Major-General Sir Lovick Bransby Friend KBE CB PC (Ire) (25 April 1856 – 19 November 1944) was a British Army major general and amateur sportsman.

[1] He grew up at the family home, Woollett Hall at North Cray, and was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

[2][3] He was a mathematics scholar at Cheltenham and was awarded the Dobson Scholarship and the Cheltonian Society Prize in 1872, his final year at school.

[2][7] His commission was made permanent in 1876 and he spent time stationed in Ireland and Hong Kong before being appointed as an instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1883 and promoted to captain in 1885.

[2] He was posted to Egypt in 1897 and served as a staff officer in charge of organising supplies during the Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan in 1898 before being attached to the Intelligence Department before the Battle of Omdurman where he was an aide to Sir Herbert Kitchener, the commander in chief of British forces.

[2] He was appointed Major-General in charge of Administration at Irish Command in 1912 and succeeded Sir Arthur Paget as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, in 1914 the year the First World War began in Europe.

[2] He was placed on retirement pay in June 1920 after 47 years of military service, although he continued to serve as Chairman of the French Committee of the Disposal Board.

[1] In 1885 he made 198 runs against a Band of Brothers side which included Lord Harris, a key administrator and the captain of Kent County Cricket Club at the time.