John Burnett-Stuart

General Sir John Theodosius Burnett-Stuart, GCB, KBE, CMG, DSO, DL (14 March 1875 – 6 October 1958) was a British Army general in the 1920s and 1930s.[1]

Sir John Burnett-Stuart
Field Marshal Montgomery and General Burnett-Stuart (left) in the cockpit of Montgomery's personal aircraft in North-west Europe, 8 March 1945
Born	14 March 1875 Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England
Died	6 October 1958 (aged 83) Avington Park, Winchester, Hampshire, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1895–1938
Rank	General
Commands held	Southern Command British Troops in Egypt 3rd Division Madras District in India
Battles/wars	North-West Frontier Second Boer War First World War Malabar Rebellion
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order
Other work	Deputy Lieutenant for Aberdeenshire

Military career

Educated at Repton School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, John Burnett-Stuart was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade as a second-lieutenant on 6 March 1895.[2] He was promoted to lieutenant on 26 July 1897,[3] and saw service on the North-West Frontier of India between 1897 and 1898.[2] He also served in the Second Boer War in South Africa between 1899 and 1902, during which he was promoted to captain on 20 February 1901, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1900.[2] Following the end of the war in June 1902, Burnett-Stuart returned to the United Kingdom on the SS Orotava which arrived at Southampton in early September.[4]

He served in the First World War as a General Staff Officer in the British Expeditionary Force rising to become Deputy Adjutant General at General Headquarters for the British Armies in France in 1917.[2]

After the War, in 1919, he was appointed General Officer Commanding Madras District in India where he was involved in the suppression of the Moplah Rebellion at Malabar between 1921 and 1922.[2] The riots that he quashed were inspired by 10,000 guerrillas and led to 2,300 executions.[5]

He returned to the United Kingdom and became Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office in 1923 and then General Officer Commanding 3rd Division in 1926.[2] In 1927 he directed exercises by an experimental Mechanised force on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.[2] He was appointed General Officer Commanding the British Troops in Egypt in 1931 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command in 1934: he retired in 1938.[2]

He was also Aide-de-Camp General to King George V from 1935 to 1938 and Colonel Commandant of 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade from 1936 to 1945.[2] He commanded the 1st Aberdeen Battalion of the Home Guard[6] and was Deputy Lieutenant for Aberdeenshire.[2]

Further reading

• To Change an Army: General Sir John Burnett-Stuart and British Armoured Doctrine, 1927–38 By Harold R Winton, Elsevier, 1988, ISBN 978-0-08-036270-0

References

1. "Obituary: Gen. Burnett-Stuart". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 8 October 1958. p. 13.
2. Sir John Theodosius Burnett-Stuart Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
3. Hart's Army list, 1903
4. "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home". The Times (36858). London. 28 August 1902. p. 9.
5. University College, Dublin
6. MacKenzie, S.P. (1995), The Home Guard: A Military and Political History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820577-5 (p. 183)