Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy

Who was Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy?

Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy GCB GCMG MVO DCO 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 in Hertsmere, 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 World War I—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. He was in 1921 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 his stepping directly into political affairs became the catalyst for widespread changes to the role of the Crown in all of the British Dominions.