Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Toler MacMorrough Kavanagh, (25 March 1864 – 11 October 1950) was a British Army officer who commanded the Cavalry Corps during the First World War, most notably at the Battle of Amiens in 1918.
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Early life and military career
Kavanagh was born in March 1864 in Borris, County Carlow, the son of Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh, The MacMorrough and Mary Frances Forde-Leathley. He received his education at Harrow School before going on to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1882, from where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 3rd Dragoon Guards of the British Army in February 1884, although he transferred to the 10th Hussars just two weeks later. In March 1889 he was seconded from his regiment and sent to Jamaica where he served for a time as aide-de-camp to the governor of Jamaica at the time, Henry Arthur Blake.
In 1890 he returned to the 10th Hussars to assume command of a troop and was promoted to captain in April 1891. In June 1895 he was appointed adjutant to the 6th Yeomanry Brigade (Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Yeomanry Cavalry and Derbyshire Yeomanry Cavalry).
He served in the Second Boer War, which began in October 1899, as commanding officer (CO) of the 10th Hussars, and was promoted to major in January 1900, and then to the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel in November of that year. While in command of a mobile column, Kavanagh vigorously pursued Jan Smuts, who later admitted that Kavanagh had in fact come closer than anyone else in capturing him.