Product Code Database
Major-General Sir Cecil Edward Pereira, (24 July 1869 – 26 October 1942) was a British Army officer who commanded the 2nd Division during the First World War.
He was seconded for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa in March 1900, and attached to the Rhodesian Field Force.
Promoted in November 1905 to major, in April 1908 he was made a deputy assistant adjutant general.
He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in November 1913 and then served in the First World War and was appointed commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards in 1914. In February 1915 he was promoted to brevet colonel and in May was granted the temporary rank of brigadier general when he was placed in command of the 85th Infantry Brigade, which he led at the Battle of Loos in September–October that year. This was followed by his taking command of the 1st Guards Brigade in January 1916, Orders of Battle before being promoted to temporary major general in December 1916 and being made general officer commanding (GOC) of the 2nd Division. Army Commands His substantive rank was advanced from brevet colonel to colonel in November 1917, while his major general's rank became permanent in June 1918.
After the war he became General Officer Commanding 56th (London) Infantry Division from 1919 until his retirement in 1923.
During the Second World War Pereira commanded the Local Defence Volunteers in London. Defence Forces Hansard, 3 July 1940
He was married by his brother at Brompton Oratory on 28 January 1903 to Helen Mary Josephine (Nellie) Lane Fox, daughter of George Lane-Fox; they had three sons and two daughters. They settled after 1924 at Caversham Park, near Reading, a house designed for him by Clough Williams-Ellis.
|-
Family
Pereira had two brothers, George Pereira, a soldier and explorer, and Edward Pereira, a priest, schoolmaster and cricketer.
Correspondence
His letters were edited by his grandson, E.A. Pereira & others, as Catholic General: The Private Wartime Correspondence of Maj-Gen Sir Cecil Edward Pereira, 1914–19 (Helion, 2020).
Bibliography
(2025). 9781783462377, Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 9781783462377
Categories: 1869 Births, 1942 Deaths, British Army Generals Of World War I, Coldstream Guards Officers, British Army Personnel Of The Second Boer War, Commanders Of The Order Of The Crown, Companions Of The Order Of St Michael And St George, English People Of Portuguese Descent, British Home Guard Officers, Knights Commander Of The Order Of The Bath, People Educated At The Oratory School, British Recipients Of The Croix De Guerre 1914–1918, British Army Major Generals, British Expatriates In British Uganda, Graduates Of The Royal Military College, Sandhurst
|
|
