David Henderson (officer)

David Henderson

Sir David Henderson KCB , KCVO , DSO (born August 11, 1862 in Glasgow , † August 17, 1921 in Geneva ) was a British officer in the British Army and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) who achieved the rank of Lieutenant-General . In the first year of World War I he was in command of the RFC in the field and after the war he became General Director of the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva.

Life

Henderson was born the son of David Henderson Sr., one of the owners of the shipbuilding company D. & W. Henderson & Company . At the age of 15 he was accepted at the University of Glasgow , where he studied engineering. He left the university in 1881 without a degree to be trained at the Royal Military College Sandhurst for an officer career. He received his lieutenant's license in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment in August 1883 and reached the rank of captain in 1890 .

Henderson took part in the Nile Campaign from 1897 to 1898 , where he served as aide-de-camp of Brigadier General Neville Lyttelton and Staff Captain (Intelligence) . He was Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Army Headquarters from 1898 to 1899 . He was then transferred to Natal , South Africa, as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General , where the Second Boer War broke out in the same year . He was present at the siege of Ladysmith (November 1899 to February 1900) and was wounded in the process. Until 1902 he fought in the Transvaal, among other places, and from 1901 to 1902 he was Director of Military Intelligence on Lord Kitchener's staff with the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel . After the end of the war he remained assigned to the civil administration of the Transvaal until April 1903 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his services in 1903 .

Back in the motherland, Henderson was from 1904 to 1907 in staff assignments with the 1st Army Corps in Aldershot , where he published his manual Field Intelligence: Its Principles and Practice in 1904 . The Art of Reconnaissance followed in 1907, cementing his reputation as a leading authority on field education. From 1907 to 1912 he was General Staff Officer (BGGS) at the Inspector General of the Home Forces , then he became Director of Military Training in the War Office .

Henderson had taught himself to fly in 1911 at the age of 49 (RAeC certificate No. 118) and was thus the oldest pilot in the world at the time. In 1913 he was appointed the first Director-General of Military Aeronautics in the War Office. At the beginning of the First World War he took over the leadership of the Royal Flying Corps in the field on the Western Front and was promoted to Major-General in October 1914 . From the end of November to the end of December 1914 he had to step in as commander of the 1st Division and was represented by his chief of staff Frederick Sykes during this time . In August 1915 he returned to London to take over the business as Director-General of Military Aeronautics , which Sefton Brancker had led in his absence. His successor at the RFC in the field was Hugh Trenchard . He assisted General Jan Christiaan Smuts in 1917 in drafting the report that led to the establishment of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Trenchard also later said that the title of "father of the RAF" was not due to him, but to Henderson.

Henderson became a member and vice-chairman of the newly formed Air Council , chaired by Lord Rothermere , in early 1918 . In April he gave up his post to escape the “atmosphere of intrigue” in the Ministry of Aviation. Until shortly before the end of the war he served in France with the RAF. He then became a military advisor in Paris and served the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919. He then became director general of the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva, where he died two years later at the age of 59. His only son, Ian, had fallen as a squadron captain of the RFC in France in early 1918.

Henderson was Colonel of Honor in the Highland Light Infantry since March 1918 . In April 1914 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath , and since December 1918 he was Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order . Since 1920 he was a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.

Web links

Commons : David Henderson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Sir David Henderson at the Lions led by Donkeys project , Center for War Studies, Birmingham University
• Sir David Henderson on the University of Glasgow pages
• Photo and short biography on the pages of the Imperial War Museum
• Lieutenant General Sir David Henderson at Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization ( rafweb.org )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lieutenant General Sir David Henderson at rafweb.org
2. ↑ John Bourne: Sir David Henderson on birmingham.ac.uk , accessed August 21, 2016.