Henry Merrick Lawson
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Merrick Lawson KCB (30 January 1859 – 2 November 1933) was a British Army General during World War I. Military career Educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, Lawson was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1877. He took part in the Suakin Expedition and Nile Expedition in 1884 and served in the Egyptian Army during the Mahdist War in 1898. He served in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1902, and following the end of the war in June that year stayed on as Deputy-Adjutant and Quartermaster-General to the Forces in South Africa. He became Director of Movements and Quarterings at the War Office in 1904. He was appointed Commander of 13th Infantry Brigade in Dublin in 1906 and Major-General in charge of Administration for Aldershot Command in 1907. He became General Officer Commanding 2nd Division in 1910 and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and Alderney in 1914. He went on to be Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff in November 1914, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1915 and then went into "Special Service" at the front in 1916. He was critical that too many men were doing "soft jobs"