Percy Lake

Lieutenant-General Sir Percy Henry Noel Lake, (29 June 1855 – 17 November 1940) served as a senior commander in the British and Indian Armies, and in the Canadian Militia. He served during World War I.

Military career Lake was the son of Lt.-Colonel Percy Godfrey Botfield Lake (1829–1899) and his wife Margaret Phillips of Quebec City. Born at Tenby, Wales, on 29 June 1855,

Lake was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the 59th Regiment of Foot in 1873, and promoted to lieutenant on 9 August 1873. He fought in the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878–79. and in June he was made an inspector of musketry although he resigned this appointment in February 1883. He graduated from the Staff College, Camberley, in 1884. In 1885 he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General and Quartermaster General during the Suakin Expedition, Sudan. and went on to be Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at Dublin District in Ireland in 1892, Quartermaster General for the Canadian Militia in 1893 Assistant Quartermaster General (Intelligence) at Army Headquarters in India in September 1899. He was promoted to colonel in December 1901 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 22 August 1902.

Lake became chief staff officer for the 2nd Army Corps on 2 March 1904, and for which he was granted the temporary rank of brigadier general while employed in this position, taking over from James Grierson. He was then Chief of the Canadian General Staff in 1905 and Inspector General of the Canadian Militia in 1908, and appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1905 and Knight Commander (KCMG) in 1908. and was appointed Chief of the General Staff in India from 1912, In 1913 he was given the colonelcy of the East Lancashire Regiment, which he held until 1920.

In January 1916 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mesopotamian Force, replacing Gen. Sir John Nixon with orders to relieve General Townshend's troops at Kut. After failing to relieve Kut, which surrendered in April 1916, in August 1916 Lake was removed from command and returned to England, He was given a post in the Ministry of Munitions in May 1917. He returned to Canada and lived in Victoria, British Columbia, where he died on 17 November 1940. He was survived by his wife Hester Fanny , whom he had married in 1891. They had no children.