{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] | name = Beauchamp Doran | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | nickname = | birth_date = {{birth date|1860|09|24|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|11|23|1860|09|24|df=yes}} | death_place = Ely House, Wexford | burial_place = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = [[British Army]] | service_years = 1880–1920 | rank = [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] | unit = | commands = [[25th Division (United Kingdom)|25th Division]]<br/>[[68th Brigade (United Kingdom)|68th Infantry Brigade]]<br/>[[8th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|8th Infantry Brigade]]<br/>1st Battalion, [[Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922)|Royal Irish Regiment]] | battles = [[Mahdist War]]<br/>[[Hazara Expedition of 1888]]<br/>[[Tirah Expedition]]<br/>[[Second Boer War]]<br/>[[First World War]] | awards = [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]<br/>[[Mentioned in Despatches]] (9) | relations = General [[John Doran (British Army officer)|Sir John Doran]] (father) | other_work = }} [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] '''Beauchamp John Colclough Doran''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|CB}} (24 September 1860 – 23 November 1943) was a [[British Army]] officer who served as a junior officer in the [[Second Boer War]] and later commanded an infantry brigade and division on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] during the [[First World War]].
==Early career== The eldest son of General [[John Doran (British Army officer)|Sir John Doran]] and Georgina Magrath, Beauchamp Doran was commissioned as a [[second lieutenant]] into the [[Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment|16th Regiment of Foot]] in January 1880,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24800|page=144|date=13 January 1880}}</ref> before transferring to the 18th Foot (shortly to become the [[Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922)|Royal Irish Regiment]]) later that month.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24807|page=450|date=30 January 1880}}</ref> He served with the 1st Battalion in the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] that same year, and was promoted to [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] on 1 July 1881.<ref name="Obit">Obituary in ''The Times''</ref> He later participated in the 1884–85 [[Nile Expedition]], where he was [[mentioned in despatches]] and given a [[Brevet (military)|brevet promotion]] to [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] in May 1887,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25739|page=4997|date=16 September 1887}}</ref> in the [[Hazara Expedition of 1888]], and in the [[Miranzai Expedition]] of 1891, where he acted as [[brigade major]].<ref name="WWW">''Who Was Who''</ref>
In November 1891 Doran was appointed to a staff position overseeing musketry standards in the [[Bengal Army]], transferring to the Punjab to take up the same post in 1895. In 1897, he was mentioned in despatches for his service in staff duties with the [[Kohat-Kurram]] expedition, and again in 1898 for his work as deputy assistant [[adjutant-general]] in the [[Tirah Expedition]], both on the [[Military history of the North-West Frontier|North-West Frontier]] of [[British Raj|India]].<ref name="Obit"/> He had been promoted to brevet Major in November 1898.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27023|page=6690|date=15 November 1898}}</ref> The following year he was back in [[Sudan]], where he was in charge of the 9th Sudanese Battalion during operations leading to the defeat of the [[Abdallahi ibn Muhammad|Khalifa]] in the [[Battle of Umm Diwaykarat]] in November 1899 (mentioned in despatches on 25 November 1899).<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27159 |pages=597–600 |date=30 January 1900}}</ref>
==Second Boer War== During the [[Second Boer War]], which began in October 1899, Doran was first posted on staff duties, as a press [[Censorship|censor]], and then made a brigade major in January 1900.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27203|page=3815|date=19 June 1900}}</ref> He commanded the garrison at [[Rustenburg]] in early 1900, for which he was promoted in January 1901 to the local rank of lieutenant colonel while in his position,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27294|page=1853|date=15 March 1901}}</ref> and later oversaw the [[remount]] depot at [[Cape Town]]. He first saw field service in May 1901, when he was given command of a mounted column; that November, he was severely wounded and had a horse killed under him, but continued with the column until the end of the war.<ref name="Obit"/> For his services during the war, he received a brevet promotion to [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] on 29 November 1900, was twice mentioned in despatches, and was appointed a [[Order of the Bath|Companion of the Order of the Bath]] (CB).<ref name="WWW"/>
==Inter-war years== Following the end of the war in May 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom in the ''SS Dunottar Castle'', which arrived at [[Southampton]] in July 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa – Troops returning home |date=8 July 1902 |page=11 |issue=36814}}</ref>
On his return, Doran married Mary MacGeough Bond, a widow; the couple would be married for thirty years before Mary's death, but with no children. In 1904, promoted to lieutenant colonel in September,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27711|page=5778|date=6 September 1904}}</ref> he was posted to command his battalion, the 1st Royal Irish Regiment, with a brevet promotion to colonel in October 1905.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27845|page=6933|date=17 October 1905}}</ref> He moved to staff duties in 1908, as assistant adjutant general (AAG) of [[Southern Command (United Kingdom)|Southern Command]]. He was promoted to colonel in March 1908<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28125|page=2568|date=3 April 1908}}</ref> and in November of that year became an assistant quartermaster general (AQMG) of [[Irish Command]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28202|page=9292|date=4 December 1908}}</ref>
He relinquished this assignment in March 1912 and was placed on [[half-pay]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28590|page=1919|date=15 March 1912}}</ref> He returned to a field position in May, when he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28606|page=3369|date=10 May 1912}}</ref> and appointed as [[general officer commanding]] (GOC) of the [[8th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|8th Infantry Brigade]] of the [[3rd (UK) Division|3rd Division]], then commanded by Major General [[Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson|Sir Henry Rawlinson]].<ref name="WWW"/>
==First World War== Doran was in command of the 8th Brigade when the [[First World War]] broke out in August 1914, and the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] (BEF) was mobilised for service. His younger brother, [[Walter Robert Butler Doran]],<ref name="Obit"/> also commanded a brigade of the BEF; [[17th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|17th Infantry Brigade]] in the [[6th (United Kingdom) Division|6th Division]].<ref>French, chapter 2</ref> He took the brigade to France and commanded it through the [[Retreat from Mons]], the [[First Battle of the Marne|Battle of the Marne]] and the [[First Battle of the Aisne]].<ref name="Obit"/> On 20 October, one of his battalions – the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment – was surrounded during the [[Battle of La Bassée]] and effectively destroyed for lack of support;<ref>Edmonds, pp.85–86</ref> on 23 October, he was relieved of command of his brigade and sent home.<ref>The date is given by French (chapter 2) and by {{cite web|url=http://www.warstudies.bham.ac.uk/firstworldwar/research/donkey/bowes.shtml|title=William Hely Bowes|last=Bourne|first=John|publisher=Centre for First World War Studies|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The following month, Doran was assigned to command the [[68th Brigade (United Kingdom)|68th Brigade]], a group of volunteer [[Kitchener's Army|New Army]] battalions in the [[23rd Division (United Kingdom)|23rd Division]].<ref name="Obit"/> He was promoted to major-general in February 1915,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29074|page=1685|date=16 February 1915|supp=y}}</ref> and in May was given command of the [[25th Division (United Kingdom)|25th Division]], another New Army formation, which was then completing its training in England.<ref name="Obit"/> He took it to France that September, where it moved into a quiet sector of the line in late 1915. It remained in quiet sectors until May 1916, when it was moved south to [[Vimy Ridge]], and was involved in defending against [[German attack on Vimy Ridge|a German attack]].<ref name="NAM">[http://books.national-army-museum.ac.uk/25th-division-in-france-and-flanders-pr-30333.html Summary of] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812192648/http://books.national-army-museum.ac.uk/25th-division-in-france-and-flanders-pr-30333.html |date=2011-08-12 }} {{cite book|title=25th Division in France and Flanders|last=Kincaid-Smith|first=M.|year=1920}}</ref> Doran was relieved of command the following month, and transferred to home service as the commander of the Southern District in Ireland.<ref name="Obit"/>
==Post-war== In 1919, and with the war now over due to the [[armistice of 11 November 1918]], Doran was appointed to command No. 5 Area in France as part of the [[Demobilization|demobilisation]] of the [[British Armed Forces]], and retired from the army in February 1920. <ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31789|page=2151|date=20 February 1920}}</ref> Throughout the war, he had been mentioned in despatches four times.<ref name="WWW"/>
==Retirement== In retirement, Doran was appointed the [[High Sheriff]] for the county of [[Wexford]], serving from 1920 to 1921, and as a [[Deputy Lieutenant]] for the same county.<ref name="Obit"/> He lived in Wexford through his retirement, at Ely House; during the unrest leading up to the outbreak of the [[Irish Civil War]], in May 1922, he was arrested and beaten by men rumoured to represent the [[Provisional Government of the Irish Free State|Provisional Government]].<ref>Discussion in ''Hansard'', [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1922/may/30/outrages 30 May 1922 vol 154 cc1888-90]</ref> After Mary's death in 1932, he remarried an American, Florence Fairchild. He died in 1943, aged 83.<ref name="WWW"/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *"DORAN, Major-General Beauchamp John Colclough". (2007). In ''Who Was Who''. [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U224773 Online edition] * Obituary in ''The Times'', 26 November 1943, p. 7 *{{cite book|title=History of the Great War: Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914 (volume II) |authorlink=J. E. Edmonds|last=Edmonds|first=J. E.|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|year=1925|url=https://archive.org/details/3edmilitaryopera02edmouoft}} *{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24538|title=1914|last=French|first=John|year=1919|place=London|publisher=Constable}}
==External links== *{{cite TIWW |article=Doran, Major-General Beauchamp John Colclough |page=65 }}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=[[Francis Ventris]]}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding the [[25th Division (United Kingdom)|25th Division]]|years=May 1915 – June 1916}} {{s-aft|after=[[Guy Bainbridge]]}} {{end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doran, Beauchamp}} [[Category:1860 births]] [[Category:1943 deaths]] [[Category:British Army major generals]] [[Category:British Army generals of World War I]] [[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]] [[Category:Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922) officers]] [[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War]] [[Category:Deputy lieutenants of Wexford]] [[Category:British military personnel of the Hazara Expedition of 1888]] [[Category:High sheriffs of Wexford]] [[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]] [[Category:Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment officers]]