Cecil Bingham


Sir Cecil Edward Bingham was a British Army officer who held high command during World War I.

Military career

The son of Charles Bingham, 4th Earl of Lucan, Bingham was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 3rd The King's Own Hussars in September 1882 and transferred to the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards in 1886 and the 1st Regiment of Life Guards in 1892. He served in the Second Boer War in 1900 as aide-de-camp to Major-General John French, commanding the Cavalry division.
After returning home, he became senior aide-de-Camp to the Prince [Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn|Duke of Connaught] during his Indian Tour in 1903. Promoted to brevet colonel in November 1906, and lieutenant colonel a month later, he was, after being appointed as a CVO in June 1909, promoted to temporary brigadier general and appointed to the command of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade in succession to Brigadier General Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe in November 1910 and commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in November 1911.
He served in World War I as Commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade with the British Expeditionary Force and then as General Officer Commanding 1st [Cavalry Division (United Kingdom)|1st Cavalry Division] from May 1915, three months after being promoted to major general. In October 1915 he was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general and became general officer commanding of the Cavalry Corps in France, relinquishing command in March 1916 in order to take over command of the reserve centre at Ripon. In November 1916 he was appointed to command 73rd Division, a formation composed of Home Service men of the Territorial Force, which was stationed in Essex and Hertfordshire for coastal defence. He relinquished this command in April 1917, and was transferred to take command of the 67th (2nd Home Counties) Division. He held this command until the division was disbanded in 1919.

Family

In 1884 he married Rose Ellinor Guthrie, daughter of James Alexander Guthrie, 4th Baron of Craigie; she died 18 September 1908. They had three children:
In 1911 he married Alys Elizabeth Carr, formerly Mrs Samuel Sloane Chauncey, of New York City, daughter of Col. Henry Montgomery Carr, of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.