Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby

The Viscount Allenby
Field Marshal Viscount Allenby
Nickname(s)	Bloody Bull
Born	(1861-04-23)23 April 1861 Brackenhurst, Nottinghamshire, England
Died	14 May 1936(1936-05-14) (aged 75) London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1880–1925
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands held	6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons 5th Royal Irish Lancers 4th Cavalry Brigade 1st Cavalry Division British Expeditionary Force's Cavalry Corps V Corps British Third Army Egyptian Expeditionary Force
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War Western Front (1914–17) Battle of Mons Retreat from Mons Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1917–18) Battle of Beersheba Battle of Hareira and Sheria Battle of Mughar Ridge Battle of Jerusalem First Transjordan attack on Amman Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt Battle of Megiddo Capture of Damascus Pursuit to Haritan
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Other work	High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan (1919–25)

Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby GCB, GCMG, GCVO (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was an English soldier and British Imperial Governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in World War I, in which he led the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the conquest of Palestine capturing Beersheba, Jaffa, and Jerusalem from October to December 1917. His forces occupied the Jordan Valley during the summer 1918, then went on to capture northern Palestine and defeat Yildirim Army Group's Eighth Army at the Battle of Megiddo, forcing the Fourth and Seventh Army to retreat towards Damascus. Subsequently, the EEF Pursuit by Desert Mounted Corps captured Damascus and advanced into northern Syria. During this pursuit, he commanded T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), whose campaign with Faisal's Arab Sherifial Forces assisted the EEF's capture of Ottoman Empire territory and fought the Battle of Aleppo, five days before the Armistice of Mudros ended the campaign on 30 October 1918. He continued to serve in the region as High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan from 1919 until 1925.

Early years and active service

Allenby was born the son of Hynman Allenby and Catherine Anne Allenby (née Cane) and was educated at Haileybury College.^[1] He had no great desire to be a soldier, and tried to enter the Indian Civil Service but failed the entry exam.^[1] He sat the exam for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1880, was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons on 10 May 1882,^[2] and joined his regiment in South Africa later that year.^[3] After serving at the cavalry depot in Canterbury, he was promoted to captain on 10 January 1888^[4] and then returned to South Africa.^[3]

Allenby returned to Britain in 1890 and he sat – and failed – the entry exam for the Staff College in Camberley. Not deterred, he sat the exam again the next year and passed. Captain Douglas Haig of the 7th Hussars also entered the Staff College at the same time, thus beginning a rivalry between the two that ran until the First World War.^[3] Allenby was more popular with fellow officers, even being made Master of the Draghounds in preference to Haig who was the better rider; Allenby had already developed a passion for polo.^[3] Their contemporary James Edmonds later claimed that the staff at Staff College thought Allenby dull and stupid but were impressed by a speech that he gave to the Farmers' Dinner, which had in fact been written for him by Edmonds and another.^[5]

He was promoted to major on 19 May 1897^[6] and was posted to the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, then serving in Ireland, as the Brigade-Major in March 1898.^[3]

Boer War

At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, Allenby was returned to his regiment, and the Inniskillings were embarked at Queenstown before landing at Cape Town, South Africa, later that year.^[3] He took part in the actions at Colesberg on 11 January 1900, Klip Drift on 15 February 1900 and Dronfield Ridge on 16 February 1900,^[3] and was mentioned in despatches by the commander-in-chief, Lord Roberts on 31 March 1900.^[7]

While camped beside the Australian Light Horse outside Bloemfontein with Lord Roberts' army, the New South Wales Lancers with the rest of French's cavalry, waited to move. At this time both men and horses suffered continuously rainy weather and cases of enteric were taken away every day. Major Allenby, appointed to command the squadron of New South Wales Lancers, arrived one evening towards midnight. He was about to walk in on a rum soaked officers' mess, when he was intercepted by an acquaintance, (A. B. Paterson who later commanded Remounts during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War) who informed Allenby the mess were just drinking his health. He replied, "I heard you. But that's no excuse for keeping the whole camp awake. You tell them to be in bed with all lights out, in five minutes, or I'll have to do something about it."^[8]

Allenby went on take part in the actions at Zand River on 10 May 1900, Kalkheuval Pass on 3 June 1900, Barberton on 12 September 1900 and Tevreden on 16 October 1900 when the Boer General Jan Smuts was defeated.^[3] He was promoted to local lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1901,^[9] local colonel on 29 April 1901,^[10] lieutenant-colonel on 2 August 1902^[11] and brevet colonel on 22 August 1902.^[12]

Edwardian Period

Allenby returned to Britain in 1902 and became commanding officer of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers in Colchester, promoted to the substantive rank of colonel and to the temporary rank of brigadier general on 19 October 1905.^[13] He assumed command of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in 1906.^[14] He was promoted again to the rank of major-general on 10 September 1909^[15] and was appointed Inspector-General of Cavalry in 1910 due to his extensive cavalry experience.^[14] He was nicknamed "The Bull" due to an increasing tendency for sudden bellowing outbursts of explosive rage directed at his subordinates, combined with his powerful physical frame.^[14]

World War I

Western Front

During the First World War, Allenby initially served on the Western Front. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, a British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sent to France. It consisted of four infantry divisions and one cavalry division, the latter commanded by Allenby. The cavalry division first saw action in semi-chaotic circumstances covering the retreat after the Battle of Mons opposing the German Army's invasion of France.^{[Note 1]} The division distinguished itself under Allenby's direction in the subsequent fighting, with minimal resources at its disposal, at the First Battle of Ypres.^[14]

Allenby was promoted to temporary lieutenant-general on 10 October 1914.^[16] As the BEF was expanded in size to two Armies, he was rewarded by being made commander of the Cavalry Corps.^[14] On 6 May 1915, Allenby voluntarily left the Cavalry Arm to take up command of V Corps which was engaged at that moment in severe fighting at the Second Battle of Ypres. The V Corps was victorious in defeating the German Imperial Army's assault but incurred controversially heavy losses in the process through Allenby's tactical policy of continual counter-attacks at the German attacking force. In September 1915, V Corps attempted a diversion of German Army strength to facilitate the concurrent British Army offensive at Loos. They executed a minor attack in the Hooge Sector in the Ypres Salient under Allenby's direction, which once again incurred substantial losses to its units involved in the affair.^[17] In October 1915, Allenby was promoted to lead the British Third Army,^[14] being made Lieutenant-General (substantive rank) on 1 January 1916.^[18] In mid-Summer 1916, he was the Army Commander in support of the launch of the Battle of the Somme offensive, with responsibility for the abortive assault by 3rd Army troops on the trench fortress of the Gommecourt salient, which failed with severe casualties to the units under his command in the operation. There were weeks of heavy fighting during 3rd Army's offensive at the Battle of Arras in the Spring of the 1917, where an initial breakthrough had deteriorated into trench-fighting positional warfare—once more with heavy casualties to 3rd Army's units involved. Allenby lost the confidence of his Commander-in-Chief Douglas Haig. He was promoted to full General on 3 June 1917,^[19] but he was replaced at the head of 3rd Army on 9 June 1917 and returned to England.^[14]

Egypt and Palestine

Drawing of Allenby from journal "The War" c. 1917

The British War Cabinet was divided in debate in May 1917 over the allocation of British resources between the Western Front and other fronts, with Allied victory over Germany far from certain. Curzon and Hankey recommended that Britain seize ground in the Middle East. Lloyd George wanted more effort on other fronts, but also wanted a commander "of the dashing type" to replace Sir Archibald Murray in command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Smuts refused the command (late May) unless promised resources for a decisive victory. Lloyd George appointed Allenby, telling him that his objective was "Jerusalem before Christmas" and that he had only to ask for reinforcements to get them. Chief of the Imperial General Staff ("CIGS") Robertson believed that Western Front commitments did not justify a serious attempt to capture Jerusalem (Third Ypres was in progress from 31 July until November), and throughout 1917 he put pressure on Allenby to demand unrealistically large reinforcements to discourage the politicians from authorising Middle East offensives. Allenby's exact remit was still undecided when he was appointed.^[20]

Shortly after his departure from England for the Middle East, Allenby learned that his son Michael had fallen in action on the Western Front. He arrived on 27 June 1917. He assessed the Turkish Army's fighting force that he was facing to be 46,000 rifles and 2,800 sabres, and estimated that he could take Jerusalem with 7 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions. He did not feel that there was a sufficient military case to do so, and felt that he would need reinforcements to advance further. Allenby was eventually ordered to attack the Turks in southern Palestine, but the extent of his advance was not yet to be decided, advice which Robertson repeated in "secret and personal" notes (1 and 10 August).^[21]

Allenby quickly won the respect of his troops by making frequent visits to the EEF's front-line units, in a marked change from the leadership style of his predecessor Murray, who had commanded primarily from Cairo. Allenby moved the EEF's GHQ from the Egyptian capital city to Rafah, nearer to the front lines at Gaza, and re-organized the disparate forces of the EEF into a three primary corps order of battle: XX, XXI, and the Desert Mounted Corps. He also approved the utilisation of Arabic irregular forces which were operating at that time to the Turkish Army's open left flank in the Arabian interior, under the direction of a young British Army Intelligence officer named T. E. Lawrence. He sanctioned £200,000 a month for Lawrence to facilitate his work amongst the tribes involved.^[22]

In early October 1917, Robertson asked Allenby to state his extra troop requirements to advance from the Gaza-Beersheba line (30 miles wide) to the Jaffa-Jerusalem line (50 miles wide), urging him to take no chances in estimating the threat of a German-reinforced threat. Allenby's estimate was that he would need 13 extra divisions (an impossible demand even if Haig's forces went on the defensive) and that he might face 18 Turkish and 2 German divisions. Yet, in private letters, Allenby and Robertson agreed that sufficient British Empire troops were already in place to take and hold Jerusalem.^[23]

Having reorganised his regular forces, Allenby won the Third Battle of Gaza (31 October – 7 November 1917) by surprising the defenders with an attack at Beersheba. His force pushed northwards towards Jerusalem. The Ottomans were beaten at Junction Station (10–14 November), and Jerusalem was captured on 9 December 1917.^[24]

Honouring Jerusalem on foot

The victorious General Allenby dismounted, enters Jerusalem on foot out of respect for the Holy City, 11 December 1917

Allenby dismounted and entered the city on foot through the Jaffa Gate, together with his officers, in deliberate contrast to the perceived arrogance of the Kaiser's entry into Jerusalem on horseback in 1898. He did this out of respect for the status of Jerusalem as the Holy City important to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (see his proclamation of martial law below).^[25] He subsequently stated in his official report:

...I entered the city officially at noon, 11 December, with a few of my staff, the commanders of the French and Italian detachments, the heads of the political missions, and the Military Attaches of France, Italy, and America... The procession was all afoot, and at Jaffa gate I was received by the guards representing England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, India, France and Italy. The population received me well..."^[26]

Allenby's official proclamation of martial law following the fall of Jerusalem on 9 December 1917 read as follows:

To the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Blessed and the People Dwelling in Its Vicinity:
  The defeat inflicted upon the Turks by the troops under my command has resulted in the occupation of your city by my forces. I, therefore, here now proclaim it to be under martial law, under which form of administration it will remain so long as military considerations make necessary.
  However, lest any of you be alarmed by reason of your experience at the hands of the enemy who has retired, I hereby inform you that it is my desire that every person pursue his lawful business without fear of interruption.
  Furthermore, since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents of three of the great religions of mankind and its soil has been consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people of these three religions for many centuries, therefore, do I make it known to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of whatsoever form of the three religions will be maintained and protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred.
  Guardians have been established at Bethlehem and on Rachel's Tomb. The tomb at Hebron has been placed under exclusive Moslem control.
  The hereditary custodians at the gates of the Holy Sepulchre have been requested to take up their accustomed duties in remembrance of the magnanimous act of the Caliph Omar, who protected that church.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference horne was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Upon entering, he also reportedly made the remark "only now have the crusades ended." ^[27] The crusade imagery was used to describe the campaign by the British press and later by the British Ministry of Information. ^[28]

Middle East victory

Asked again after the Fall of Jerusalem, Allenby wrote that he would need 16–18 divisions for a further advance of 250 miles to Aleppo (the Damascus-Beirut Line) to cut Turkish communications to Mesopotamia. By early 1918, 50,000 Turks in the theatre were tying down a British Empire ration strength of over 400,000 (of whom almost half were non-combatants, and 117,471 were British troops).^[29]

Smuts was sent to Egypt to confer with Allenby and Marshall, with Robertson's clash with the government now moving to its final stages, and the new Supreme War Council at Versailles drawing up plans for more efforts in the Middle East. Allenby told Smuts of Robertson's private instructions (sent by hand of Walter Kirke, appointed by Robertson as Smuts' adviser) that there was no merit in any further advance. Allenby worked with Smuts to draw up plans to reach Haifa by June and Damascus by the autumn, reinforced by 3 divisions from Mesopotamia. The speed of the advance was limited by the need to lay fresh rail track. This met with War Cabinet approval (6 March 1918).^[30]

The German offensive on the Western Front meant that Allenby was without reinforcements after his forces failed to capture Amman in March and April 1918. He halted the offensive in the spring of 1918 and had to send 60,000 men to the Western Front, although the Dominion Prime Ministers in the Imperial War Cabinet continued to demand a strong commitment to the Middle East in case Germany could not be beaten.^[30]

New troops from the Empire (specifically Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa) led to the resumption of operations in August 1918. Following an extended series of deceptive moves, the Ottoman line was broken at the Battle of Megiddo (19–21 September 1918), and the Allied cavalry passed through and blocked the Turkish retreat. The EEF then advanced at an impressive rate, as high as 60 miles in 55 hours for cavalry, and infantry slogging 20 miles a day and encountering minimal resistance. Damascus fell on 1 October, Homs on 16 October, and Aleppo on 25 October. With the threat of Asia Minor being invaded, the Ottoman Empire capitulated on 30 October 1918 with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros.^[24]

Field Marshal and High Commissioner

Allenby was made a field marshal on 31 July 1919,^[31] and he was created Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe in the County of Suffolk on 7 October.^[32] He remained in the Middle East as High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan until 1925, retiring from active service in that year.^[32]

Retirement

Allenby was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers on 12 September 1925.^[33]

Murray and Allenby were invited to give lectures at Aldershot in 1931 about the Palestine Campaign. Exchanging letters beforehand, Murray asked whether it had been worth risking the Western Front to transfer troops to Palestine. Allenby avoided that question, but commented that it had been far from clear that the Allies were going to win the war in 1917 and into the spring of 1918. Russia had dropped out, but the Americans were not yet present in strength. France and Italy were weakened and might have been persuaded to make peace, perhaps by Germany giving up Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine, and the Trentino. In those circumstances, Germany was likely to be left in control of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and it had been sensible for Britain to grab some land in the Middle East to block Germany's route to India. Allenby's views mirrored those of the War Cabinet at the time.^[34]

Allenby went to Patagonia for a last fishing trip, aged 74, to see if the salmon really were as big as those in the Tay.^[35] He died suddenly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm on 14 May 1936 in London, aged 75. He was cremated and his ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey.^[32]

Legacy

Allenby's Monument in Beersheba

Allenby supposedly once said that people would have to visit a war museum to learn of him, but that T. E. Lawrence would be remembered and become a household name. This was quoted by Robert Bolt in his screenplay for the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David Lean. A blue plaque unveiled in 1960 commemorates Allenby at 24 Wetherby Gardens, South Kensington, London.^[36]

Publicity surrounding Allenby's exploits in the Middle East was at its highest in Britain in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Allenby enjoyed a period of celebrity in the United States, as well. He and his wife went on an American tour in 1928, receiving a standing ovation when he addressed Carnegie Hall in New York City.^[37] Biographer Raymond Savage claimed that, for a time, Allenby was better known in America than Lawrence.^[38]

Allenby was the subject of a 1923 documentary film by British Instructional Films entitled Armageddon, detailing his military leadership during World War I. However, the film is believed lost.^[39]

The epic film Lawrence of Arabia depicts the Arab Revolt during World War I. Allenby is given a major part in it and is portrayed by Jack Hawkins in one of his best-known roles. Screenwriter Bolt called Allenby a "very considerable man" and hoped to depict him sympathetically.^[40] Nonetheless, many view Allenby's portrayal as negative.^[41][42]

The efforts of T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") were greatly aided by Allenby in the Arab Revolt, and he thought highly of Allenby: "(He was) physically large and confident, and morally so great that the comprehension of our littleness came slow to him".^[43]

Into the 1990s, residents of Ismaïlia in north-eastern Egypt burned effigies to mark an annual spring holiday, including one of Allenby more than 70 years after he led forces in the Sinai.^[44]

Family

In 1897, Allenby married Miss Adelaide Chapman, the daughter of a Wiltshire landowner.^[3]

Honours

British

• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) – 17 December 1917^[45]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Military Division (GCB) – 5 November 1918^[46] (KCB: 18 February 1915;^[47] CB: 26 June 1902^[48])
• Viscount Allenby of Meggido and of Felixstowe in the County of Suffolk – 18 October 1919^[49]
• Knight of Justice of the Venerable Order of St. John (KJStJ) – 19 June 1925^[50] (Knight of Grace: 21 December 1917^[51])
• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – 4 June 1934^[52]

Others

• Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour of France – 18 March 1915^[53]
• Belgian Croix de Guerre – 11 March 1918^[54]
• Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle with Swords of the Kingdom of Serbia – 10 September 1918^[55]
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of the Kingdom of Greece – 10 October 1918^[56]
• Croix de Guerre of France – 11 March 1919^[57]
• Army Distinguished Service Medal of the United States – 12 July 1919^[58]
• Grand Officer of the Military Order of Savoy of the Kingdom of Italy – 21 August 1919^[59]
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania of the Kingdom of Romania – 20 September 1919^[60]
• Order of Wen-Hu, 1st Class of the Republic of China – 17 February 1920^[61]
• Order of the Renaissance, 1st Class with Brilliants of the Kingdom of Hejaz – 5 March 1920^[62]
• Order of Michael the Brave, 1st Class of the Kingdom of Romania – 7 May 1920^[63]
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of the Empire of Japan – 21 January 1921^[64]
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers of the Empire of Japan – 20 January 1922^[65]
• Grand Cross (Mil.) of the Order of Leopold of the Kingdom of Belgium – 23 March 1935^[66] (Grand Officer: 26 July 1917^[67])

See also

• First World War
• Battle of Jerusalem (1917)
• Second Boer War
• Cavalry
• British Mandate of Palestine
• Allenby Street Tel Aviv, Israel
• Army Manoeuvres of 1912
• Victory Services Club

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby.

• General Allenby, PBS feature on Lawrence of Arabia
• General Allenby, Used to fulfill 2520 year Biblical prophecy
• Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861–1936), Field Marshal: Sitter in 29 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)
• Lord Allenby – High Commissioner of Egypt. The New York Times, 5 March 1922
• Lord Allenby's Special Train, Dock Siding, Port Said, Egypt
• Historic film footage of General Edmund Allenby entering Jerusalem on foot and reading Jerusalem proclamation, 11 December 1917.
• His introduction to The New Zealanders in Sinai nd Palestine
• British Pathe video of 1926 Corps of Commissionaires inspection by Viscount Allenby