Ridley Pakenham-Walsh

Major General Ridley Pakenham Pakenham-Walsh, (29 April 1888 – 3 November 1966) was a senior British Army officer who served as Engineer-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in the Battle of France and later as General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District and IX Corps. Military career After attending the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Pakenham-Walsh was commissioned into the Royal Engineers (RE) in 1908. He became an instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Australia in 1914. Pakenham-Walsh served in World War I, in the Gallipoli campaign and on the Western Front. He was promoted to captain on 18 December 1914, and to Acting Major on 9 January 1917 when he took command of a field company. He was awarded the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year Honours list. From 15 July 1918 until the end of the war in November he held the appointment of Commander, Royal Engineers, (CRE) to 3rd Division in the final Allied Hundred Days Offensive, with the rank of acting Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war he became British Representative at the International Commission in Teschen, Poland, and attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1921 to 1922. He was then appointed an instructor in tactics at the School of Military Engineering (SME) in 1923. After attending the Imperial Defence College in 1931 he was appointed a General Staff Officer and then Assistant Adjutant General (Mobilisation) at the War Office, before becoming Brigadier, General Staff, of Eastern Command in 1935. In June 1939 he took up the appointment of Commandant of the SME, which also carried the titles of Inspector, RE, and General Officer Commanding Chatham Area, but left these roles on the outbreak of World War II when he was appointed as Engineer-in-Chief for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). During the 'Phoney War' his office's work involved designing reinforced concrete defences around Lille.