William Franklyn British Army officer

Lieutenant General Sir William Edmund Franklyn (14 May 1856 – 27 October 1914) was a senior British Army officer born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, to Rev. Thomas Edmund Franklyn and Selina Elizabeth Hope. Educated at Rugby School, he joined the military in 1874 with the 19th Regiment of Foot, which later became the Yorkshire Regiment and then the Green Howards. He held various positions including Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at Aldershot (1888), Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment on the North West Frontier in India (1897), Assistant Adjutant General for Scottish District (1898), and Assistant Military Secretary (1899). Franklyn was knighted as a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1902 by King Edward VII. He commanded the 10th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier general in 1902 and held several roles including Director of Personal Services at the War Office (1904), General Officer Commanding 4th Division (1906), General Officer Commanding 3rd Division (1907), and Military Secretary (1911). Appointed Governor of Malta in 1914, he never took up the role due to his death later that year, shortly after World War I began. He was Colonel of the Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment) from 1906 until his death.

In personal life, Franklyn married Helen Williams in 1881, with whom he had two sons and a daughter: General Sir Harold Franklyn, Brigadier Geoffrey Franklyn, and Dorothy Hope Franklyn, who married Lord Thorneycroft.