Herbert Cyril Thacker

Major General Herbert Cyril Thacker (16 September 1870 – 2 June 1953) was a Canadian soldier and Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Canadian Militia (later the Canadian Army) from 1927 until 1929.

Military career Thacker was born the son of Major-General J. Thacker of the Bombay Staff Corps in 1870 in Poona, India. He attended Upper Canada College in Toronto and, in 1887, he graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada. Commissioned in the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1891, he conducted survey work in western Canada for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1893.

From 1904 to 1905 he had the unique Canadian assignment as a military attaché with the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War Along with other Western military attachés, Thacker had two complementary missions – to assist the Japanese and to observe the Japanese forces in the field during the Russo-Japanese War.

Major-General A. C. MacDonell and staff officers, 1st Canadian Division, sometime in 1918. (Front row, from left to right): Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. R. Parsons, Brigadier-General H. C. Thacker, Major-General A. C. Macdonnell, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Sutherland Brown, Colonel H. P. Wright. (Back row, from left to right): Lieutenant-Colonel H. F. H. Hertzberg, Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel F. G. Scott, Lieutenant J. M. Macdonnell.

In 1907, his appointment as Director of Artillery at Ottawa accompanied a promotion as Commanding Officer of the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery (RCGA), commanded the 1st Canadian Divisional Artillery from September 1915 through the end of World War and the CEF return to Canada.

After the war, Thacker was appointed the District Officer Commanding Military District 6, He also received the Japanese War medal for service during that campaign.

For service in World War I, he was made a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in 1916. Thacker was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1918. He was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1919.