Charles Macpherson Dobell
Sir Charles Macpherson Dobell KCB , CMG , DSO (* 22. June 1869 in Québec City ; † 17th October 1954 in London ) was a from Canada originating officer in the British Army , which the rank of Lieutenant-General reached and in the First World War under fought in Cameroon and in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns.
Life
Dobell was the son of the Liverpool businessman and politician Richard Reid Dobell, who emigrated to Canada in 1857, and Elizabeth Frances Macpherson, daughter of the railroad entrepreneur David Lewis Macpherson . He was educated at a Canadian private school, a high school in Québec and the British Charterhouse School and entered the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston , Ontario in 1886 as an officer candidate . After graduating, he was assigned to the British regiment of the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant in 1890 and took part in the Hazara expedition in what is now Pakistan in 1891 . In 1892 he became a lieutenant and in 1896 a captain and adjutant of the 2nd battalion.
In 1899 Dobell while on Crete was stationed, for Brevet - Major transported. In the same year he was sent to South Africa after the outbreak of the Second Boer War and was given command of a mounted infantry regiment in early 1900, with which he participated in the relief of Kimberley , the Battle of Paardeberg and operations in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, among other things . For his services in South Africa, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Queen's South Africa Medal with six clasps. In July 1900 he was transferred to China to take part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion .
After the end of the Boer War, Dobell completed the two-year course at the English Staff College . He then served from 1905 as a battalion commander in the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and took part in the suppression of revolts in the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria . In 1907 he was assigned to the War Office as a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel . In 1910 he became aide-de-camp of the king and was awarded the rank of colonel .
In 1913 Dobell was promoted to Brigadier General and received the post of Inspector General of the West African Frontier Force. As such, with the outbreak of World War I, he also became the commander of the Allied troops that were deployed against the German colony of Cameroon . These operations dragged on until the spring of 1916 (cf. Cameroon in World War I ), Dobell was promoted to Major-General here in 1915 and knighted for his success as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in April 1916 .
After the conclusion of the campaign in Cameroon, Dobell was transferred to Egypt , where he was given command of the Western Frontier Force in June 1916 . As part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), it was responsible for defending Egypt's western border against rebel tribes from neighboring Libya . In September 1916 he took over a section of the defensive positions on the Suez Canal and in the following month became General Officer Commanding of the newly formed Eastern Force of the EEF with the rank of Lieutenant-General . He was directly under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the EEF, Archibald Murray . Dobell's troops, initially consisting of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division , the 52nd (Lowland) Division and the mobile Desert Column under Philip Chetwode , pushed the opposing Ottoman troops back from the Sinai Peninsula in several battles in the winter of 1916/17 the fight subsequently on Ottoman territory. However, in the spring of 1917, two attempts to take the heavily fortified Ottoman garrison town of Gaza failed with high losses. After the Second Battle of Gaza in April, in which the British lost over 6,000 men, Dobell was deposed by Murray. Murray himself was to be replaced by Edmund Allenby just a few weeks later .
Dobell was transferred to British India as district commander after this debacle . He commanded the Third Anglo-Afghan War , a 1919 Division . In 1923 he retired from active service. From 1926 to 1938 he was Honorary Colonel of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. In addition to his British awards, he was, among other things, commander of the French Legion of Honor .
Web links
- Who's Who: Sir Charles Dobell on firstworldwar.com
- Entry on angloboerwar.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dobell, Charles Macpherson |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian-British general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1869 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Quebec City |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th October 1954 |
| Place of death | London |