{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] | name = Richard Pope-Hennessy | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|DSO}} | birth_date = 18 August 1875 | birth_place = [[London, England]], [[United Kingdom]] | death_date = 1 March 1942 (aged 66) | death_place = [[London, England]] [[United Kingdom]] | image = 1927 Richard Pope-Hennessy.jpg | caption = Richard Pope-Hennessy in 1927 | nickname = | service_years = | service_number = | rank = [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] | branch = [[British Army]] | current position = | commands = 4th Battalion, [[King's African Rifles]]<br>1st Bn, the [[Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]]<br>[[50th (Northumbrian) Division]] | unit = | known_for = [[Sotik Massacre]] | battles = [[Second Boer War]]<br>[[World War I|First World War]] | awards = [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]<br>[[Distinguished Service Order]] | other_work = }} Major-General '''Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|DSO}} (18 August 1875 – 1 March 1942) was a [[British Army]] officer of Irish Catholic descent who served in both the [[Second Boer War]] and [[First World War]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=FamilySearch.org |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L6FP-TY3/ladislaus-herbert-richard-pope-hennessy-1875-1942 |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=ancestors.familysearch.org}}</ref> In 1905, he led a [[Sotik Massacre|punitive expedition]] which resulted in the killings of 1,850 men, women and children of the [[Kipsigis people|Kipsigis]] tribe.
==Background== [[File:John Pope Hennessy family.jpg|thumb|left|A young Richard, pictured with his parents]] Pope-Hennessy was the eldest son of [[John Pope Hennessy|Sir John Pope-Hennessy MP]], of [[Rostellan|Rostellan Castle]], [[County Cork]] and Catherine Elizabeth Low. He was educated at [[Beaumont College]].<ref name=thom>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5_HDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208|title=Thom's Irish who's who|page=208|publisher=Alexander Thom|year=1923}}</ref>
==Military career== Pope-Hennessy was commissioned into the [[Oxfordshire Light Infantry]] in 1895.<ref name=thom/> He was deployed to [[South Africa]] and served with the [[West African Frontier Force]] during the [[Second Boer War]].<ref name=thom/>
In June 1905, in response to attacks on native [[Maasai people]] by the [[Kipsigis people|Kipsigis]] people in the [[East Africa Protectorate]], Pope-Hennessy led an expedition to subdue the latter. During the expedition, Pope-Hennessy's men raided the town of [[Sotik]], resulting in a [[Sotik Massacre|massacre]] which involved the deaths of 1,850 men, women and children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=London Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28119/page/1962/data.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/how-sotik-massacre-koitalel-area-to-white-settlers-3696378|title=How Sotik massacre, Koitalel killing opened area to white settlers|date=28 February 2022|newspaper=Buinness Daily|access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref>
Following the success of the expedition, Pope-Hennessy, promoted to major in March 1906,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11866|page=986|date=21 September 1906|city=e}}</ref> was made commandant of the 4th Battalion, [[King's African Rifles]] in 1906 for which service was appointed a Companion of the [[Distinguished Service Order]] in 1908.<ref name="thom" />
During the [[World War I|First World War]] he became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion the [[Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]] in [[Mesopotamia]] in 1916 and then became a staff officer with the [[British Indian Army]] in 1917.<ref name=thom/><ref name=Wassermann>James Wassermann (ed.): ''Secret Societies: Illuminati, Freemasons and the French Revolution''. Nicolas Hayes, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0892541324}}, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=S3GaL4BOSUoC&pg=PA49 49-50]</ref>
After the war he was promoted to brevet colonel in January 1919<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31210|page=2996|date=28 February 1919|supp=y}}</ref> and, promoted again, now to colonel (with seniority backdated to January 1919<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32044|page=9120|date=7 September 1920|supp=y}}</ref>), he served as a staff officer at the [[War Office]] and then was Military Inter-Allied Commissioner of Control in [[Berlin]]. Subsequently, he spent three years as military [[attaché]] in [[Washington D.C.]]<ref>The Times House of Commons, 1935</ref> He was promoted to substantive major general in August 1930<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33639|page=5358|date=29 August 1930}}</ref> and became general Officer Commanding [[50th (Northumbrian) Division]] in 1931 before retiring in 1935.<ref name=commands>{{cite web|url=https://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf|title=Army Commands|accessdate=1 June 2020}}</ref>
Pope-Hennessy published a number of books an articles on military matters and in one of them he predicted the technique of the German [[Blitzkrieg]].<ref name=Wassermann/>
==Political career== He took particular interest in military matters and in issues affecting his native Ireland. In 1919 he had published 'The Irish Dominion: a Method of Approach to a Settlement'.<ref name=thom/> He was Liberal candidate for the [[Tonbridge (UK Parliament constituency)|Tonbridge]] Division of Kent at the 1935 General Election. Tonbridge was a safe Conservative seat that they had won at every election since it was created in 1918. The Liberal Party had not fielded a candidate at the previous general election and he was not expected to win and finished a poor third.<ref name=results/> {{Election box begin ||title=[[1935 United Kingdom general election|General Election 1935]]: Tonbridge<ref name=results>British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F. W. S.</ref> Electorate 56,106 }} {{Election box candidate with party link |party = Conservative Party (UK) |candidate = [[Herbert Henry Spender-Clay|Rt Hon. Herbert Henry Spender-Clay]] |votes = 23,460 |percentage = 61.3 |change = }} {{Election box candidate with party link |party = Labour Party (UK) |candidate = F M Landau |votes = 9,405 |percentage = 24.6 |change = }} {{Election box candidate with party link |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = '''Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy''' |votes = 5,403 |percentage = 14.1 |change = }} {{Election box majority |votes = 14,055 |percentage = 36.7 |change = }} {{Election box turnout |votes = |percentage = 68.2 |change = }} {{Election box hold with party link |winner = Conservative Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}}
==Personal life== He married, in 1910, [[Una Pope-Hennessy|Una Birch]] a writer, historian and biographer. They had two sons,<ref name=thom/> both of whom were gay: [[James Pope-Hennessy|James]], who became a writer, and [[John Pope-Hennessy|Sir John]], an art historian.<ref>[[Peter Quennell|Quennell, P.]], Introduction to ''A Lonely Business – A Self-Portrait of James Pope-Hennessy'', 1981, p. xv.</ref>
[[File:Friary Churchyard of St Francis and St Anthony, Crawley, 2017.jpg|thumb|Friary Churchyard of St Francis and St Anthony, Crawley, 2017]]
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=[[Henry Newcome (British Army officer)|Henry Newcome]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[50th (Northumbrian) Division|GOC 50th (Northumbrian) Division]]|years=1931–1935}} {{s-aft|after=[[William Norman Herbert|William Herbert]]}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:POPE-HENNESSY, Ladislaus Herbert Richard}} [[Category:1875 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:Burials in West Sussex]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]] [[Category:British Army major generals]] [[Category:British mass murderers]] [[Category:20th-century British murderers]] [[Category:British murderers of children]] [[Category:Military attachés for the United Kingdom]] [[Category:British war criminals]] [[Category:British white supremacists]] [[Category:Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers]] [[Category:King's African Rifles officers]] [[Category:Military personnel from County Cork]] [[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]] [[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]] [[Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]