Louis Bols

Lieutenant General Sir Louis Jean Bols, KCB, KCMG, DSO (23 November 1867 – 13 September 1930) was a British Army general, who served as chief of staff of Edmund Allenby's Third Army on the Western Front and in the Sinai and Palestine campaign during the First World War. From 1927 until his death he served as the Governor of Bermuda.

Sir Louis Bols
Born	(1867-11-23)23 November 1867 Cape Town, Cape Colony[citation needed]
Died	13 September 1930(1930-09-13) (aged 62)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Years of service	1887–1920
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Devonshire Regiment
Commands	43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division 24th Division 84th Infantry Brigade Dorsetshire Regiment
Battles / wars	Chitral Expedition Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath[1] Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (6)
Relations	Major General Eric Bols (son)
Other work	Governor of Bermuda (1927–30)

Early life and education

Bols was born in Cape Town^{[citation needed]} to Louis Guillaume Michael Joseph Bols of Belgium and Mary Wilhelmina Davidson. He was educated at Lancing College in England and Bishop's College School in Canada.^[2]

Military career

Group photo of the 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment Football XI, with several officers. Belfast 1913/14. Middle row, third from left is Lieutenant Colonel L. J. Bols; third from right, middle row is Captain Algernon Ransome, the battalion's adjutant.

After graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Bols was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment on 5 February 1887,^[3] and was promoted to lieutenant, dated 22 September 1889.^[4]

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,^[5] and he served as adjutant of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment from 17 February 1899.^[6]

The investiture by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, February 1918. Decorated Generals Allenby, in conversation with Lieutenant General Chetwode, in foreground. Stood nearby is Allenby's MGGS, Major General Bols.

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.^[7] For his services in the war, he was twice mentioned in dispatches, 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.^[8]

Bols, who in January 1905 was promoted from supernumerary captain to captain,^[9] was in February made commander of a company of gentlemen cadets.^[10] Made a major in October 1906,^[11] he was in January 1907 made a brigade major.^[12]

In May 1910 he went to the Staff College, Camberley as a deputy assistant quartermaster general and was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel while in this role,^[13] before succeeding Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hull as a GSO2 at the Staff College in February 1912.^[14] He transferred from the Devonshires to the Dorsetshire Regiment as a lieutenant colonel in February 1914 and took command of the 2nd Battalion of his new regiment,^[15] five months before the start of the First World War.^[16]

At the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 Bols, having been promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in February,^[17] held the command of the 84th Infantry Brigade, part of the 28th Division. That same month saw him made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.^[18] while in June his permanent rank was advanced to brevet colonel.^[19] In late September he moved to the newly created XII Corps to serve as its brigadier general, general staff.^[20]

Governor and GOC of Bermuda Lieutenant-General Sir Louis Bols takes salute at Prospect Camp in 1930

In October that year he was promoted again, now to temporary major general,^[21] and served as major general, general staff (MGGS) of the Third Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), commanded briefly by General Sir Charles Monro before he was replaced by General Sir Edmund Allenby. Bols was to serve with Allenby, both on the Western Front in 1916 and in 1917, and later in 1917–18 in Palestine.^[22]

From January to June 1920 Bols, who had been promoted in January 1917 to substantive major general,^[23] 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."^[2]

Bols went on to become General Officer Commanding 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division in September 1920.^[24] 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.^[25]

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.^[26]

Personal life

Bols married Augusta Blanche Strickland and had two sons, Major-General Eric Bols, and Major Kenneth Bols (killed in action in Italy in the Second World War).^[27]