William MacArthur (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General Sir William Porter MacArthur KCB DSO OBE FRCP FRCPI (11 March 1884 – 30 July 1964) was an Irish-born British Army officer and medical doctor.

[3] As a child, MacArthur showed a keen interest in the Irish language,[4] using family visits to Cloughaneely, Marble Hill and Tory Island to learn from the native speakers.

[10][4] In 1911, MacArthur completed his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree and he was posted to Mauritius as a specialist sanitary officer.

[4] Towards the end of the war, he worked to establish the Army School of Hygiene in Blackpool,[1] where he served as the first commanding officer and chief instructor from 1919 to 1922.

[14][4] On 1 March 1938 he was simultaneously promoted to Lieutenant-general and appointed Director General, Army Medical Services[15] a role in which he served until 1941.

This earned him a reprimand from a parliamentary committee for breaching instructions on managing his budget, but his foresight was recognised with the outbreak of war the following year.

[4][10] MacArthur struggled with the demands of administering such a complex organisation in war time and retired from active service with ill health in 1941.