British Army officer who saw action in the Boer War. This was followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of a Regular Army division during the first two years of the First World War, before being appointed as the chief of staff to the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916.
In 1918 he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front, but was quickly promoted to command the Allied intervention force in northern Russia in 1919, then an Allied force occupying Turkey, and finally a British force in Persia in 1921, where – among other things – he appointed Reza Khan to command the elite Cossack Brigade; Reza Khan would later seize control of the country, and rule as Shah from 1925 to 1941. The exact level of British involvement in Reza Khan’s coup is still a matter of historical debate, but it is almost certain that Ironside himself at least provided advice to the plotters.
He served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War, and was promoted to Field Marshal and given a peerage as Baron Ironside of Archangel.
As a young man, Edmund had acquired a variety of foreign languages: his grasp of language would become one of the defining features of his character; by middle age, he would be fluent enough to officially interpret in seven, with a partial command of perhaps ten more.
Ironside died aged 79 on 22 September 1959 at Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in London after he was injured in a fall at his home.
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