Wooden carved Plaque - "Presented by Earl French Memorial Club Toronto 1940" with the Seaforth stag's head and motto. ORIGINALLY THIS ARTIFACT WAS CATALOGUED AS 1977.4.3 BUT IT WAS REPLACED BY OTHER ITEMS (BIBLE, CROSS AND 231ST BN BADGES ETC.). Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, ADC, PC (28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925), known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer. Born in Kent to an Anglo-Irish family, he saw brief service as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, before becoming a cavalry officer. He achieved rapid promotion and distinguished himself on the Gordon Relief Expedition. French became a national hero during the Second Boer War. He won the Battle of Elandslaagte near Ladysmith, escaping under fire on the last train as the siege began. He then commanded the Cavalry Division, winning the Battle of Klip Drift during a march to relieve Kimberley. He later conducted Counter-insurgency operations in Cape Colony. French’s most important role was as Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for the first year and a half of the First World War. French was then appointed Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces for 1916–18. He then became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1918, a position he held throughout much of the Irish War of Independence (1919-1922), during which time he published 1914, an inaccurate and much criticised volume of memoirs.