General Sir John Francis Stanhope Duke Coleridge (25 April 1878 – 3 November 1951) was a senior British Indian Army officer who went on to be Military Secretary to the India Office.
Military career
Coleridge was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Indian Staff Corps in 1898, transferred to the 8th Gurkhas in July 1900 and was sent on a mission to Tibet in 1903.
Coleridge served on the Abor expedition on the north east frontier of India in 1911-12 and was mentioned in despatches. He served in World War I and in 1916 was on the General Staff of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He served as Commander of 189th Brigade from October 1917 and then 188th Brigade from December 1917.
He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order on 3 June 1916, appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 3 June 1918 and awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order on 3 December 1918.
After the War he returned to India as a General Staff Officer and carried out a review the new Indian Defence Force and the internal security measures there. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1921 Birthday Honours. He served as Assistant Commandant at the Quetta Staff College from 1923 to 1925, Military Secretary Army Headquarters, India from 1926 to 1930 and became commander of the Kohat District in 1930.
