Robert George Broadwood was a British army general. He was also a keen horseman, who rode in the Grand National. He served in Sudan, in the second Boer War and the First World War.
Born in 1862, by the time of the census in 1871, his mother had remarried, and Robert is recorded as a stepson of John Aldridge, Justice of the Peace, Landowner and Major in the army, retired. Robert is recorded as a scholar, aged 9. It is a large household with 9 servants.
Following education at Charterhouse School and training at Sandhurst Military College, the census of 1891 finds him as a Captain, aged 29, in the 12th Royal Lancers, based at the cavalry barracks in Hulme, Manchester.
He went on to serve in Sudan in 1896 for two years under Sir Herbert Kitchener as commander of the Egyptian cavalry. In recognition of his services, he was made a brevet* lieutenant-colonel and then a brevet colonel, and was mentioned in dispatches several times.
In the Second Boer War he served as lieutenant-general in command of the Second Cavalry Brigade and was again mentioned in dispatches.
In 1902 he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath by King Edward VII. Later that year he was sent as a colonel to Natal.
In 1906 he was promoted to major-general and appointed Officer Commanding, South China. He was reportedly popular in Hong Kong due to his interest in racing, serving as a steward of the Jockey Club. He left Hong Kong in 1910, but he later had a fashionable road named after him there overlooking the racecourse, it being the practice to name roads after distinguished men.
In 1913 he retired from the army, aged 51, but returned to active service in France at the start of the First World War as OC 1st Mounted Division, which became 1st Cyclist Division. He was criticised for his caution in mounting attacks, but he refused to sacrifice his troops in situations he judged hazardous.
This may have goaded him because in 1917 he was killed by an artillery round which took off both his legs when he was advancing across a bridge that was under German observation. He died from his wounds.
* a commission conferred in recognition of outstanding service where an officer served in the role but without the pay of that rank.
Wikipedia Picture x 3.
National Portrait Gallery Picture
Sources:
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Ancestry
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Ancestry
1871 Census – Lower Beeding, Sussex, Robert G Broadwood, 9, stepson, scholar. John Aldridge, Head, 39, Justice of the Peace, Landowner, and Major in the army, retired. 9 servants inc Governess and Nurse.
1881 Census – Royal Navy, Jumna, Robert G Broadwood, 19, 2nd Lieut 12th Regt,
1891 Census – 12th Royal Lancers, Cavalry Barracks, Hulme, Manchester, Robert George Broadwood, 29, Captain.
1912 Oct British Army Records Lieutenant General.