Bryan Mahon

Sir Bryan Thomas Mahon,   (2 April 1862 – 29 September 1930) was an Irish born general of the British Army and senator of the short-lived Senate of Southern Ireland..

Biography
Mahon was born at Belleville, County Galway on 2 April 1862. He became a lieutenant in the 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars in 1883. 

He served in Sudan in the Dongola Expedition in 1896 as Staff officer to Sir Herbert Kitchener, and was present at the Battle of Ferkeh and the operations at Hafir. In 1899 he took part in the final defeat of the Khalifa as Assistant Adjutant general in charge of Intelligence, and was mentioned in despatches (dated 25 November 1899) by Colonel Wingate with the following words:
I cannot speak in sufficiently strong terms of the excellence of the services performed by this officer. I invariably placed him in general command of all the mounted troops; his personal disregard for danger, intrepid scouting, and careful handling of men, all fit him for high command; his bold and successful seizure of the position in front of Fedil's camp, and his conduct of the fight before I came up, show him to possessed of exceptional qualities as a commander.

In recognition of his service in the Sudan, he received the brevet promotion to colonel on 14 March 1900. 

During the Second Boer War Colonel Mahon led a flying column 2,000 strong, consisting mainly of South African volunteers from Kimberley, which came to the Relief of Mafeking. The town, which had been under siege for seven months by Boer forces, was facing starvation. Mahon was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for his services during the operations, and was invested with the order by King Edward VII on 2 June 1902 after his return to the United Kingdom.

Mahon was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in May 1902, and was briefly Governor of Khartoum in 1903.

During the First World War he commanded the 2nd (Sialkot) Cavalry Brigade and the 10th (Irish) Division during the Gallipoli Campaign. The 10th Division landed at Suvla Bay on the night of 6–7 August 1915. In September he moved with the Division to be head of the British Salonika Army to support Serbia at the onset of the Macedonian campaign. In 1916 General Mahon took up command of the Western Frontier Force in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.

He was then appointed as the Commander-in-Chief, Ireland in 1916 in the lead up to the Anglo-Irish war. He retired from the British Army at the end of August 1921.

After his retirement he was elected as a privy council member of the short-lived Senate of Southern Ireland. He was appointed to Seanad Éireann by the President of the Executive Council, W. T. Cosgrave, in 1922 and 1925.  He was elected to the Seanad in 1928, and served until his death in 1930.

References

External links

Photograph of Mahon
, by Filson Young at The Project Gutenberg

 

Category:1862 births
Category:1930 deaths
Category:8th King's Royal Irish Hussars officers
Category:Commanders-in-Chief, Ireland
Category:Irish officers in the British Army
Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War
Category:British Army cavalry generals of World War I
Category:Irish generals
Category:Irish knights
Category:Irish people of World War I
Category:Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Category:Members of the 1922 Seanad
Category:Members of the 1925 Seanad
Category:Members of the 1928 Seanad
Category:People from County Galway
Category:Members of the Senate of Southern Ireland
Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Category:Independent members of Seanad Éireann