2 April 1862, Galway, Ireland - 29 September 1930, Dublin was a British Army general and Irish Free State Senator. Mahon was born at Belleville, County Galway. He became a lieutenant in the 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars in 1883. During the Second Boer War Colonel Mahon led a flying column, 2,000 strong and consisting mainly of South African volunteers, from Kimberley which came to the Relief of Mafeking. The town, which had been under siege for seven months by Boer forces, was facing starvation. During the First World War he commanded the 10th Division at Gallipoli and in September 1915 moved with them to be head of British Expeditionary Force in Serbia. In 1916 General Mahon took up command of the Western Frontier Force in Egypt. He was then appointed as the Commander-in-Chief, Ireland in 1917-18 in the lead up to the Anglo-Irish war. After his retirement he was elected as a privy council member of the short-lived Senate of Southern Ireland He was appointed to Seanad Éireann by the President of the Executive Council, William T. Cosgrave, in 1922 and 1925. He won election to the Seanad in 1928, and served until his death in 1930
