Joseph Sir Joseph John Asser Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order

Background

Asser was born on 31 August 1867, the son of S. B. V. Asser of Windlesham, Surrey.

Career

He entered the Army in 1887 and was appointed aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding, Egypt in 1892. Foreign his service in the Nile expedition of 1898 he was granted the brevet rank of major and awarded the medal with two clasps, and for the Nile expedition of 1899 a further clasp. He was promoted to the substantive rank of major in 1907 and to lieutenant-colonel the same year.

He was also an Egyptian pasha and a member for some years of the Sudan Government Council.

Asser retired from the Army in July 1914 but returned to service on the outbreak of war that year. He served as a base commandant, as General Officer Commanding Lincolnshire of Communication area, and as G.O.C. of the British Troops in France and Flanders in 1919.

Asser was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1922 to 1927 and was promoted to full general in 1926. He was an aide-de-camp general to the King from 1929 to 1930, the year in which he was placed on retired pay.

Asser lived at The Old Vicarage, Hambledon, Hampshire.

In Who"s Who he listed his recreations as shooting, fishing and golf. He died on 4 February 1949.

Achievements

• He served in the Nile expedition of 1897 and was awarded the medal and clasp. In 1898 he was promoted to captain. From 1907 to 1914 he was adjutant-general of the Egyptian Army. During this period he commanded the Southern Kordofan expedition in 1910, for which he was awarded the medal and clasp. Foreign his service he was mentioned in despatches, restored to the active list as a major-general in 1916 and further promoted to lieutenant-general, awarded the Central Bank (in 1915), the Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George (in 1918), the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and Victory Medal, the Order of Street Anne with crossed swords and the Belgian Ordre de la Couronne. Besides the awards already listed, he received the Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1917, the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1924, the second class of the Order of Osmanieh, the second class of the Order of the Mejidie, the Order of the Sacred Treasure, the Order of Aviz, the croix de guerre of France and Belgium and was a Grand Officier of the Legion of Honour.

Membership

He was a member of the Army and Navy Club and an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at William and Mary College, Virginia.