Charles Townshend (British Army officer)

Major-General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, (21 February 1861 – 18 May 1924) was a British marine and later soldier who led an overreaching military campaign in Mesopotamia during World War I. His troops were besieged and captured at the Siege of Kut (December 1915 – April 1916), which historian Christopher Catherwood called "the worst defeat of the Allies in World War I".

Controversially and in contrast to the miserable captivity endured by his men, Townshend was held on Prinkipo, where he was treated like an esteemed guest until his release in October 1918. He was briefly a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1920 to 1922.

Early life

Townshend grew up poor in an otherwise prominent family, the son of a railroad clerk, Charles Thornton Townshend (1840–1889), and Louise Graham, a Melbourne native who brought no dowry. He was the great-great-grandson of Field Marshal George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend. His paternal grandfather, Rev. George Osborne Townshend (1801–1876), was the son of politician Lord John Townshend, the second son of the first marquess.

He was very ambitious and nourished high hopes of inheriting the family title and the family estate at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, as his cousin Viscount Raynham, the heir to the title, had no children until later in life. He was educated at Cranleigh School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. On graduation from Sandhurst, he was granted a commission with the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1881.