Ewen Sinclair-Maclagan

Major General Ewen George Sinclair-MacLagan, (24 December 1868 – 24 November 1948) was an officer in the British Army who fought in British India and the Second Boer War. He was later seconded to the Australian Army and served with the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. During the latter stages of the war, he commanded the 4th Australian Division. After the war, he returned to service with the British Army. He retired from military service in 1925 and died in Dundee, Scotland at the age of 79 in 1948.

Early life Ewen George Sinclair-MacLagan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 24 December 1868 to the banker Robert Ewen Sinclair-Maclagan and his wife Mary Alice Wall. He attended the United Services College in North Devon, England, where Rudyard Kipling was one of his classmates.

Early military career After serving in the 5th (Militia) Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, into which he had been commissioned in February 1887, Sinclair-MacLagan was promoted to lieutenant in April 1888 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Border Regiment, and the Regular Army, in December 1889.

He served in British India and participated in campaigns in the Waziristan region. He was promoted to captain in May 1898.

From 1899 to 1901 he fought in the Second Boer War in South Africa where, as a captain, he served as a company commander in the 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment. During his service in the war, he was mentioned in dispatches and received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

In 1901, Sinclair-MacLagan was seconded to the Australian Army and served as adjutant of the New South Wales Scottish Rifles. After three years in Australia, he returned to his regiment in England. He was on 1 February 1905 promoted from supernumerary lieutenant captain to captain. In June 1906 he was appointed an adjutant.

Group portrait of members of the second class at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, with their officers and sergeant majors, December 1913. Brigadier General W. T. Bridges, the college's commandant, is sat in the centre of the front row. To his left is Lieutenant Colonel Sinclair-MacLagan

In 1910, he was a major and serving with the Yorkshire Regiment when the-then Brigadier William Bridges, who knew Sinclair-MacLagan from his time in Australia, offered him a position as a drill instructor at the newly established Royal Military College at Duntroon. Sinclair-MacLagan accepted the position and returned to Australia as a temporary lieutenant colonel in January 1911.

First World War

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Bridges was instructed to form the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for service overseas. He selected Sinclair-MacLagan to be the commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division which Bridges would command as its first general officer commanding. Sinclair-MacLagan was the only brigade commander of the division to be a professional soldier. He oversaw the training of the brigade, most of whom were miners, in the Middle East.

Gallipoli Sinclair-MacLagan's brigade was selected to be the lead element of the division when it landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. His substantive rank was made up to lieutenant colonel in March and brevet colonel in June. He resumed command of the brigade in January 1916, at which stage it was reforming in Egypt after being evacuated from Gallipoli. He became director of military training in June but returned to the Western Front the next month when the commander of the 4th Division, Major General William Holmes, was killed shortly after the Battle of Messines. Sinclair-MacLagan was to take over command of the division, which he would lead for the remainder of the war. Sinclair-MacLagan had little opportunity to stamp his mark on the division before the upcoming Battle of Passchendaele, but it performed well in the Battle of Polygon Wood. Its next major engagement was in March 1918 when it was rushed to the Somme sector to counter the German spring offensive. in lieu of the knighthood that other divisional commanders of the AIF received. In May, his service with the AIF was terminated. He received a number of awards for his wartime services. He also received the Croix de guerre with palm from the French government, and the Commander's Cross of the Order of the White Eagle from the Serbian government.

Later life Sinclair-MacLagan returned to duty with the British Army and served as commander of the 51st (Highland) Division, a Territorial Army formation, before retiring from the army in 1925. He retained a connection to the Australian Army through his honorary colonelcy of the 34th Battalion. He succeeded General Sir Bruce Hamilton in the ceremonial role of colonel of the Border Regiment in August 1923. He would hold this important post until 1936.

He died at the age of 79 in Dundee, Scotland on 24 November 1948. He was survived by his daughter, the only child of his marriage to Edith Kathleen French, the daughter of George Arthur French. His wife had died in 1928.