Sir Hereward Wake, 13th Bt.

Major-general Sir Hereward Wake, 13th Baronet, was a British Army officer. Born into an historic and noble family, he joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) as a second lieutenant in 1897. He served on the staff during the Second Boer War, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. During the First World War, he served again as a staff officer with the British Expeditionary Force. In 1917 he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier-general and appointed to the secretariat of the Supreme War Council (SWC). Wake led E Branch, responsible for advising the British military representative, General Sir Henry Wilson on enemy strength and supply. Wake's unit predicted the 1918 German spring offensive but countermeasures recommended by the SWC were ignored by the British commander-in-chief Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Towards the end of the war Wake predicted that Germany would remain the predominant military power in Europe.