Born the son of William Holdsworth McConnel, a Royal Navy officer,[1] and Florence Emma (née Bannister). He was born with a twin brother, George Malcolm, who died in 1908. Douglas was educated at Winchester College and then entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He played in the Association Football XI in 1910-11 and the Lord's XI in 1911.[2][3]
After the war he became a staff captain at the School of Artillery in 1920, the same year in which he married.[5][3] After attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1925 to 1926, he served as a brigade major with the Quetta Infantry Brigade from 1927 to 1931.[3] He then went on to be Officer Commanding the Gentlemen Cadets at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, a General Staff Officer at the Royal Army Service Corps Training Centre in 1933 and a General Staff Officer at the Staff College in 1936.[5][8]
McConnel lived at Knockdolian House between Ballentrae and Colmonell in Ayrshire.[12] He served as a deputy lieutenant for Ayrshire in 1953.[3]
Family
He married Ruth Mary Garnett-Botfield, daughter of Major Walter Dutton Garnett-Botfield and Susan Katherine (née McConnel). They had one daughter, Diana, who became the Duchess of Wellington.[13][3]
References
^"McCONNEL, Major-General Douglas Fitzgerald". Who Was Who. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, online edition. April 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
^"Maj.-Gen. D. F. McConnel". The Times. 10 February 1961. p. 17.
^Cokayne, G.E. (2000). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Volume XII/2. Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 462.
