Francis Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell

Field Marshal Francis Wallace Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell, GCB, GCMG, PC (April 29, 1841 – January 27, 1925) was a British Army officer.

Born in 1841, he was educated at Blandford before joining the 60th Royal Rifles in 1859. After serving in various colonial campaigns in the 1870s, including the Kaffir and Zulu Wars, he was made Quartermaster General in the Transvaal in 1881, being promoted Colonel the following year. He was also, in 1882, made aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria as well as sent to fight in Egypt, becoming Sirdar of that country's army in 1885.

Appointed CB in 1885, Grenfell was knighted as a KCB the following year and promoted Major General in 1889. He commanded the forces at Suakim and Toski in 1889, and, in recognition of the transformation he had achieved in making the Egyptian Army a successful fighting force, he was appointed GCMG on leaving Egypt in 1892. Two years later he became Inspector General of Auxiliary Forces at the War Office, and in 1897 he returned to Egypt to command the British forces there during the expedition to Khartoum, for which he became GCB the following year. He then became Governor of Malta in 1899, a post he held for four years. In 1902 he was created Baron Grenfell, of Kilvey in the County of Glamorgan.

In 1904, after commanding the 4th Army Corps, Francis Grenfell was promoted General. That same year he was made Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland, and retired four years later as a Field Marshal.

He was a founding committee member of the Pilgrims Society in 1902. ["The Pilgrims of Great Britain: A Centennial History " (2002) - Anne Pimlott Baker, ISBN 1-86197-290-3]

Lord Grenfell died aged 83 at Windlesham, Surrey, and was buried at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

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