Major General

Francis Hoare

CB CBE
Birth nameFrancis Richard Gurney Hoare
Born(1879-12-14)14 December 1879
Frognal, Hampstead, London
Died31 May 1959(1959-05-31) (aged 79)
Pretoria, Transvaal, Union of South Africa
AllegianceSouth Africa
Service/branchSouth African Air Force
Years of service
  • 1894–1937
  • 1939–1945
RankMajor General
Commands heldDirector-General of Technical Services
WarsWorld War I
AwardsOrder of the Bath CB Order of the British Empire CBE

Major General Francis Richard Gurney Hoare CB CBE (14 December 1879 – 31 May 1959) was a South African military commander.

Born in Frognal, Hampstead, London, he was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] He joined the British Army in 1894.[2] He served in the Anglo-Boer War, after which he settled in the Transvaal as a civil servant. [2][3]

He joined the Transvaal Horse Artillery in 1912. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was seconded to the British Army as an officer in the Army Ordnance Department. From there he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.[2]

Lt Col Hoare returned to South Africa after the war, and became a founder member of the South African Air Force on its formation in 1920. He was Staff Officer for Air Equipment at Defence Headquarters from 1921 to 1933.[4]

From 1933 to 1937, he served as the Union Defence Forces' Director Of Technical Services, and was briefly Director of Air and Technical Services (with the rank of colonel) before retiring in 1937.[2]

He returned to active duty in 1939 and served as Director-General of Technical Services again from 1939 to 1940. For the rest of World War II, he was involved in arms production and procurement.[5] He retired again at the end of the war.

Awards

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his World War I services. In 1944, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hoare, Francis Richard Gurney (HR898FR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Poel, Jean van der (2007). Jean van der Poel (ed.). Selections from the Smuts papers, vol. VII (Digitally printed 1. pbk. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 402. ISBN 9780521033701. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "National Archives of South Africa".
  4. ↑ List of Officers of the Union Defence Forces (1921).
  5. ↑ Orpen, N.; Martin, H.J. South Africa at War.
  6. ↑ London Gazette 36545 (8 June 1944).
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