Page:Generals of the British Army.djvu/84

 IV LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR CHARLES FERGUSSON, BART., K.C.B., M.V.O., D.S.O. E~UTEN ANT-GENERAL SIR CHARLES FERGUSSON, Bt., K.C.B., M.V.O., D.S.O., was born January, 1865. He entered the Grenadier Guards in 1883, and became Captain in 1895. In 1896 he was attached to the Egyptian Army, serving with the loth Soudanese Battalion until 1898. With them he went through the Dongola Expedition of 1896, and the Nile Expeditions of 1897 and 1898, being severely wounded in the latter. For his work in these expeditions he was mentioned in despatches five times, won the Egyptian Medal and seven clasps, as well as the D.S.O., and received Brevet of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Colonel. In 1899 he commanded the i5th Soudanese on the Nile and won another clasp to the Egyptian medal, as well as the Second Class of the Modjidie Order. After the fighting he commanded the garrison and district of Omdurman in 1900, and from 1901 to 1903 was Adjutant- General of the Egyptian Army. Returning to England he commanded the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards until 1907, the year in which the M.V.O. was bestowed upon him. It was the year, too, in which he became Brigadier-General on the General Staff of the Irish Command, a position which he held until 1908. In September, 1908, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and with this rank he held the post of Inspector of Infantry between 1909 and 1912. In 1913 he was appointed to the command of the 5th Division, with which he proceeded to France with the original Expeditionary Force. The 5th Division fought on the left of the line at Mons, and on the morning of the 24th had need of all the skill of its commander to