brigadier, the highest field grade officer in the British Army and Royal Marines, ranking above colonel and below the general officer grades.
The rank was first conferred by Louis XIV upon the commander of several regiments. The British copied it from the French very early and a royal warrant of 1699 states that "the Major General of Our Ordnance within our Kingdom for the time being shall have rank and precedency as Brigadier," evidence that the title was stabilized at that date.
In both the British and U.S. armies of World War I a brigadier general commanded a brigade composed of two infantry regiments with artillery and other supporting arms. When the brigade was abolished after the adoption of the "triangular" infantry division, the British discontinued the rank of brigadier general but revived it as plain brigadier in 1928.