Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, (5 May 1858 – 30 August 1940) was a British Army officer who fought on the Western Front during the First World War. He played an important role in the war, leading the 4th Division in the retreat of August 1914, and commanding VII Corps at the unsuccessful diversion of the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient on the first day on the Somme (1 July 1916) and at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. Early life and military career Snow was born at Newton Valence, Hampshire, on 5 May 1858. He was the eldest son of the Reverend George D'Oyly Snow and his wife Maria Jane Barlow, Snow attended Eton College (1871–1874) and went to St John's College, Cambridge in 1878. Snow obtained a commission in the 13th Regiment of Foot in 1879, taking part in the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa the same year. In 1884–1885, having transferred to the Mounted Infantry Regiment of the Camel Corps, Snow fought with them in the Nile Expedition of the Mahdist War at the Battle of Abu Klea and the Battle of El Gubat. He was severely wounded at the latter battle on 19 January 1885. In 1887, he was promoted to captain and attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1892 to 1893. Snow was promoted in 1895 to brigade major at Aldershot and further in 1897 to major in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Snow was brigade major for William Gatacre in the Nile campaign of 1898, fighting at the Battle of Atbara and the Siege of Khartoum. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches for his services in the Sudan. Snow was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel, and in April 1899 he became the second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, and was posted to India, causing him to miss out on service in the Second Boer War. In March 1903, he was promoted to substantive lieutenant colonel and returned home, so never actually commanded a battalion of his own. In June 1903 he was promoted to colonel and appointed assistant quartermaster-general of the 4th Corps (which later became Eastern Command). He stayed there being promoted to assistant adjutant-general (1905), brigadier-general, general staff (1906), and commander of the 11th Brigade (October 1909). He had been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1907 Birthday Honours. Snow was then promoted to major-general in