General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Sir Kenneth Wigram, (5 December 1875 – 11 July 1949) was a

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

officer. From 1931 to 1934 he was

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Afghanistan) * Chief of the General Staff (Albania) * C ...

of the Indian Army. From 1934 to 1936 he was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command in India.

Military career

Wigram was the son of Herbert Wigram, Indian Civil Service, and younger brother of

Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram, (5 July 1873 – 3 September 1960) was a British Indian Army officer and courtier. He was Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1931 to 1936. Parentage and education Wigram was the son of Herbert Wigram. His ...

. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and was commissioned from the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

as a Second Lieutenant, with a view to his appointment to the Indian Staff Corps on 22 January 1896, and was eventually posted to the

2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) The 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) was a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army before being transferred to the British Army on India's independence in 1947. The 4th Battalion joined the Indian Army as the 5th Bat ...

. He saw active service on North West Frontier of India from 1897 to 1898 and again from 1901 to 1902 before serving in Tibet from 1903 to 1904.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Wigram was a major serving as a staff officer at the Indian Army headquarters. He remained in staff posts during the war, including in June 1915 when he was made a GSO2, until February 1917 when he was promoted to temporary brigadier general and appointed Head of Operations (B) Section at the General Headquarters of the British Army in France. He was promoted to brevet colonel in January 1918. Later that year, at the start of October, he was granted an RAF commission as a temporary brigadier general and he served on the Air Staff until April 1919 when he returned to the Army. He was appointed Director of Staff Duties at Army Headquarters in India in 1919, Commander of the

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Brigade Area in 1922 and Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General at Northern Command in India in 1924. He went on to be Commander of the

Waziristan Waziristan (Persian language, Persian, Pashto, Ormuri, , ) is a mountainous region of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Waziristan region administratively splits among three districts: North Waziristan, Lower South Waziristan Dis ...

District in 1926, Chief of the General Staff in India in 1931 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, India in 1934 before retiring in 1936. He was appointed Colonel of the Colonel of the 2nd K.E. VII's Gurkha Rifles in 1930. He relinquished his appointment as Colonel of the 2nd K.E. VII's Gurkha Rifles, 5 Dec. 1945.THE LONDON GAZETTE, 11 JANUARY 1946

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wigram, Kenneth Royal Air Force generals of World War I 1875 births 1949 deaths Indian Staff Corps officers Royal Gurkha Rifles officers British Indian Army generals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of the Star of India Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst People educated at Winchester College Indian Army generals of World War I English cricketers Europeans cricketers British people in colonial India