John Shea (Indian Army officer)

File:British generals Jerusalem 1918 AWM A02746A.jpeg, Rennie MacInnes, Malcolm Donald Murray, HRH the Duke of Connaught, Major General J S M Shea, Sir E S Bulfin, General Sir Harry Chauvel, Sir Philip Chetwode
(March 19, 1918).]]

Educated at Sedbergh School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[http://www.angloboerwar.com/index.php?option=com_grid&gid=22_uw_0&p=47 Anglo-Boer War] Shea was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment as a second lieutenant in February 1888.[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/SHEA.shtml Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea] Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

He was promoted to lieutenant on 11 February 1890,Hart's Army list, 1903 and the following year transferred to the Indian Army where he was posted to the 15th Bengal Lancers. He saw action with the Chitral Expedition in 1895, and was promoted to captain on 11 February 1899.

The Second Boer War started in South Africa later the same year, and Shea was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for leading 200 South Australians in a night attack on Commandant Jan Smuts's laager.[http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1113468 Desert Column] For his service in the latter parts of the war, he received a brevet promotion to major on 22 August 1902.{{London Gazette| issue = 27490 |page=6907 | date = 31 October 1902 }} He became an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in 1906, the same year he was promoted to major.{{London Gazette|issue=27913|page=3363|date=15 May 1906}}

He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in July 1912.{{London Gazette|issue=28625|page=4973|date=9 July 1912}}

File:General-John-Shea-and-staff-9 December-2017-Jerusalem-Matson-Photo-Service.jpg

Shea served in the First World War, initially as a staff officer, first with the British Expeditionary Force and then with the 6th Division when he succeeded Colonel William Furse as the division's GSO1, or chief of staff.{{London Gazette|issue=29042|page=582|date=15 January 1915|supp=y}} In February 1915 he was made a CV.{{London Gazette|issue=12780|page=357|date=5 March 1915|city=e}} In July he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general{{London Gazette|issue=29263|page=8106|date=13 August 1915|supp=y}} and became commander of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division's 151st (Durham Light Infantry) Brigade, a Territorial Force formation, which had recently arrived on the Western Front. He was made a temporary major general in May 1916{{London Gazette|issue=29625|page=5988|date=16 June 1917}} and became general officer commanding (GOC) of the 30th Division, a Kitchener's Army formation, which he led in the Battle of the Somme later that year. After being promoted to substantive major general in March 1917,{{London Gazette|issue=29987|page=2701|date=16 March 1917|supp=y}} GOC 60th (2/2nd London) Division in Palestine in August 1917. He commanded the division at the Battle of Mughar Ridge in November 1917, at the Battle of Jerusalem in December 1917 and at the First Battle of Amman in March 1918.{{cite web|last=Baker|first=Chris|publisher=The Long Long Trail|title=British Divisions of 1914–1918|url=http://www.1914-1918.net/60div.htm}}

On 9 December 1917 he received the keys of the city of Jerusalem, an act symbolising its surrender by the mayor Hussein al-Husayni, after many other generals refused to take this responsibility.{{cite book|last1=Jacobson|first1=Abigail|title=From Empire To Empire|publisher=Syracuse University Press|page=130}} He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1919 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=31093|date=31 December 1918|page=51|supp=y}}

After the War he became a corps commander in Palestine in 1918, GOC 3rd (Indian) Division in 1919 and, promoted in January 1921 to lieutenant general,{{London Gazette|issue=32369|page=5083|date=24 June 1921|supp=y}} became GOC Central Provinces District in India in 1921. He relinquished this position in January 1923{{London Gazette|issue=32824|page=3531|date=18 May 1923}} and went on to be adjutant general, India in 1924 and, after relinquishing this appointment,{{London Gazette|issue=33396|page=4270|date=22 June 1928|supp=y}} General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, India in 1928 before retiring from the army in 1932.

In retirement, he served as the Commissioner for London Boy Scouts from 1936 to 1948.{{cite book |last=Nevill |first=Percy Bantock |author-link=P. B. Nevill |date=1966 |title=Scouting in London, 1908-1965 |publisher=London Scout Council |page=202 }}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC 60th (2/2nd London) Division|years=1917–1919}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Adjutant-General, India|years=1924–1928}}

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{{s-ttl|title=GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, India|years=1928–1932}}

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Category:1869 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:Academics of the Staff College, Quetta

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Category:People educated at Sedbergh School

Category:Indian Army cavalry generals of World War I

Category:British military personnel of the Chitral Expedition

Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Category:British Indian Army generals

Category:Canadian military personnel from Newfoundland and Labrador

Category:British people in colonial India

Category:19th-century British Army personnel