Edward Chaytor

Sir Edward Chaytor, around 1918

Sir Edward Walter Clervaux Chaytor KCMG , KCVO , CB (born June 21, 1868 in Motueka , New Zealand , † June 15, 1939 in London ) was a New Zealand officer who fought in the Second Boer War and the First World War and had the rank of major-general reached.

Life

Chaytor was born to John Clervaux Chaytor and his wife Emma, ​​nee Fearon, and raised at Nelson College . After reaching the age of majority, he first ran the family farm in Spring Creek near Blenheim . In 1886 he joined the Marlborough Hussars (later Marlborough Mounted Rifle Volunteers ) and achieved the rank of Lieutenant in 1889 and Captain in 1893 . In 1898, Chaytor married the widowed Louisa Jane Hiley, with whom he had three children.

In early 1900, Chaytor left New Zealand as a volunteer in the third (of ten) contingent of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles to participate in the Second Boer War in South Africa. In a battle on May 26, 1900, for which he was mentioned in dispatches , his right thigh bone was shattered by a bullet. Although he returned to his unit after his recovery and took part in a few other skirmishes, he was dismissed as unfit for service in May 1901 and sent home. In February 1902 he returned to South Africa with the eighth New Zealand contingent. He was now Brevet - Lieutenant-Colonel and commanded the South Iceland Regiment . As the war ended on May 31, 1902, he had no opportunity to distinguish himself again.

On his return to New Zealand, Chaytor became a career officer and initially served as a major in the 1st Battalion of the Nelson Mounted Rifle Volunteers . He soon gave up this post to work in Wellington for the Defense Department as Assistant Adjutant General . In 1907, Chaytor was the first New Zealand officer to be admitted to the UK Staff College Camberley . On his return to New Zealand in 1910, he was appointed Director of Military Training. In late 1910 he was given command of the Wellington Military District, and in 1911 he was promoted to colonel . His last assignment was as adjutant general of the armed forces from July 1914.

With the beginning of the First World War, Chaytor was responsible for personnel issues and logistics in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) under Major-General Alexander Godley . On the one hand, he put together the approximately 1,400-strong New Zealand contingent that occupied German Samoa at the end of August 1914 . The second and bigger task was the organization of the actual NZEF, which embarked for Egypt with around 8,500 men in Wellington in October 1914. Upon arrival, he continued to serve under Godley, who assumed command of the New Zealand and Australian Division , newly formed in December 1914 . After a few months of joint training, the division took part in the Battle of Gallipoli from April 1915 . Chaytor was wounded several times here and was forced to convalesce in England.

From November 1915, Chaytor commanded the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade in Egypt, which was part of the ANZAC Mounted Division under the Australian Harry Chauvel from early 1916 and was used in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns. Chaytor proved his cold-bloodedness here when he ignored a withdrawal order from Philip Chetwode at the Battle of Rafah in January 1917 and thus contributed significantly to the victorious outcome of the battle. When Chauvel took over the Desert Column in April 1917 , Chaytor was his successor at the head of the ANZAC Mounted Division with the rank of major-general. He is the only native New Zealander to ever command an ANZAC division. For his military success, Chaytor was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918 . A formation under his command took Amman in late September 1918 .

After the armistice and the return to New Zealand, Chaytor was appointed Commandant and General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces in December 1919 . He held this post until his retirement from active service in April 1924. During this time he was responsible for a comprehensive reorganization of the New Zealand armed forces. In 1920 he was inducted into the Royal Victorian Order as Knight Commander .

Chaytor retired with his family in London, where he died in 1939.

literature

• Glyn Harper, Joel Hayward (Eds.): Born to Lead ?: Portraits of New Zealand Commanders. Exisle Publishing, 2003, ISBN 978-1-927147-39-9 , pp. 69-83.

Web links

• Chaytor, Edward Walter Clervaux in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Knights and Dames: BUL-COL at Leigh Rayment's Peerage

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfred William Robin	Commandant and General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces 1919–1924	Charles Melvill