Edmund Ironside

Sir William Edmund Ironside is a British Field Marshal who is being seriously considered for the post of Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Ironside joined the Royal Artillery in 1899, and served throughout the Boer War, followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of a Regular Army division during the first two years of the Weltkrieg, before being appointed as the chief of staff to the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916. In 1918 he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front, but was quickly promoted to command the Allied intervention force in northern Russia in 1919, then an Allied force in Mesopotomania, and finally a British force in Persia in 1921. He returned to the Army as commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, where he became an advocate for the ideas of J. F. C. Fuller, a proponent of mechanisation. In 1924 he was given command of a division, and military districts in India, and performed well in battling rebels during the Revolutionary period. In 1929 he transferred to Canada where he is increasingly suggested as a possible replacement for Ernest Ashton.