John Ponsonby (British Army officer)

Major General Sir John Ponsonby, (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952) was a British Army officer who commanded the 5th Division during the last year of the First World War.

Military career
Born the son of Sir Henry Ponsonby and educated at Eton College, Ponsonby was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters in March 1886. After transferring to the Royal Irish Rifles (later the Royal Ulster Rifles) in November 1887, he was transferred into the Coldstream Guards, and the Regular Army, in August 1888.

He served in Uganda from 1898 and was seconded for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa in March 1900, and attached to the Rhodesian Field Force. He was again sent to South Africa in February 1902.

Ponsonby fought in the First World War, initially as commander of the 2nd Guards Brigade from 1915 and then as General Officer Commanding (GOC) 40th Division from 1917, leading his division at the Battle of Cambrai. In July 1918 he went on to become GOC 5th Division, remaining in that role until the end of the war.

After the war Ponsonby became GOC Madras District of India. He retired from the army in 1926.

Family
In 1935 Ponsonby married Mary (Mollie) Robley; they had no children. He lived at Haile Hall near Beckermet in Cumbria.