Cecil Romer

Romer was born in Kensington, London, the son of Lord Justice Robert Romer and Betty Lemon, daughter of Mark Lemon, editor of Punch. His elder brother was Mark Romer, Baron Romer. He was educated at Eton College. His sister, Helen Mary, married Lord Chancellor Frederic Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant

File:The German Spring Offensive, March-july 1918 Q300.jpg and General Sir Henry Horne inspecting men of the 2/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, 59th Division, at Gauchin, 30 March 1918. They are accompanied by Brigadier General T. G. Cope and Major General Cecil Romer, GOC 59th Division.]]

Romer was commissioned into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers as a second lieutenant on 1 March 1890,{{London Gazette|issue=27051|page=869|date=10 February 1899}} promoted lieutenant on 23 August 1893, and captain on 19 October 1898. He served in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1902, was wounded in early 1900,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War - Casualties|date=29 March 1900 |page=8 |issue=36102}} and received the brevet rank of major on 29 November 1900.[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/ROMER.shtml Sir Cecil Francis Romer] Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives Following the war he was seconded as an adjutant of volunteers in February 1902,{{London Gazette|issue=27425 |page=2505 |date=15 April 1902}} but only a few months later he was on 19 June 1902 appointed brigade major to the 13th Brigade, in Dublin.{{London Gazette|issue=27454|page=4512| date=15 July 1902}} He went on to become a General Staff Officer in 1904.

During the First World War, Romer, promoted to temporary colonel in November 1914,{{London Gazette|issue=28961|page=8884|date=3 November 1914}} fought on the Western Front. In February 1915 he was made a CB.{{London Gazette|issue=12780|page=357|date=5 March 1915|city=e}} In July he was promoted to temporary brigadier general and succeeded Major General Arthur Lynden-Bell as brigadier general, general staff of III Corps.{{London Gazette|issue=29267|page=8244|date=17 August 1915|supp=y}} Promoted in April 1917 to temporary major general,{{London Gazette|issue=30074|page=4774|date=15 May 1917|supp=y}} he was general officer commanding (GOC) of the 59th (2nd North Midland) Division between then and 1918.[http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/nicknames/romer.htm University of Birmingham]Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2b: The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th), with the Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions, London: HM Stationery Office, 1937/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, {{ISBN|1-847347-39-8}}, p. 17.

Romer, promoted in January 1919 to substantive major general,{{London Gazette|issue=31097|page=87|date=31 December 1918|supp=y}} became GOC 1st Division at Aldershot in 1926. He was then elevated to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command in 1928 and to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Command in March 1931.{{London Gazette|issue=33696|page=1534|date=6 March 1931}} In 1933, he was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces: he relinquished this appointment and retired from the army in March 1935.{{London Gazette|issue=34138|page=1466|date=1 March 1935}}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC 59th (2nd North Midland) Division|years=1917–1918}}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC 1st Division|years=1926–1928}}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC-in-C Western Command|years=1928–1931}}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC-in-C Southern Command|years=1931–1933}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Adjutant General|years=1933–1935}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir Harry Knox}}

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Category:1869 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:People from Kensington

Category:People educated at Eton College

Category:British Army generals of World War I

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:Royal Dublin Fusiliers officers

Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War

Category:British Army generals