Cecil Romer Explained

Sir Cecil Romer
Birth Date:14 November 1869
Birth Place:Kensington, London[1]
Death Place:Maidstone, Kent
Allegiance:United Kingdom
Branch:British Army
Serviceyears:1890–1935
Rank:General
Commands:Southern Command
Western Command
1st Division
59th (2nd North Midland) Division
Battles:Second Boer War
First World War
Awards:Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Mentioned in Despatches
Legion of Honour (France)

General Sir Cecil Francis Romer, (14 November 1869 – 1 October 1962) was a British Army general who reached high command during the 1920s.[2]

Early life and education

Romer was born in Kensington, London, the son of Lord Justice Robert Romer and Betty Lemon, daughter of Mark Lemon, editor of Punch. His elder brother was Mark Romer, Baron Romer. He was educated at Eton College.[2] His sister, Helen Mary, married Lord Chancellor Frederic Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham.[3]

Military career

Romer was commissioned into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers as a second lieutenant on 1 March 1890, promoted lieutenant on 23 August 1893, and captain on 19 October 1898. He served in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1902, was wounded in early 1900,[4] and received the brevet rank of major on 29 November 1900.[5] Following the war he was seconded as an adjutant of volunteers in February 1902, but only a few months later he was on 19 June 1902 appointed brigade major to the 13th Brigade, in Dublin. He went on to become a General Staff Officer in 1904.[5]

During the First World War, Romer fought on the Western Front.[5] He was General Officer Commanding 59th (2nd North Midland) Division between 1917 and 1918.[6] [7]

Romer became General Officer Commanding 1st Division at Aldershot in 1926.[5] He was then elevated to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command in 1928 and to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Command in 1931.[5] In 1933, he was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces: he retired in 1935.[5]

External links

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Notes and References

  1. 1871 England Census
  2. News: Obituary: Sir Cecil Romer – Hard Fighting in France. . 3 October 1962 . 13.
  3. G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant
  4. The War - Casualties. 29 March 1900 . 8 . 36102.
  5. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/ROMER.shtml Sir Cecil Francis Romer
  6. http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/nicknames/romer.htm University of Birmingham
  7. Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2b: The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th), with the Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions, London: HM Stationery Office, 1937/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007,, p. 17.