Jump to content

John Shea (Indian Army officer)

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir John Shea
General Sir John Shea
Born17 January 1869
St John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Died1 May 1966(1966-05-01) (aged 97)
Fulham, London, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1888–1932
RankGeneral
Commands151st Brigade
30th Division
60th Division
3rd (Indian) Division
Central Provinces District
Eastern Command, India
Battles / wars
Awards

General Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea, GCB, KCMG, DSO (17 January 1869 – 1 May 1966) was a British officer in the Indian Army.[1] During the First World War, he held senior commands on the Western Front and the Middle Eastern theatre.

Military career

[edit]
From left to right are, Sir Edmund Allenby, Rennie MacInnes, Malcolm Donald Murray, HRH the Duke of Connaught, Major General J S M Shea, Sir E S Bulfin, General Sir Harry Chauvel, Sir Philip Chetwode
(March 19, 1918).

Educated at Sedbergh School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[2] Shea was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment as a second lieutenant in February 1888.[3]

He was promoted to lieutenant on 11 February 1890,[4] and the following year transferred to the Indian Army where he was posted to the 15th Bengal Lancers.[3] He saw action with the Chitral Expedition in 1895, and was promoted to captain on 11 February 1899.[4]

The Second Boer War started in South Africa later the same year, and Shea was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for leading 200 South Australians in a night attack on Commandant Jan Smuts's laager.[5] For his service in the latter parts of the war, he received a brevet promotion to major on 22 August 1902.[6] He became an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in 1906,[3] the same year he was promoted to major.[7]

He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in July 1912.[8]

General Shea, with cane, and staff members at the surrender of Jerusalem. (9 December 1917)

Shea served in the First World War, initially as a staff officer, first with the British Expeditionary Force and then with the 6th Division when he succeeded Colonel William Furse as the division's GSO1, or chief of staff.[9] In July 1915 he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general[10] and became commander of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division's 151st (Durham Light Infantry) Brigade, a Territorial Force formation, which had recently arrived on the Western Front. He was made a temporary major general in May 1916[11] and became general officer commanding (GOC) of the 30th Division, a Kitchener's Army formation, which he led in the Battle of the Somme later that year. After being promoted to substantive major general in March 1917,[12] GOC 60th (2/2nd London) Division in Palestine in August 1917.[3] He commanded the division at the Battle of Mughar Ridge in November 1917, at the Battle of Jerusalem in December 1917 and at the First Battle of Amman in March 1918.[13] On 9 December 1917 he received the keys of the city of Jerusalem, an act symbolising its surrender by the mayor Hussein al-Husayni, after many other generals refused to take this responsibility.[14] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1919 New Year Honours.[15]

After the War he became a corps commander in Palestine in 1918, GOC 3rd (Indian) Division in 1919 and, promoted in January 1921 to lieutenant general,[16] became GOC Central Provinces District in India in 1921.[3] He went on to be Adjutant-General, India in 1924 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, India in 1928 before retiring from the army in 1932.[3]

In retirement, he served as the Commissioner for London Boy Scouts from 1936 to 1948.[17]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Obituary: Gen. Sir John Shea – Indian Army and the Scouts". The Times. 2 May 1966. p. 12.
  2. ^ Anglo-Boer War
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  4. ^ a b Hart's Army list, 1903
  5. ^ Desert Column
  6. ^ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6907.
  7. ^ "No. 27913". The London Gazette. 15 May 1906. p. 3363.
  8. ^ "No. 28625". The London Gazette. 9 July 1912. p. 4973.
  9. ^ "No. 29042". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 January 1915. p. 582.
  10. ^ "No. 29263". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 August 1915. p. 8106.
  11. ^ "No. 29625". The London Gazette. 16 June 1917. p. 5988.
  12. ^ "No. 29987". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 March 1917. p. 2701.
  13. ^ Baker, Chris. "British Divisions of 1914–1918". The Long Long Trail.
  14. ^ Jacobson, Abigail. From Empire To Empire. Syracuse University Press. p. 130.
  15. ^ "No. 31093". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1918. p. 51.
  16. ^ "No. 32369". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 June 1921. p. 5083.
  17. ^ Nevill, Percy Bantock (1966). Scouting in London, 1908-1965. London Scout Council. p. 202.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 60th (2/2nd London) Division
1917–1919 		Succeeded by
Division Disbanded
Preceded by Adjutant-General, India
1924–1928 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, India
1928–1932 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=John_Shea_(Indian_Army_officer)&oldid=1272437182"