Hubert Foster

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title: "Hubert Foster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1855-births", "1919-deaths", "australian-military-personnel-of-world-war-i", "british-army-personnel-of-the-anglo-egyptian-war", "british-emigrants-to-australia", "graduates-of-the-royal-military-academy,-woolwich", "people-educated-at-harrow-school", "people-from-biggleswade", "royal-engineers-officers", "academic-staff-of-the-university-of-sydney", "military-attachés-for-the-united-kingdom", "chiefs-of-army-(australia)", "military-personnel-from-bedfordshire", "british-army-personnel-of-the-second-boer-war"] description: "British-Australian Army officer" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Foster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British-Australian Army officer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]

Field	Value
name	Hubert John Foster
birth_date
death_date
birth_place	Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England
death_place	Cooma, New South Wales, Australia
allegiance	United Kingdom
Australia
branch	British Army (1873–12)
Australian Army (1916–18)
serviceyears	1873–1912
1916–1918
rank	Brigadier General
commands	Chief of the General Staff
battles	Anglo-Egyptian War
First World War
::

|name= Hubert John Foster |image= |caption= |birth_date= |death_date= |birth_place= Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England |death_place= Cooma, New South Wales, Australia |placeofburial= |nickname= |allegiance= United Kingdom Australia |branch= British Army (1873–12) Australian Army (1916–18) |serviceyears= 1873–1912 1916–1918 |rank= Brigadier General |servicenumber= |unit= |commands= Chief of the General Staff |battles= Anglo-Egyptian War First World War |awards= |relations= |laterwork= Brigadier General Hubert John Foster (4 October 1855 – 21 March 1919) was a senior officer in the British Army and later Australian Army, who served as Chief of the Australian General Staff from 1916 to 1917.

Military career

Educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and having won the Pollock Medal there, Foster was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a lieutenant on 28 July 1875 although this was later antedated to 28 January 1875.

He was deployed to Cyprus when British troops occupied the island in 1878. In May 1893 he was transferred to serve there as a deputy assistant adjutant general.

In 1898 he was made Quartermaster-General of the Canadian Forces and managed the deployment of Canadian troops for the Second Boer War.

From January 1903 he was British military attaché in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. and was placed on half-pay on 1 October 1906. On 11 December 1907 he was promoted to colonel, while still on half-pay.

Foster became a leading military writer following his appointment in 1906 as director of military science at the University of Sydney.

He retired from the army on 4 October 1912.

Foster went on to serve in the First World War and was appointed Chief of the General Staff in January 1916. In March 1916 he became a temporary brigadier general in the Australian Military Forces (AMF). In October 1917 he became director of military art at the Royal Military College, Duntroon but resigned after a year due to ill health.

He was placed on the retired list, AMF, as an honorary brigadier general on 19 October 1918. He died at the age of 63 on 21 March 1919 at Carlaminda, near Cooma, New South Wales, and was buried in Cooma cemetery with Anglican rites. He was survived by his wife and their son, Sir John Galway Foster, who later became a member of the British House of Commons.

Family

In 1904 he married Mary Agatha Gough, née Tobin.

References

title=Chief of the General Staff| before=Colonel Godfrey Irving| after=Lieutenant General James Legge| years=1916–1917

References

1. Warren Perry, [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/foster-hubert-john-6218 'Foster, Hubert John (1855–1919)'], [[Australian Dictionary of Biography]], Volume 8, [[Melbourne University Press]], 1981, pp 559–560.
2. {{London Gazette. (20 August 1875)
3. {{London Gazette. (15 January 1878)
4. (9 October 1894)
5. {{London Gazette. (20 June 1893)
6. (7 January 1903). "Naval & Military intelligence".
7. {{London Gazette. (10 February 1903)
8. {{London Gazette. (2 October 1906)
9. {{London Gazette. (9 December 1907)
10. {{London Gazette. (4 October 1912)

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