Sir Louis Jean Bols | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 23 November 1867 Cape Town, Cape Colony[citation needed] |
| Died | 13 September 1930 (aged 62) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom/British Empire |
| Service/ |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1887–1920 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Unit | Devonshire Regiment |
| Commands held | 24th Division |
| Battles/wars | Chitral Expedition Second Boer War World War I |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in despatches (6) |
| Relations | Eric Bols (son) |
Lieutenant General Sir Louis Jean Bols KCB KCMG DSO (23 November 1867 – 13 September 1930) was a British Army general, who served as Edmund Allenby's Third Army Chief of Staff on the Western Front and Sinai and Palestine campaigns of World War I. From 1927 until his death he served as the Governor of Bermuda.
Bols was born in Cape Town[citation needed] to Louis Guillaume Michael Joseph Bols of Belgium and Mary Wilhelmina Davidson and educated at Lancing College in England and Bishop's College School in Canada.[1]
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment on 5 February 1887, and was promoted to lieutenant on 22 September 1889. In 1891–92 he served in Burma, including operations in the Kachin Hills, and received the operational medal with clasp. In 1895 he served with the Chitral Relief Force under Sir Robert Low as adjutant and quartermaster at the British Military Depot. Promotion to captain followed on 18 January 1897, and he served as adjutant of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment from 17 February 1899.[2]
Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, his battalion was sent to South Africa, where he served as adjutant of the battalion throughout the war. He was present at the Battle of Colenso (15 December 1899), Battle of Vaal Krantz (5–7 February 1900), Battle of the Tugela Heights (14–27 February 1900) and the Relief of Ladysmith (1 March 1900), and later in operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony.[3] For his services in the war, he was twice mentioned in despatches, received the Queen's South Africa Medal and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). After peace was declared in May 1902, Bols left South Africa on board the SS Bavarian and arrived in the United Kingdom the following month.[4]
He took command of the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1914 at the start of the First World War.[5] At the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 Bols held the command of the 84th (Infantry) Brigade. Later in that year he was attached to Headquarters of Third Army, as General Sir Edmund Allenby's Chief of Staff, and served in the latter capacity, both on the Western Front in 1916, and in 1917–18 in Palestine.[6]
From January to June 1920 he served as the Chief Administrator of Palestine, and signed over power to Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner of Palestine, who confirmed in an often-quoted document,
Received from Major-General Sir Louis J. Bols K.C.B.—One Palestine, complete.[1]
Bols went on to become General Officer Commanding 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division in September 1920.[7] From 1927 to his death he was Governor and General Officer Commanding of the army garrison of the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda. He also served as colonel of the Devonshire Regiment from 1921 to his death.[8]
Bols died in his 63rd year on 13 September 1930 in a nursing home in the city of Bath, Somerset, while on leave from Bermuda.[9]
He married Augusta Blanche Strickland and had two sons, Major-General Eric Bols, and Maj. Kenneth Bols (killed in action in Italy in World War II).[10]
