{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Use British English|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Major-General | name = Sir Geoffrey Feilding | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|KCVO|CMG|DSO}} | image = Geoffrey Feilding in 1914.jpg | caption = Feilding in 1914 | birth_date = {{birth date|1866|09|21|df=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1932|10|21|1866|09|21|df=yes}} | birth_place = London, England<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/5313367|title=Life story: Geoffrey Percy Thynne Feilding &#124; Lives of the First World War|website=livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk}}</ref> | death_place = | burial_place = | nickname = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | service_years = 1888–1927 | service_number = | rank = Major-General | unit = Coldstream Guards | commands = 56th (1st London) Division<br/>London District<br/>Guards Division<br/>1st Guards Brigade<br/>149th (Northumberland) Brigade<br/>3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards | battles = Second Boer War<br/>First World War | awards = Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath<br/>Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order<br/>Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George<br/>Distinguished Service Order<br/>Mentioned in Despatches (9) | relations = | other_work = }} Major-General '''Sir Geoffrey Percy Thynne Feilding''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|KCVO|CMG|DSO}} (21 September 1866 – 21 October 1932) was a senior British Army officer who served as Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding London District from 1918 to 1920.

==Early life== Born on 21 September 1866 in South Kensington, London, Feilding was the son of Hon. Sir Percy Feilding (son of the 7th Earl of Denbigh), who fought with the Coldstream Guards during the Crimean War, and his wife Lady Louisa Isabella Harriet Thynne, eldest daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Bath.<ref name=mosley>Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.</ref> He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.angloboerwar.com/index.php?option=com_grid&gid=22_uw_0&p=17|title=Fielding, Geoffrey Percy Thynne|publisher=Anglo-Boer War|access-date=16 May 2026}}</ref>

==Early military career== Feilding was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in April 1888,<ref name=lh>{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/FEILDING.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925214130/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/FEILDING.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 September 2012 |title=Feilding, Sir Geoffrey Percy Thynne|publisher=Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives|accessdate=16 June 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Davies|Maddocks|2014|p=137}} promoted to lieutenant on 27 November 1890, and again to lieutenant from supernumerary lieutenant in August 1895,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26681|page=6252|date=19 November 1895}}</ref> and lastly to captain, on augmentation, on 6 April 1898.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=26954|page=2211| date=5 April 1898}}</ref> He had been seconded for service on the staff in July 1893<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26428|page=4356|date=1 August 1893}}</ref> and was appointed an extra aide-de-camp to Robert Duff (British politicians.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26423|page=4050|date=18 July 1893}}</ref>

He served in the early part of the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1900 and was present in the engagements at Belmont in November 1899, being mentioned in dispatches twice, and received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).{{sfn|Davies|Maddocks|2014|p=137}}<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11343|page=1078|date=1 October 1901|city=e}}</ref> In February 1901 he was made an aide-de-camp to Major General M. W. Willson.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27293|page=1769|date=17 March 1901}}</ref> He returned to South Africa in 1902, commanding a battalion of mounted infantry, and was granted the local rank of major on 20 April 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27442|page=3900| date=13 June 1902}}</ref>

Following the end of the war in June 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom on board the SS ''Ortona'', which arrived in Southampton in September that year.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa - Troops returning Home |date=1 September 1902 |page=6 |issue=36861}}</ref>

He was promoted from supernumary captain to captain in March 1903<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27537|page=1984|date=24 March 1903}}</ref> and again to major in November 1903<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27633|page=109|date=5 January 1904}}</ref> and in June 1908 became commandant of the Guards Depot at Caterham, Surrey.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28146|page=4324|date=12 June 1908}}</ref>

In September 1912 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28641|page=6535|date=3 September 1912}}</ref>

==First World War== [[File:The Battle of the Somme, July-november 1916 Q994 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|King George V with General Sir Douglas Haig, C-in-C British Expeditionary Force, and Major General Feilding, GOC Guards Division, at Beauquesne, France, 12 August 1916.]]

Fielding later served in the First World War, being mentioned in despatches seven times.<ref name=mosley/>

He was still the battalion's CO almost two years later, after the British entry into World War I, and led it in the opening stages of the war.<ref name=lh/> After being promoted to brevet colonel in February 1915,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29074|page=1691|date=16 February 1915|supp=y}}</ref> and the temporary rank of brigadier general in late April,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29162|page=4652|date=14 May 1915}}</ref> he went on to succeed Brigadier General James Foster Riddell as commander of the 149th (Northumberland) Brigade, part of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, after Riddell was killed in action. He was only there for a few weeks before being moved to command of the 1st Guards Brigade in June.<ref name=lh/>{{sfn|Davies|Maddocks|2014|p=137}}

[[File:The British Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q9185.jpg|thumb|right|Commanding officers of the Guards Division presented to Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, at divisional headquarters at Bavincourt, France, 30 June 1918.]]

After a promotion to temporary major general in early January 1916,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29475|page=1695|date=15 February 1916}}</ref> he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Guards Division from 1916, commanding it until September 1918.<ref name=lh/> Under his command, the division fought at the Battle of the Somme, including the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the Battle of Cambrai in late 1917 and in the German spring offensives which began in March 1918.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/guards-division/|title=The Guards Division|publisher=The Long, Long Trail|access-date=21 December 2025}}</ref> He was promoted to substantive colonel in September 1916<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29734|page=8691|date=1 September 1916|supp=y}}</ref> while his major general's rank became substantive in January 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30450|page=9|date=28 December 1917|supp=y}}</ref>

Towards the end of the war Feilding became Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and GOC of the London District, taking over from Lieutenant General Sir Francis Lloyd, on 1 October.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30957|page=12233|date=15 October 1918|supp=y}}</ref>{{sfn|Davies|Maddocks|2014|p=138}}

A war memorial, unveiled by Feilding, honours the battlefield at Ginchy where many British soldiers from the Guards Division fell during the Somme battle in 1916.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/guillemont.html|publisher=World War I Battlefields|title=Guillemont|accessdate=7 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423185924/http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/guillemont.html|archive-date=23 April 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Later life== In June 1923 he was made GOC 56th (1st London) Division, taking over from Major General Sir Cecil Pereira.<ref name="lh" /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32838|page=4518|date=29 June 1923|supp=y}}</ref> Feilding retired from the army in June 1927.<ref name="lh" /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32286|page=3977|date=21 June 1927}}</ref>

He died in 1932, at the age of 66, and is buried at St. Editha's Church in Monks Kirby.<ref>[http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/WARWICK/2004-07/1090264991 Roots.web]</ref>

==Bibliography== *{{Cite book|first1=Frank|last1=Davies|first2=Graham|last2=Maddocks|title=Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918|location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire|publisher=Leo Cooper|year=2014|orig-year=1995|isbn=978-1-78346-237-7}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Geoffrey Feilding}}

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=The Earl of Cavan}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC Guards Division|years=1916–1918}} {{s-aft|after=Torquhil Matheson}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir Francis Lloyd}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC London District|years=1918–1920}} {{s-aft|after={{nowrap|Sir George Jeffreys}}}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir Cecil Pereira}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 56th (1st London) Division|years=1923–1927}} {{s-aft|after=Hubert Isacke}} {{s-end}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Feilding, Geoffrey}} Category:1866 births Category:1932 deaths Category:British Army major generals Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Category:British Army generals of World War I Category:Coldstream Guards officers Category:Burials in Warwickshire Geoffrey Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Category:People from South Kensington