Archibald Hunter

This article describes a British general; for the Scottish soccer player of the same name, see Archie Hunter .

Sir Archibald Hunter, around 1900

Sir Archibald Hunter GCB GCVO DSO ( September 6, 1856 - June 28, 1936 ) was a British general and governor of Gibraltar . He fought in various British colonial wars, for example in the suppression of the Mahdi uprising and in the Boer War .

Life

Parental home, childhood, youth and first commands

Hunter was the son of the London merchant Archibald Hunter (1805-1868). His mother was the daughter of Major Duncan Graham. He received his training in Glasgow and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . He began his career in the British Army in the 4th King's Own Royal Lancashire Regiment .

Gordon Relief Expedition

During the occupation of Egypt by Garnet Joseph Wolseley in 1882 , the Egyptian army was crushed in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir . It was then rebuilt under the command of a British commander, the Sirdar Evelyn Wood . Archibald Hunter joined this new army. He reached Cairo on February 28, 1884 and served as a captain in the 9th Sudanese Battalion, which had just been transferred from Suakin to Egypt. Shortly after his arrival, the battalion commander Major Hallam Parr fell ill and Hunter took command. For six months he led the training of the battalion which was moved to Aswan in August 1884 .

Hunter took part in Wolseley's Gordon Relief Expedition to the rescue of Gordon Pasha and the relief of Khartoum from the Mahdists in Sudan in 1884-85 . He was also the commander of the 9th Sudanese Battalion and staff officer of Lieutenant Colonel Maurice in Abu Fatmeh. On 16 December 1885 he was at Kosheh wounded and after Cairo into hospital brought. For his work he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1886 .

In the years up to the suppression of the Mahdi uprising , Hunter was constantly in front positions in Sudan. In 1889, under Major General Grenfell , he led a brigade in the fighting for Sawakin . He was wounded in these fights.

Kitchener's sword arm

Major-General Hunter in Egyptian uniform

In 1896 Hunter took part in the attack on Sudan with the Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force under Horatio Herbert Kitchener . In the so-called Dongola expedition , the northern province of Sudan was to be occupied first and the logistical prerequisites for a campaign to Omdurman created. Advance troops under Hunter reached Akasheh on March 20. During the attack on Firket, Hunter took command of the Egyptian division formed from three brigades . This constituted Kitchener's main force, the so-called River Column , and advanced along the Nile. On June 7, 1896, he was able to surprise the Mahdists and defeat them in the Battle of Firket . After the capture of Dongola , "Archie" Hunter was promoted to major general in 1896 and was appointed military commander of Dongola.

In July 1897 a flying column was formed to take Abu Hamed to continue the advance to Omdurman. From July 29th to August 7th this column advanced in forced marches, was able to reach Abu Hamed before the relief troops of the Mahdists and on September 5th occupied Berbers . On October 23, Hunter set out with his flying column to explore the course of the Atbara .

On April 8, 1898 Hunter, as KITCHENER'S SWORD-ARM , commanded the Egyptian division in the Battle of Atbara . From July, Hunter's Egyptian Division and the British William Gatacres Division formed the force with which Kitchener marched on the Mahdist capital. On September 2, 1898, Hunters commanded the Egyptian division in the Battle of Omdurman , in which the Mahdists were finally defeated.

Boer War, India and Gibraltar

Caricature Lord Roberts and his commanders with Hunter second from left in Vanity Fair , 1900

1899-1901 Hunter, again as division commander, took part in the Boer War and in 1900 was promoted to lieutenant general. Hunter became General Officer Commanding Scottish District in May 1901. In 1903 Hunter was commanded to India, where he served as Commander-in-Chief Bombay Command (renamed Western Army Corps in 1905) in Poona until 1907 and as General Officer Commanding Southern Army from 1907 to 1910 . In 1905 he reached the rank of full general . From July 30, 1910 to July 11, 1913, Hunter was Governor of Gibraltar .

First World War

On August 9, 1914, shortly after the First World War began , he asked Kitchener, who was now Secretary of War, for a command. By Army Order 324 of August 21, 1914, the so-called Kitchener's Army was set up, most of the units were trained in the Aldershot garrison . Kitchener named Hunter in command of Aldershot . He held this command until September 1917.

Others

Hunter married Mary Fergusson in 1910. This had, as the widow of George Burns, 2nd Baron Inverclyde the chairman of the Cunard Line , June 16, 1904, the RMS Lusitania baptized .

Hunter was the youngest British major general since Wellington . He commanded a brigade at the age of 32 and a division at 39. Winston Churchill , who participated in the Sudan campaign as a reporter, described him as the darling of the Egyptian army and its most imposing figure .

literature

• Archie Hunter: KITCHENER'S SWORD-ARM: The Life and Campaigns of General Sir Archibald Hunter ; ISBN 1-885119-29-1

predecessor	Office	successor
Frederick Forestier-Walker	Governor of Gibraltar 1910–1913	Herbert Miles