Geoffry Scoones

File:Battalion Training at Tucker's Town Bermuda of the 3rd Battalion Royal Fusiliers.jpg, Bermuda, in 1904]]

Scoones was born in Karachi, British India, the eldest son of Fitzmaurice Thomas Favre Scoones of the Royal Fusiliers and his wife, Florence Osborne, who was born in New South Wales, Australia. His younger brother was Sir Reginald "Cully" Scoones.

In 1901 Scoones, with his father, his mother, and his brothers Thomas, Valentine (who would die aged 20 on 18 August 1916, as a Second-Lieutenant, acting Captain, in the 3rd Battalion of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)),{{cite web |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/667805/f-v-scoones |title=Second Lieutenant F V SCOONES |author= |date= |website=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=2021-12-21 |quote=Died 18 August 1916. Buried or commemorated at CROMARTY CEMETERY, E. 1. United Kingdom}}{{cite web |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205388361 |title=Photographs: Second Lieutenant Fitzmaurice Valentine Scoones |author= |date= |website=Imperial War Museum |publisher=Imperial War Museum |access-date=2021-12-21}} and Reginald, lived in the parish of Heston, in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, at The Hermitage, Sutton Lane.[https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101260544-the-hermitage-heston-east-ward#.XhjhXvenzeM The Hermitage. British Listed Buildings] His father was posted to the Bermuda Garrison with the 3rd Battalion the Royal Fusiliers, arriving aboard the troopship Dominion at the start of December 1903, along with Major CJ Stanton, Lieutenant F Moore, and Second-Lieutenant George Ernest Hawes of the same battalion (the remainder of the battalion of sixteen officers, one warrant officer, and 937 non-commissioned officers and other ranks under Lieutenant-Colonel Gaisford, arrived separately on the troopship HMT Dunera from Egypt). The battalion was first posted to Boaz Island.The Royal Gazette, Hamilton, Bermuda. 5 December 1903 His father was subsequently appointed Camp Commandant, Warwick Camp. A detachment of 112 men of the 3rd Battalion under Major Scoones departed from the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda aboard the troopship Kensington'' on 13 October 1905, for Aldershot, along with the 3rd Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, 3rd Company Royal Engineers, a detachment of 36 Company Royal Engineers, and various time-served and other personnel. Scoones was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Scoones was commissioned a second lieutenant on the unattached list for the Indian Army on 20 January 1912.{{London Gazette|issue=28573|page=452|date=19 January 1912}}{{cite web|url=https://www.unithistories.com/officers/IndianArmy_officers_S01.html#Scoones_GAP|title=Indian Army officer histories|publisher=Unit Histories}} He was accepted into the Indian Army and appointed to the 2nd Battalion 2nd (King Edward VII's Own) Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) on 8 March 1913.{{London Gazette|issue=28738|page=5144|date=18 July 1913}} He was promoted to lieutenant on 20 April 1914.{{London Gazette|issue=28840|page=4706|date=16 June 1914}} He saw active service in the First World War, becoming aide-de-camp to the Commander of Meerut Division, then aide-de-camp to the commander 21st Division and finally aide-de-camp to the Army Corps Commander, 2nd Army Corps in France, between 8 September 1915 and 10 July 1917.Quarterly Army List for quarter ending 31 March 1922 Promoted to captain on 20 January 1916,{{London Gazette|issue=30084|page=4946|date=22 May 1917}} he became a brigade major in India on 27 October 1917.Indian Army List Supplement 1941 He was mentioned in despatches three times and awarded the Distinguished Service Order{{London Gazette|issue=30111|page=5473|supp=y|date=1 June 1917}} and the Military Cross.London Gazette 1 January 1916)

After the war, Scoones saw service during the Afghanistan North West Frontier operations in 1919. After attending the Staff College, Quetta from 1922 to 1923, he served as a brigade major in India from 3 March 1924 to 30 November 1926 and then became a general staff officer. Promoted to brevet major on 7 January 1925,{{London Gazette|issue=33009|page=140|date=6 January 1925}} he transferred to the 1st Battalion 2nd Gurkha Rifles on 22 January 1928 He was promoted to major on 20 January 1929,{{London Gazette|issue=33475|page=1679|date=8 March 1929}} and to brevet lieutenant colonel on 1 January 1933.{{London Gazette|issue=33899|page=51|date=3 January 1933}} After attending the Imperial Defence College, from 14 February 1935 to 23 April 1938 he was made commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion the 8th Gurkha Rifles.[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/SCOONES.shtml Sir Geoffry Allen Percival Scoones] Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for earthquake work at Quetta in 1935.The London Gazette, 19 November 1935

Scoones served in the Second World War initially as a general staff officer on the Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence. On 17 May 1940 he was appointed deputy director of military operations, India.{{sfn|Mead|2007|p=414}} The following year, he became director of military operations and intelligence, India.

File:General Slim at Airstrip, Imphal (film frame) JFU127.jpg

In 1942, Scoones briefly commanded the Indian 19th Infantry Division{{oob person | id = 392 | name = Geoffrey Scoones }} before being promoted to lieutenant-general and appointed to command IV Corps, part of William Slim's Fourteenth Army.{{sfn|Mead|2007|p=414}} This corps defended Imphal in Manipur, on the frontier between India and Japanese-held Burma. It also had responsibility for a large rearguard area, and a very large tract of unmapped and trackless jungle-covered frontier. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in 1942.{{London Gazette|issue=35586|page=2478|date=5 June 1942}}

Scoones commanded the corps through the gruelling Battle of Imphal.{{sfn|Mead|2007|pp=415–416}} In December 1944 he and his fellow corps commanders Stopford and Christison were knighted and invested as Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the viceroy Lord Wavell at a ceremony at Imphal in front of the Scottish, Gurkha and Punjab regiments.London Gazette 28 September 1944{{sfn|Mead|2007|p=426}} Slim was knighted and invested as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath at the same occasion. Slim valued Scoones as a defensive commander, but when the Fourteenth Army went onto the offensive after Imphal he wanted a more aggressive and less calculating commander for IV Corps.{{sfn|Mead|2007|p=416}} Scoones was appointed to Central Command, India.

In 1947 Scoones was briefly the last Military Secretary to the India Office.[https://books.google.com/books?id=YSK8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22General+Sir+John+Coleridge%22&pg=PA265 The military in British India: the development of British Land Forces in South Asia, 1600–1947 By T. A. Heathcote, Page265] Manchester University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-7190-3570-8}} He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1947,{{London Gazette|issue=37835|page=3|supp=y|date=31 December 1946}} and later in the year he became Principal Staff Officer at the Commonwealth Relations Office. Between 1947 and 1949 he was also aide-de-camp to King George VI. From 1953 to 1957, he was High Commissioner to New Zealand.{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=416}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book| first=Richard| last=Mead| title=Churchill's Lions: a biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II| year=2007| publisher=Spellmount| location=Stroud (UK)| isbn=978-1-86227-431-0}}
• {{cite book| first=Nick| last=Smart| title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War| isbn=1844150496| year=2005| location=Barnesley| publisher=Pen & Sword}}
• {{cite book | title=Indian Army List Supplement 1941}}
• {{cite book | title=Quarterly Army List for quarter ending 31st March 1922}}
• [https://generals.dk/general/Scoones/Geoffry_Allen_Percival/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]

{{s-start}}

{{s-mil}}

{{s-bef|before=John Smyth}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC 19th Indian Infantry Division|years=1941–1942}}

{{s-aft|after=Thomas Rees}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Noel Irwin}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC IV Corps|years=1942–1944}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir Frank Messervy}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Henry Willcox}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC-in-C Central Command, India|years=1944–1946}}

{{s-non|reason=Post abolished|rows=2}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Sir Mosley Mayne}}

{{s-ttl|title=Military Secretary to the India Office|years=1947}}

{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scoones, Geoffrey}}

Category:1893 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire

Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Category:Indian Army generals of World War II

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India

Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Category:Recipients of the Military Cross

Category:British Indian Army generals

Category:Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies

Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta

Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I

Category:Military personnel from London

Category:High commissioners of the United Kingdom to New Zealand