Eric Thesiger

Born in London in February 1874,[2] Thesiger was the fourth son of Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford and his wife Adria Fanny Heath, daughter of Major-General John Coussamker Heath.[3] His older brothers were Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford and the diplomat Wilfred Gilbert Thesiger.[3] Thesiger was educated at Winchester College and in 1884, he was nominated Page of Honour to the Queen, a post he fulfilled for the following six years.[4] In 1893, he became a Staff Commissioner of Police.[4]

Thesiger joined the Imperial Yeomanry as a private during the Second Boer War,[5] when he was appointed a lieutenant of the 15th Battalion (Imperial Yeomanry) on 29 November 1900.[6] On 1 November 1901 he was promoted to captain in the battalion, with the temporary rank of captain in the Army.[7] He stayed in South Africa until the war ended in June 1902, left Port Elizabeth for Southampton on the SS Colombian the following month,[8] and relinquished his commission in the Imperial Yeomanry on 3 September 1902, when he was granted the honorary rank of captain in the Army.[9] In late 1902 he became a second lieutenant of the Surrey Yeomanry.[10] He was transferred as major from the Yeomanry into the Territorial Force in 1908.[11] In the First World War Thesiger was wounded twice and was mentioned in despatches as many times.[4]

He was appointed to the 10th Battalion, Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1917,[12] commanding it until 1918, and subsequently the 10th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment for another year.[13] In March of the latter year, he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)[14] and in August, he received the Territorial Decoration (TD).[15] He was made an Officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium and also awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre in October[16] and some days later, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.[17]

He retired from the Territorial Army in 1929, having reached the age limit.[18]

On 29 October 1904, he married firstly Pearl Marie Coupland, only daughter of John Coupland, and had by her a daughter and two sons.[1] She died in 1922, and Thesiger remarried Sydney Hilda Hutton-Croft, daughter of George Arthur Hutton-Croft on 3 October 1929, but she died only a year later.[1] He married thirdly Mary Pudsey, daughter of Reverend F. W. Pudsey, on 27 March 1953.[1] His third wife sadly also died the next year, and Thesiger survived her until 1961.[1]

• Portraits of Hon. Eric Richard Thesiger at the National Portrait Gallery, London