Sir George Willis | |
Birth Date: | 11 November 1823 |
Birth Place: | Sopley, Hampshire, England |
Death Place: | Bournemouth, Hampshire, England |
Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
Branch: | British Army |
Serviceyears: | 1841–1890 |
Rank: | General |
Commands: | Northern District |
Battles: | Crimean War Anglo-Egyptian War |
Awards: | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath |
General Sir George Harry Smith Willis (11 November 1823 – 29 November 1900) was a British Army General who achieved high office in the 1880s.
He was born at Sopley Park in Sopley, Hampshire.
Willis was commissioned into the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment in 1841.[1] He served in the Crimean War and at the Battle of Inkerman he led the charge of a Grenadier company.[1] He returned to England in 1857 to become Commanding Officer of 2nd Bn 6th (Warwickshire) Regiment.[1] He was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General at the War Office in 1873 and then General Officer Commanding Northern District in April 1878.[1]
In 1882 he was dispatched to Egypt and commanded troops at Al-Magfar and Tell al-Mahuta during the Anglo-Egyptian War.[1] He was involved in the capture of Mahsama and the Second battle of Kassassin.[1]
In 1884 he was appointed GOC Southern District, retiring in 1890.[1] Later in that year he was made Colonel of the Devonshire Regiment, but transferred in 1897 as Colonel to The Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), a position he held until his death.
He died in Bournemouth in 1900 and is buried at St Michael & All Angels Church in Sopley.[2]
In 1856 he married Eliza Morgan,[1] daughter of George Gould Morgan, M.P., of Brickendonbury, Hertfordshire. In 1874 he married Ada Mary Neeld, daughter[3] of Sir John Neeld and together they went on to have four sons.[4]
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