirkpatrick and his wife Mary Lydia (d. 1945) had two daughters, Georgine Helen (born 1898) and Kathleen Mary (born 1899) in Malta.