Cyril Deverell

Sir Cyril John Deverell GCB , KBE , ADC (born November 9, 1874 in Saint Peter Port , Guernsey , † May 12, 1947 in Lymington , Hampshire ) was a British officer who served as brigade and division commander in World War I and in the Between the wars he was promoted to field marshal and chief of the Imperial General Staff .

Life

Born the son of a subaltern officer and later major , Deverell was trained at the Bedford School and in 1895 came as a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment , with which he took part in the Fourth Ashanti War in what is now Ghana . He later served with the 1st Battalion in Hong Kong , Singapore and British India . With the rank of captain he attended the Indian Staff College in Quetta from 1906 to 1908 and was then appointed General Staff Officer 2nd Degree (GSO2) in the Indian 4th (Quetta) Division .

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Deverell was in England on home leave and was appointed Brigade Major of the 85th Brigade (part of the newly formed 28th Division ). In this role he served, among other things, in the Second Battle of Flanders in the spring of 1915, after which he was promoted to full major. From July to October 1915 he commanded a battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment in the Armentières area before taking over the 20th Brigade of the regular 7th Division . With this he took part in the fighting for Bazentin Ridge in the autumn of 1916 during the Battle of the Somme . At the turn of the year 1916/17 promoted to colonel and temporary major-general , he received command of the 3rd Division , with which he took part in the spring battle of Arras in April 1917 . He led this division until the armistice in 1918, including in the Third Battle of Flanders , the Battle of Cambrai , in the defense of the "Michael" offensive and in the final Hundred Days Offensive .

Promoted to full major-general on January 1, 1919, Deverell was General Officer Commanding of the 53rd (Welsh) Division of the Territorial Army for two years . In 1921 he went back to India to take over a district command in the United Provinces District until 1925 . He became Quartermaster General in India in 1927 and was promoted to Lieutenant General the following year . From 1930 to 1931 he was Chief of the General Staff of the British Indian Army . This was followed by assignments in his home country as General Officer Commanding of the Western Command from 1931 to 1933 and of the Eastern Command from 1933 to 1936. The promotion to general had taken place in April 1933. Since 1934 Deverell was also Colonel of Honor in the West Yorkshire Regiment .

Memorial plaque in York Minster

In February 1936, Deverell was appointed to succeed Archibald Montgomery-Massingberds as Chief of the Imperial General Staff and promoted to Field Marshal in May of the same year. He continued the administration of his predecessor and provided for the prompt dispatch of a second British Expeditionary Force to the continent in the event of a new European war . Disagreements over this with the minister of war Leslie Hore-Belisha , who was in office from May 1937, led to Deverell being ousted from office by Hore-Belisha at the end of 1937 - like most members of the Army Council . He was succeeded by Lord Gort . In World War II, no longer used, Deverell died two years after the end of the age of 72 years.

literature

• TA Heathcote: The British Field Marshals 1736-1997: A Biographical Dictionary. Casemate, 2012.

predecessor	Office	successor
Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1936–1937	John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort