George K. Cockerill

Brigadier General Sir George Kynaston Cockerill CB (13 August 1867 – 19 April 1957) was a British Army officer and a Conservative Party politician.

Cockrill was the son of the Surgeon-General Robert William Cockerill, and his wife Clara Sandys, daughter of Major-General Charles Pooley.

He joined the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) in 1888, and served in the Hazara Expedition in 1891. From 1892 to 1895 he explored the eastern Hindu Kush, for which he won the Macgregror Memorial medal and was a gold medallist of the Royal United Services Institute in India. He served with the Chitral Relief Force in 1895, on the North-West Frontier of India from 1897 to 1898, and as a staff officer in the Second Boer War from 1900 to 1902. In 1907 he became a major in the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), and retired from that post in 1910.

At the December 1910 general election he stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the Thornbury division of Gloucestershire. He was British technical delegate at the Hague Conference in 1907. During World War I he served in the War Office, first as Sub-Director of Military Operations, then as Director of Military Intelligence and Director of Special Intelligence with the rank of Brigadier-General. He receuved many honours for his wartime work, including being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (military division) in 1916.

At the 1918 general election he was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reigate division of Surrey, having stood as a Coalition Conservative. He was returned unopposed in 1922 and in 1923, and re-elected with large majorities in 1924 and 1929. He retired from the House of Commons at the 1931 general election, having been knighted in the King's Birthday Honours in 1926.

Publications

 * Sir George Cockerill. “Pioneer Exploration in Hunza and Chitral.” The Himalayan Journal. Vol. 11. 1939. 14-41.