Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, GCB, GCMG, MVO, was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada, the 12th since Canadian Confederation.
Known to friends as "Bungo", he was born to a noble family at ... »
Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, GCB, GCMG, MVO, was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada, the 12th since Canadian Confederation.
Known to friends as "Bungo", he was born to a noble family at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire, England, and educated at Eton College, along with his brothers. Upon graduation, Byng received a commission as a militia officer and thereafter saw service in Egypt and Sudan before he enrolled in the Staff College at Camberley. There, he befriended individuals who would be his contemporaries when he attained senior rank in France. Following distinguished service during the First World War—specifically, with the British Expeditionary Force in France, in the Battle of Gallipoli, as commander of the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge, and as commander of the British Third Army—Byng was in 1919 himself elevated to the peerage. In 1921 he was appointed as governor general by King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Lloyd George, to replace the Duke of Devonshire as viceroy, and occupied that post until succeeded by the Viscount Willingdon in 1926. Byng proved to be popular with Canadians, due to his war leadership, though stepping directly into political affairs became the catalyst for widespread changes to the role of the Crown in all of the British Dominions.
After the end of his viceregal tenure, Byng returned to be appointed Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and was promoted within the peerage to become Viscount Byng of Vimy. Three years after attaining the rank of field marshal, Byng died at his home on 6 June.
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