Louis Bols


Louis Jean Bols was a British Army General, he served as Edmund Allenby's Third Army Chief of Staff on the Western front and Sinai and Palestine campaigns of World War I.

Early life

Bols was born in Cape Town and educated at Lancing College in England.

Military career

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment on 5 February 1887, and was promoted to lieutenant on 22 September 1889. In 1891-92 he served in Burma, including operations in the Kachin Hills, and received the operational medal with clasp. In 1895 he served with the Chitral Relief Force under Sir Robert Low as adjutant and quartermaster at the British Military Depot. Promotion to captain followed on 18 January 1897, and he served as adjutant of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment from 17 February 1899.
Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, his battalion was sent to South Africa, where he served as adjutant of the battalion throughout the war. He was present at the battles of Colenso, Vaal Krantz, Tugela Heights and Pieter's Hill and the Relief of Ladysmith, and later in operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. For his services in the war, he was twice mentioned in despatches, received the Queen's South Africa Medal and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. After peace was declared in May 1902, Bols left South Africa on board the SS Bavarian and arrived in the United Kingdom the following month.
He took command of the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1914 at the start of the First World War.
At the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 Bols held the command of the 84th Brigade. Later in that year he was attached to Headquarters of Third Army, as General Sir Edmund Allenby's Chief of Staff, and served in the latter capacity, both on the Western Front in 1916, and in 1917–18 in Palestine.
From January to June 1920 he served as the Chief Administrator of Palestine, and signed over power to Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner of Palestine, in an often-quoted document:
Bols went on to become General Officer Commanding 43rd Infantry Division in September 2020. From 1927 to his death he was Governor of Bermuda and Commander-in-Chief of the Bermuda Garrison. He also served as colonel of the Devonshire Regiment from 1921 to his death.
Bols died in his 63rd year on 13 September 1930 in a nursing home in the city of Bath, Somerset.

Personal life

He married Augusta Blanche Strickland on 14 October 1897. The marriage produced two sons, Major-General Eric Bols, and Maj. Kenneth Bols.