John Hanbury-Williams
Encyclopedia
Major-General (United Kingdom)
Major general is a senior rank in the British Army. Since 1996 the highest position within the Royal Marines is the Commandant General Royal Marines who holds the rank of major general...
Sir John Hanbury-Williams GCVO
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
. ( 19 October 1859 - 19 October 1946 )
John Hanbury-Williams was the youngest son of Ferdinand Hanbury-Williams, of Coldbrook Park, Monmouthshire. After attending Wellington College, he went on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1878 he was commissioned into the 43rd Light Infantry. He was ADC to Lieutenant General Sir E Hamley in Egypt in 1882. That same year he took part in the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, and was mentioned in despatches. He was extra ADC to Sir M.E. Grant Duff, Governor of Madras between 1884 and 1885. He was Adjutant 3rd Oxfordshire Light Infantry from 1892 to 1897. He served in South Africa between 1899 and 1900 and was mentioned in despatches. He was Military Secretary to Sir A Milner from 1897 to 1900 and Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War 1900 to 1903. He was Governor-General's Secretary and Military Secretary in Canada from 1904 to 1909. He was Brigadier-General in charge of Administration Scotland between 1909-1914. In 1911 he was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
to represent Canada and served on the IOC until 1921. He was employed on General Staff in 1914. During the First World War he was head of the British military mission at Russian Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
and was mentioned in despatches. He was in charge British Prisoners of War Department at the Hague from August 1917 to March 1918 and at Berne from April 1918 to December 1918. He retired from the Army in 1919. He was Her Majesty's Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps
Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps
Her Majesty's Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps is a senior member of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. He is the Queen's link with the diplomatic community in London, arranges the annual Diplomatic Corps Reception by the Sovereign, organises the regular presentation of...
in the Royal Household
Royal Household
A Royal Household in ancient and medieval monarchies formed the basis for the general government of the country as well as providing for the needs of the sovereign and his relations....
of the Sovereign
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of England from 1920 to 1934. Hanbury-Williams was Colonel Commandant of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from 1918. He was Extra Equerry to the King from 1934. He was appointed GCVO in 1926, KCB in 1917, KCVO in 1908, CMG in 1899 and CVO in 1902.
John Hanbury-Williams married Annie Emily, youngest daughter of Emil Reiss, in 1888, and there were four children of that marriage. His wife pre-deceased him in 1933. Partly as a result of what he had seen at first hand in Russia during the First World War, Hanbury-Williams became a fierce opponent of Bolshevism, and was a founder member of the Liberty League which was formed in the United Kingdom after the War with a view to combat the spread of this political creed. In 1934 he appeared as a witness in Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia’s famous and successful libel suit against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Limited following the release in England of the film Rasputin, the Mad Monk (USA title: Rasputin and the Empress). In later life Sir John Hanbury-Williams resided in an apartment in the Henry III Tower at Windsor Castle, where he died in 1946, on his eighty-seventh birthday.