Hubert Foster

Brigadier General Hubert John Foster (4 October 1855 – 21 March 1919) was a senior officer in the British Army and later Australian Army, who served as Chief of the Australian General Staff from 1916 to 1917.

Military career Educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and having won the Pollock Medal there, Foster was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a lieutenant on 28 July 1875 although this was later antedated to 28 January 1875.

He was deployed to Cyprus when British troops occupied the island in 1878. In May 1893 he was transferred to serve there as a deputy assistant adjutant general.

In 1898 he was made Quartermaster-General of the Canadian Forces and managed the deployment of Canadian troops for the Second Boer War.

From January 1903 he was British military attaché in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. and was placed on half-pay on 1 October 1906. On 11 December 1907 he was promoted to colonel, while still on half-pay.

Foster became a leading military writer following his appointment in 1906 as director of military science at the University of Sydney.

He retired from the army on 4 October 1912.

Foster went on to serve in the First World War and was appointed Chief of the General Staff in January 1916.

Family In 1904 he married Mary Agatha Gough, née Tobin.