Neville Lyttelton

Sir Neville Lyttelton (around 1908)

Sir Neville Gerald Lyttelton GCB , GCVO , PC (born October 28, 1845 in Hagley , Worcestershire , † July 6, 1931 in London ) was an officer in the British Army , most recently a general , who served in several wars and from 1904 to 1908 first chief of the British General Staff and then Commander-in-Chief, Ireland .

Life

Lyttelton was born as a member of the British noble family Lyttelton . He was the third son of a total of twelve children of the 4th Baron Lyttelton from his first marriage to Mary, née Glynne (from the family of the 8th Baronet Glynne and related by marriage to the multiple Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone ). While his eldest brother Charles inherited the title of nobility and seat in the House of Lords and the second eldest pursued a priestly career, Neville was being prepared for an officer career. He was educated at Eton and inducted into the Rifle Brigade in 1865 . As a young officer, he took part in the fighting against the Fenians in Canada in 1866 and subsequently served as secretary of the Oregon Boundary Commission . From 1868 he served as an adjutant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer .

With the rank of captain he was involved in the 1877 campaign against the Jowaki in the North West Frontier Province of British India . In 1880 he became private secretary to Secretary of War Hugh Childers in the Gladstone Liberal government . In 1882 he took part as aide-de-camp of the deputy commander under Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley , John Miller Adye , in the Egyptian expedition that led to the subjugation of the Urabi movement and the establishment of decades of British rule in Egypt . From 1883 Lyttelton served for two years as the military secretary of Adye, who was appointed Commander in Chief and Governor of Gibraltar . This was followed in the period from 1885 to 1890 an activity in the same function with the governor of Bombay , Donald Mackay, 11th Lord Reay . He was acquainted in his formative years with later leading statesmen in the field of foreign policy such as Edward Gray and Arthur James Balfour .

In 1890 Lyttelton became deputy commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in India. Two years later he was given the permanent rank of Lieutenant Colonel and soon took command of the 2nd Battalion, which was stationed in Dublin . After the end of this tenure he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General in the War Office in 1895 , followed by the position of Assistant Military Secretary until 1898. In the latter year he served in the Nile campaign as commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade within William Gatacre's British Infantry Division, where he was involved in the decisive battle of Omdurman , which effectively ended the Mahdi uprising . In October 1898 he returned to his post in the War Office.

Lyttelton at Vanity Fair , 1901

In 1899 Lyttelton, promoted to major-general , briefly commanded the 2nd Brigade in the Aldershot garrison . When the Second Boer War broke out in the fall of 1899, he went to South Africa , where he took over the 4th Infantry Brigade within the Natal Field Force . After the battle of Spion Kop , he temporarily replaced his previous superior Francis Clery as commander of the 2nd Division in February 1900 and was promoted to local lieutenant-general in March for his services in relieving the beleaguered Ladysmith . He later led the 4th Division and served in Natal until the end of the war in 1902 . He received numerous awards for his services in South Africa, including the KCB , and was mentioned eight times in dispatches . After the war he became General Officer Commanding throughout South Africa, which he remained until 1904.

In the course of the army reforms that began after the war and the abolition of the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lyttelton was appointed first Chief of the Army General Staff and a member of the newly formed Army Council in February 1904 . During his four-year term this reform was continued with the Haldane reforms (after War Minister Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane ). In 1906 Lyttelton was promoted to full general. After the end of his term in May 1908, his post was replaced by that of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). Lyttelton's last active post was that of Commander-in-Chief in Ireland , which he filled until 1912. After the death of Edward VII in 1910 and George V's accession to the throne , he was awarded the GCVO in 1911. In August 1912 he retired from active service.

In retirement, Lyttelton served as Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 1912 , which he remained until his death in 1931. During the First World War , he sat in 1916/17 in a commission that examined the conduct of the campaign in Mesopotamia .

family

Lyttelton was married to Katherine Sarah, youngest daughter of the politician James Stuart-Wortley , since 1883 . The couple had three daughters, the eldest of whom, Lucy Blanche, married Charles Masterman , liberal politician and World War I propaganda leader .

literature

• Edward M. Spiers: Haldane: Army Reformer. Edinburgh University Press, 1984, ISBN 978-0-85224-370-1 .

Web links

• Lyttelton, General Sir Neville Gerald (1845–1931) on aim25.ac.uk (archive overview with short curriculum vitae)
• Neville Lyttelton on angloboerwar.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Baron Kitchener	Commander in Chief in South Africa 1902–1904	Sir Henry Hildyard
Office newly created	Chief of the British General Staff 1904–1908	Sir William Nicholson
Francis Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell	Commander in Chief in Ireland 1908–1912	Sir Arthur Paget