John Tyson Wigan

Brigadier-General John Tyson Wigan, CB, CMG, DSO (July, 1872 – November, 1952) was a senior British Army officer with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I who was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War and following his retirement from the army post-war became a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party.

Life
John Wigan was born in 1872 in West Hartlepool and educated at Rugby School before joining the British Army in 1897 with the 13th Hussars. Within two years, Wigan had been deployed to South Africa during the Second Boer War, in which he was seriously wounded. In 1909, Wigan retired from the regular army and transferred to the Territorial Army with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. This force was activated at the outbreak of World War I and sent to the Mediterranean.

Wigan was seriously wounded in 1915 during the Battle of Gallipoli, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order the following year in acknowledgement of his service. The Bedfordshire Yeomanry moved to Egypt in 1916 and in April 1917 Wigan was again wounded at the Second Battle of Gaza. In July 1917, Wigan was advanced to command the 7th Mounted Brigade which included Australian troops and in the November of 1917 this force was deployed in the Third Battle of Gaza at which Wigan was wounded for a fourth time in an attack on Turkish trenchlines.

In 1918 Wigan was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in recognition of his service and in 1919 a Companion of the Order of the Bath. At the end of the war, the yeomanry was decommissioned and Wigan entered politics as MP for Abingdon. In 1921 Wigan gave up his seat and retired, later serving as High Sheriff of Essex in 1930. Wigan died in Cuckfield, West Sussex in November 1952.