Kenneth James Buchanan

Kenneth James Buchanan was commissioned in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 1 February 1883, but transferred to the Indian Staff Corps in 1887. By the time the Great War broke out he had risen to the rank of colonel in the Indian Army, with a long record of active service in Burma (1887-9) and on the North West Frontier (1892, 1895, 1901-2, 1908) behind him. He was 51.

On 18 September 1914 he was promoted to brigadier-general and given command of 48th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division, a New Army formation, then assembling. Buchanan was 48th Brigade’s first commander. He was responsible not only for the brigade’s initial training but also took it to France in December 1915. His command on the Western Front was short lived, however. He was sent home on 17 January 1916.

One of his former battalion commanders, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Shaw Bt., CO 8th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, explained in a letter to the 16th Division’s first commander, Sir Lawrence Parsons, that ‘Buchanan was quite useless on active service and had to go’.

Brigadier-General Buchanan was GOC Oswestry Camp (April 1916-June 1917 and Inspector of Depots Poona (from September 1917). He retired on 11 May 1919.