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Thomas Baldock

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Thomas Baldock
Born12 January 1854
Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England[1]
Died28 August 1937 (aged 83)
Bodmin, Cornwall, England[1]
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1873−1916
RankMajor-General
UnitRoyal Artillery
CommandsWest Riding Division
Battles / warsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath

Major-General Thomas Stanford Baldock CB (January 1854 – August 1937) was a British Army officer.

Military career

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Baldock was born Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire,[1] in January 1854, the son of William Baldock. After being educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in April 1873.[2] He was promoted to captain in 1882 and major in 1890 and he graduated from the Staff College, Camberley in 1889.[3] He saw action in the Second Boer War and subsequently commanded a column of Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles in South Africa for which he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[4][2]

He was promoted to brevet colonel on 1 January 1903,[5] which was made substantive in February 1907.[6] He served as a member of the ordnance committee, after which he was placed on half-pay in July 1906.[7] He became commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) for Aldershot Command in August 1907.[8]

In January 1910, and by then CRA of the 2nd Division, he was promoted to major general.[9] He then became general officer commanding (GOC) of the West Riding Division, one of the fourteen divisions of the part-time Territorial Force (TF), in September 1911.[2][10]

After taking his division to France in April 1915, eight months after the British entry into World War I, he remained in command of the division after it moved to the Western Front. Shortly after arrival, it was redesignated as the 49th (West Riding) Division. According to the diary of the 49th Division's Adjutant and Quartermaster-General (A&QMG), it was on 16 July 1915, while Baldock was at his division's advanced headquarters at Trois Tours, northwest of Ypres, Belgium, near Brielen, where he was severely wounded in the head by shell fire. The A&QMG's diary records that: "Château des Trois Tours. Friday 16th. The Germans shelled Ing. Bde. and Art. Bde H.Q.'s in the morning. At 4:15 pm. they suddenly fired 5 or 6 salvos of shrapnel and H.E. into Trois Tours Château grounds. General Baldock was outside at the time and in endeavouring to get back into the house, whilst the shelling was in progress, was wounded severely in the head by a fragment of shell. He was carried into a dugout and his wound was dressed by a medical officer. He was afterwards removed in a motor car to No.10 Clearing Hospital at Poperinghe."

His injuries forced him into retirement from the army in January 1916[11] and he eventually settled in Cornwall, where he died in August 1937, at the age of 83.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Thomas Stanford Baldock on Lives of the First World War
  2. ^ a b c d Davies 1997, p. 111.
  3. ^ College, Cheltenham (20 February 1890). "Cheltenham College Register, 1841-1889". Bell – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "No. 27448". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 June 1902. p. 4192.
  5. ^ "No. 27513". The London Gazette. 6 January 1903. p. 110.
  6. ^ "No. 27998". The London Gazette. 22 February 1907. p. 1283.
  7. ^ "No. 27932". The London Gazette. 17 July 1906. p. 4888.
  8. ^ "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  9. ^ "No. 28331". The London Gazette. 21 January 1910. p. 529.
  10. ^ "No. 28534". The London Gazette. 26 September 1911. p. 7012.
  11. ^ "No. 29615". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 June 1916. p. 5708.

Bibliography

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  • Davies, Frank (1997). Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918. London: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-463-5.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC West Riding Division
1911–1915 		Succeeded by
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