Garnet Hughes

Major General Garnet Burk Hughes (22 April 1880 – 13 April 1937) was a Canadian military officer during the First World War. Although he had shown promise as a cadet officer and was politically well-connected, he was judged not to be an able combat officer and, in the latter half of the war, was shunted away from the front lines to administrative roles.

Education and pre-war career Garnet Hughes was born on Homewood Avenue in Toronto, the first son of Nellie Hughes (née Burk), and Sam Hughes, his name possibly in honour of General Sir Garnet Wolseley, leader of the Red River Expedition of 1870. In 1892, when Garnet was 12, his father was elected to the House of Commons; by 1911, Sam Hughes had risen to the post of Minister of Militia in the government of Sir Robert Borden.

Garnet entered the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, taking the top entrance examination score. While there, he rose to battalion sergeant-major, and was awarded the gold medal, and the sword of honour. Upon graduation in 1901, he was placed on the Reserve of Officers as a Lieutenant of Engineers, and was offered a commission with the Royal Engineers at Woolwich, England. However, his father opposed this, so for some time he worked as an engineer for the Canadian Northern Railway, and later became Chief Engineer for the Dominion Department of Public Works on Vancouver Island.

In light of Hughes's actions during the battle, Currie considered him to be incompetent under fire, and a danger to the men under his command. After Currie was promoted to command of the entire Canadian Corps, he refused to promote Hughes to a divisional command of his own, even though the request came from Hughes's father Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia and Defence.

Administrative posts Hughes was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in November 1915 and succeeded Malcolm Mercer as commander of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade. He was eventually given command of the newly formed 5th Canadian Division, but it was an administrative post only, since the division was broken up as soon as it reached England. Its men were sent as reinforcements to replace battle losses in the four other divisions of the Canadian Corps. The 5th Division adopted a coloured formation patch identical in design to that worn by the four combatant divisions of the Canadian Corps. The colour selected for the patch was garnet, in recognition of Hughes' command of the division.

With the resignation from the Canadian cabinet of his father and champion, Hughes was assigned to an obscure, non-combatant administrative post in command of the defences of London, a position he held until 1920.

Post-war and death After the war, Hughes worked in industrial engineering in Canada, England, Greece and Mexico.

Hughes died in Toronto at the age of 56 of peritonitis due to appendicitis. He is buried in Lindsay, Ontario.