Commanding Officers of Grenadier Guards


The commanding officers of the Grenadier Guards had a more elevated position than those of line battalions. The day to day running of the regiment was the responsibility of the battalion commanders. The following list is taken from Records and Badges of the British Army by Chichester and Burges Short (apart from Colonel Streatfeild). Whereas they list the commanding officers of the line regiments according to the separate battalions, the Guards COs were the senior officers who had overall command of the 2 or 3 battalions in the regiment. There is no information on the three battalion COs of the Grenadier Guards (apart from Ruggles-Brise) until Ponsonby's 3 volume: The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918

Commanding Officers from 1881
Edward Henry Clive
1880 -1885
Philip Smith CB
1885 - 1886
Hon William Sholto Douglas Home
1886 - 1889
Henry Trotter
1889 - 1894
Laurence James Oliphant MVO
1894 - 1899
Hon Herbert Francis Eaton
1899
Sir Henry Streatfeild
1914
Battalion Commanding Officers
1st Battalion
Colonel R Scott-Kerr CMG CB MVO DSO
1904 - 1908
Francis Lloyd
1903 - 1904
Lieut-Col M Earle DSO
Oct 1914 (wounded and captured at Ypres Oct 1914)
Lieut-Col LR Fisher-Rowe
1914
Lieutenant-Colonel C E Corkran
21 Mar 1915 - 13 July 1915
Lieut-Col G F Trotter MVO
Sep 1915
Lieut-Col ME Makgill-Crichton-Maitland
1916
Lieut-Col Viscount Gort VC GCB CBE DSO MVO MC
1918
Lieut-Col the Hon W R Bailey DSO
Oct 1918
2nd Battalion
Francis Lloyd
1899 - 1903
Field Marshal Lord Cavan KCB KP CB MVO
1908 - 1911
Lieut-Col N A L Corry DSO
Aug 1914
Lieut-Col W R A Smith CMG
Oct 1914
Lieut-Col George Darrell Jeffreys
Sep 1915
Lieut-Col C R Champion de Crespigny DSO
Sep 1916
Lieut-Col G E C Rasch DSO
June 1918
Major C F A Walker MC
Oct 1918
General Sir J N R Moore GCVO KCB CBE DSO
1944 - 45
3rd Battalion
Lieutenant-Colonel E M S Crabbe CB
1898 - Nov 1902
Lieut-Col H G Ruggles-Brise
1907-1911
Colonel N A L Corry DSO
1915
Lieut-Col B N Sergison-Brooke
April 1916
Major G F Molyneux-Montgomerie
(Temp. Sep 1915)
Lieut-Col A F A N Thorne DSO
1917
Lieut-Col the Viscount Lascelles DSO
Sep 1918
Major-General Sir Allan Shafto Adair
May to October 1940
4th Battalion
Lieut-Col G C Hamilton DSO
July 1915
Lieut-Col Lord Henry Seymour
Jan 1916
Lieut-Col Viscount Gort
1917
Lieut-Col W S Pilcher DSO
1918
Post WW2 First Battalion
Colonel Sir Thomas Butler OBE DSO
c1957
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Johnston GCVO MC
1962 - 1964
Major-General Bernard Charles Gordon Lennox CB MBE
1974 - 1976
Lieutenant Colonel James Bowder OBE
c2012 - 2013
Post WW2 Second Battalion
Major-General Miles Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk KG GCVO CB CBE MC
28 Feb 1955 - 1957


Regimental details


Armed Forces | Art and Culture | Articles | Biographies | Colonies | Discussion | Glossary | Home | Library | Links | Map Room | Sources and Media | Science and Technology | Search | Student Zone | Timelines | TV & Film | Wargames


by Stephen Luscombe