Douglas McConnel

Major General Douglas Fitzgerald McConnel, (9 June 1893 – 7 February 1961) was a senior British Army officer who served as General Officer Commanding British Troops in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.

Military career Born the son of William Holdsworth McConnel, a Royal Navy officer, and Florence Emma ( Bannister). He was born with a twin brother, George Malcolm, who died in 1908. Douglas was educated at Winchester College and then entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He played in the Association Football XI in 1910–11 and the Lord's XI in 1911.

After passing out from Woolwich, McConnel was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Artillery on 20 December 1912, alongside future generals Ivor Thomas, William Mirrlees, William Morgan, all fellow artillerymen, and Christopher Woolner of the Royal Engineers. He served in the First World War, in France and Palestine, during which he was mentioned in despatches three times, awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917, and promoted to lieutenant on 22 May 1915 and captain on 20 December 1916. McConnel ended the war in 1918 as a major.

After the war McConnel became a staff captain at the School of Artillery in 1920, the same year in which he married.

McConnel served in the Second World War, initially as a GSO in Mandatory Palestine during the final stages of the Arab revolt, and Trans-Jordan and then from 1941 as General Officer Commanding (GOC) of British Troops in Palestine and Trans-Jordan. He was promoted to the acting rank of major-general on 16 October 1941, and temporary major-general on 16 October 1942. After the war he became District Officer Commanding Lowland District in Scotland and aide-de-camp general to King George VI. He retired from the army in 1947. He served as a deputy lieutenant for Ayrshire in 1953.

Family McConnel married Ruth Mary Garnett-Botfield, daughter of Major Walter Dutton Garnett-Botfield and Susan Katherine ( McConnel). They had one daughter, Diana, who became the Duchess of Wellington.