Major General Charles Frederick Cox, (2 May 1863 – 20 November 1944) was an Australian Army officer and politician. He retired in 1923 as an honorary major general. Early life Charles Frederick Cox was born on 2 May 1863 at Pennant Hills, New South Wales. He was a grandson of William Cox. He was educated in Parramatta and became a clerk with the New South Wales Railways traffic audit branch in 1881. Cox enlisted in the New South Wales Lancers in 1891 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1894. In 1897 he was chosen to head a detachment of the regiment in the ceremonies for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He married Minnie Elizabeth Gibbons on 7 March 1894. Promoted to captain in 1897, he travelled to England again in 1899 in command of a squadron of the lancers for training with the British cavalry. Boer War The squadron was training alongside the 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) at Aldershot, England, when the Boer War broke out. Cox volunteered himself and his squadron for service in South Africa. Some 70 of his men went to South Africa; another 31, for various reasons, did not, and returned to Australia. Cox and his volunteers arrived in Cape Town in December 1899 and were the first colonial volunteers to arrive in Cape Town. The squadron saw only limited action throughout their first tour, but did take part in the last major battle of the war, the Battle of Paardeberg, on 18 February 1900. In May 1900, Cox was attached to the Inniskilling Dragoons, under the command of Major Edmund Allenby. The lancers returned to Australia in December 1900. Cox was promoted to major and given command of the newly formed 3rd New South Wales Mounted Rifles, with which he returned to South Africa in April 1901. In June he was made an honorary lieutenant colonel. In the latter half of 1901, Cox's regiment joined part of a force led by Colonel Michael Rimington. They covered 1,814 miles in 153 days. There was little action apart from the occasional skirmish, but these cost the regiment 5 killed and 19 wounded. While the British regulars had doubts about Cox's competence in 1899, by the end of the war in 1902 Cox had earned considerable accolades from Colonel Rimington. From his men he had earned the nickname "Fighting Charlie". For his service during the war, he was