Roland Le Fanu

Major-General Roland Le Fanu, (13 May 1888 – 2 January 1957) was a senior British Army officer.

Military career Le Fanu, after being educated in Germany and briefly serving in the Royal Navy, and later transferring to the Royal Irish Fusiliers of the British Army, was commissioned into the Leicestershire Regiment in 1908. Like many of his contemporaries, he saw service during the First World War, for which he was awarded both the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order.

After attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1925 to 1926, alongside Walter Oxley, Raymond Briggs, Francis Tuker, Frank Messervy, Ronald Scobie, John Swayne and the Australian Sydney Rowell, who were among his classmates, he became a staff officer at the War Office in March 1931, and from 1931 to 1932 attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He was then deployed to the Rawalpindi District in India in December 1935. He was appointed a companion of the Distinguished Service Order for his service during the Waziristan campaign. He went on to receive a promotion to major general on 29 August 1939, with seniority backdated to 19 July 1938, and soon became general officer commanding 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division in August 1939 at the start of the Second World War before retiring in October 1940.