Major General Sir John Ponsonby, KCB, CMG, DSO (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952) was a British Army officer who commanded the 5th Division during the last year of the First World War.

[10][6] In October 1913 he was made a lieutenant colonel and succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Sutton as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade.

[11] Ponsonby fought in the First World War, initially, after receiving a promotion to the temporary rank of brigadier general in August 1915,[12] as commander of the 2nd Guards Brigade, part of the Guards Division, and then, after being promoted to temporary major general in September 1917,[13][14] as general officer commanding (GOC) 40th Division, leading his division at the Battle of Cambrai later that year.

[16] In July 1918 he went on to become GOC 5th Division, remaining in that role until the end of the war.

[17] After the war Ponsonby, whose rank of major general was made permanent in January 1919,[18] became GOC Madras District of India.