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Major-General Thomas David Pilcher, CB (8 July 1858 – 14 December 1928) was a British Army officer, who commanded a mounted infantry unit in the Second Boer War and the 17th (Northern) Division during the First World War, before being removed from command in disgrace during the Battle of the Somme. Pilcher spent his early career as an infantry officer, first seeing active service on colonial campaigns in Nigeria in the late 1890s followed by field command in the Second Boer War (1899–1902), on which he published a book of lessons learned in 1903. Following the war, he held a number of senior commands in India. However, further promotion was checked by his having come into conflict with his commander-in-chief, who regarded him as unsuited for senior command in part because of his writings; Pilcher was a keen student of the German army and its operational methods, and an active theorist who published a number of controversial books advocating the adoption of new military techniques as well as an anonymous invasion novel. On the outbreak of the First World War he was on leave in England, and eventually obtained the command of 17th (Northern) Division, a New Army volunteer unit. The division supported the initial attacks at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, where Pilcher again clashed with his superiors over his refusal to push on an attack without pausing for preparations, believing it would result in failure and heavy casualties. After ten days of fighting, Pilcher was sacked and sent to command a reserve centre in England. From here, he wrote a series of books before retiring in 1919. He ran as a parliamentary candidate for the splinter right-wing National Party in the 1918 general election, and continued a loose involvement with right-wing politics which extended to membership in the early British Fascisti. Pilcher had married Kathleen Gonne, daughter of a cavalry officer, in 1889; the marriage was strained, partly through Pilcher's gambling habits and adultery, and partly through his dislike for Maud Gonne, Kathleen's sister and a prominent Irish nationalist. The couple divorced in 1911, having had four children; one would later become a High Court judge, while another died on the Western Front in 1915. Pilcher remarried in 1913, and remained married to his second wife Millicent until his death in 1928. ==Early career== After being educated at Harrow School, Pilcher joined the Dublin City Artillery, a Militia unit, and from there transferred into the regular Army. He was initially commissioned into the 22nd Regiment of Foot, but transferred shortly afterwards into the 5th Fusiliers (later the Northumberland Fusiliers).〔 in "Lions Led by Donkeys", Birmingham Centre for First World War Studies. (Archived from the original, 2007)〕 Pilcher attended the Staff College, Camberley, passing the course in 1902, and from 1895 to 1897 was deputy assistant adjutant-general for Dublin District.〔 From here, he took a posting in colonial West Africa in the late 1890s, where he was involved in raising a battalion of the West African Frontier Force and commanded an expedition to Lapai and Argeyah.〔 In 1899 Pilcher transferred regiments for the third time, to the Bedfordshire Regiment, where he took command of the 2nd Battalion.〔 It served in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, during which time Pilcher was also given command of a column of mounted infantry, including a large contingent of Australians.〔 He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on 20 October 1900, and to Colonel on 29 November 1900, and in 1901 he was made an aide-de-camp to King Edward VII.〔 He returned to the United Kingdom in early June 1902, and commanded regular brigades at Aldershot from 1902 to 1907.〔 From here, he was posted to India, where he held a variety of commands, culminating in that of the Burma Division, the senior military officer in the colony, from 1912 to 1914. At the time of the outbreak of war, though still holding the Burmese posting, he was on leave in England.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Pilcher」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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