Louis Oldfield
Sir Leopold Charles Louis Oldfield KBE CB Order of [St Michael and St George|CMG] DSO was General Officer Commanding Malaya Command.
Military career
Educated at Clifton College, Oldfield was, after graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 1 April 1892. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 April 1895, and to captain on 5 April 1900, serving at the time with the 32 Battery Royal Field Artillery stationed at Deesa, British India. In October 1902 he was appointed adjutant of a Volunteer battalion, the 5th Lancashire Volunteer Artillery. He became a major in October 1909.He served in the First World War on the Western Front. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the citation for which appeared in The London Gazette and reads as follows:
He was latterly Brigadier General Royal Artillery for 51st (Highland) Division in France. He was briefly acting General Officer Commanding 51st Division between 11 March 1918 and 16 March 1918. In January 1918 he was made a brevet colonel.
After the War he became Brigadier General Royal Artillery for the British Army of the Rhine moving on to be Chief Instructor in Gunnery at the Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill in 1924. He was promoted to substantive major general in January 1926 and was made general officer commanding of the Territorial Army's 47th (2nd London) Division from January 1927, taking over from Lieutenant General Sir William Thwaites.
He held this post for the next four years and after relinquishing command of the division was then placed on half-pay in January 1931, was GOC Malaya Command from later in the year; he retired in 1934.
He was also colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1938 to 1942.