| Honorific Prefix: | Sir |
| William Furse | |
| Birth Date: | 21 April 1865 |
| Birth Place: | Staines, Middlesex, England[1] |
| Death Place: | Buckinghamshire, England |
| Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1884–1920 |
| Rank: | Lieutenant General |
| Commands: | 9th (Scottish) Division |
| Battles: | Second Boer War First World War |
| Awards: | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order |
| Spouse: | Jean Adelaide Furse |
| Children: | 4, including Judith Furse and Roger Furse |
Lieutenant General Sir William Thomas Furse, (21 April 1865 – 31 May 1953) was a senior British Army officer who served as Master-General of the Ordnance during the First World War.[2]
Furse was born in Staines, Middlesex, the second son of the Ven. Charles Furse (born Johnson), Archdeacon of Westminster, and Jane Diana Monsell, second daughter of John Samuel Bewley Monsell, vicar of Egham. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. The artist, Charles Wellington Furse, and the bishop, Rt. Rev. Michael Furse, were his younger brothers.[2] [1]
Furse was the father of the artist and designer Roger Furse and the actress Judith Furse.[3]
Furse was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a lieutenant on 5 July 1884.[4] He was aide-de-camp to Lord Roberts from 1891 to 1893,[4] and was promoted to captain on 30 May 1893.[5]
Furse served during the Second Boer War as a Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General (DAQMG) at Army Headquarters,[4] and was promoted to major on 15 March 1900. He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in April 1901.
Following the end of the war in June 1902, Furse was on 15 October appointed DAQMG to the 2nd Army Corps based at Salisbury Plain.[6] In January 1908, while serving at the Staff College, Camberley, as a general staff officer, grade 2 (GSO2), he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel.
In 1911 he was appointed commander of the 12th (Howitzer) Brigade Royal Field Artillery.[4] In October 1913 he was promoted to colonel.
Furse served in the First World War, initially as a General Staff Officer on the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and then, promoted to the temporary rank of major general in September 1915, as general officer commanding (GOC) of the 9th (Scottish) Division on the Western Front.[4] His rank of major general was made substantive in January 1916 and he became Master-General of the Ordnance later in the year; in this capacity he opposed the introduction of the Madsen machine gun, preferring the Lewis gun.[7] In February 1915 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
He retired from the army in 1920.[4]
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