Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, KCB (16 November 186515 February 1953), was a decorated British general, later to become the father of Hollywood actor

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford ( Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary '' Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president John F. Kennedy and se ...

Early life

Lawford was born on 16 November 1865 at

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

in the county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, the son of Thomas Acland Lawford. He was educated at

Windlesham House School Windlesham House School is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13 on the South Downs, in Pulborough, West Sussex, England. It was founded in 1837 by Charles Robert Malden and was the first boys' preparatory school ...

from 1870 to 1878 and thereafter at Wellington College.

Military career

After receiving military training at

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry ...

, he received a commission into the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in the 7th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) on 7 February 1885 and was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 3 September 1894. He served in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, commanding the 19th battalion of Mounted Infantry, and was promoted to major on 21 November 1900. Following the end of the war he received the

brevet Brevet may refer to: Military * Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay * Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college * Aircre ...

rank of

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

on 22 August 1902, before he returned home on the SS ''Briton'' the following month. He received his

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

cy in 1912 and became the commandant of the School of Mounted Infantry at Longmoor. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Lawford commanded the 22nd (Infantry) Brigade on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

in 1914–1915, before being promoted to the rank of

Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

and appointed to the command of the 41st Division, part of the junior division of the

New Army The New Armies (Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu language, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was ...

from 1915 to 1919.'Douglas Haig: War Diaries & Letters 1914-1918', edited by G. Sheffield & J. Bourne (Pub. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005), pp. 103–104. His military nickname was 'Swanky Syd', apparently derived from his habit of donning full dress regalia, including all of his medal entitlement, regularly. He was knighted in the field. Field Marshal Earl

Douglas Haig Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 unti ...

noted in his personal diary in early 1915 the following assessment of Lawford as a General: "I was at Sandhurst with Lawford, ... although endowed with no great ability, he is hard fighting and plucky." After the war Lawford received promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and was posted to the British India Army. He retired in 1926.

Death

Lawford died on 15 February 1953.

Personal life

Lawford led a somewhat complicated private life. His first marriage was on 30 September 1893, at St. Paul's Church,

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Toponymy Knightsbridge is an ancient ...

, London, to Lillian Maud Cass, who died on 26 November 1900.''Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets'', by James Spada, 1992. His second marriage was on 20 May 1914 in London to Muriel Williams. While serving in India in the early 1920s, and while still married to Muriel, he fell in love with the wife of one of his officers, May Somerville Aylen (4 November 188323 January 1972), and she became pregnant with his child. Colonel Ernest Aylen, May's husband, upon hearing this news, divorced her over the scandal. General Lawford and Muriel divorced. He then married May Aylen, and their child, the actor

, was born in 1923, when his father was 58 years of age. The Lawfords returned to England. But the scandal eventually drove the family to settle in France, and they then moved to the United States in the late 1930s.''The Peter Lawford Story'', by Patricia Seaton Lawford,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1988, pp. 13–27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawford, Sydney Turing Barlow 1865 births 1953 deaths British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army generals of World War I People from Royal Tunbridge Wells Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Royal Fusiliers officers British expatriates in France British expatriates in the United States People educated at Windlesham House School People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Military personnel from Kent British Army lieutenant generals