Charles Bulkeley Bulkeley-Johnson
(1867-1917)
Brigadier-General
CB. GOC Cavalry Brigade
Harrow School, RMC Sandhurst
2nd Dragoons
Charles Bulkeley Bulkeley-Johnson was the son of Francis
Bulkeley-Johnson. He commissioned in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal
Scots Greys) on 5 February 1887. Bulkeley-Johnson was a talented
sportsman, horseman and big-game hunter. From January 1899 until
January 1903 he was attached to the Egyptian Army, taking part
in the Nile Expedition and in the operations that led to the
defeat of the Khalifa. He was appointed CO 2nd Dragoons on 19
August 1911 at the comparatively early age of 43 and took them
to war in August 1914 as part of Sir Philip Chetwode’s 5th
Cavalry Brigade.
He was promoted GOC 8th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry
Division, on 23 November 1914. For part of 1915 Bulkeley-Johnson’s
Brigade Major was Keppel Bethell. Later in the war, Walter
Guinness, one of Bethell’s staff officers, visited 8th Cavalry
Brigade, commenting that ‘Bulkley Johnson [sic] seems rather
like Bethell in character and I should imagine they must have
knocked their heads together’.
Bulkeley-Johnson commanded 8th Cavalry Brigade until his
death in action on 11 April 1917 while carrying out a personal
reconnaissance of the enemy near Monchy-le-Preux. He was 49. He
is buried in Grouy-en-Artois Communal Cemetery Extension,
France. He was the thirtieth British general to be killed in
action or to die of wounds on the Western Front.