Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne

Henry Horne is a redirect to this article. For other people, see Henry Horn .

Henry Horne (1917)

Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne

Henry Sinclair Horne, 1st Baron Horne GCB , KCMG (* 19 February 1861 in Stirkoke House , Wick , County Caithness , Scotland ; † 14. August 1929 ) was a British general in the First World War .

Life

Henry Horne was born the third son of a British major and raised at Harrow and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich . In 1880 he joined the Royal Artillery . In 1897 he married his wife, with whom he had a daughter. From 1899 to 1902 he fought under John French in the Second Boer War and was Mentioned in Despatches . In 1905 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery and served under Douglas Haig in Aldershot . In 1912 he was a brigadier general to the inspector appointed the mounted and field artillery and remained in that position until the outbreak of the First World War.

After the establishment of the British Expeditionary Force , he served as artillery commander in the I Corps under Haig. He distinguished himself during the retreat through France after the Battle of Mons and during the First Battle of the Marne . During the First Battle of Flanders he was promoted to major general and at the end of the year he was accepted as a companion in the Order of the Bath . In January 1915 he received command of the 2nd Division of the 1st Corps and fought with her in the battles of Givenchy and Festubert. In the Battle of Loos in September and October 1915 he was involved in the first British use of poison gas .

In November 1915 Horne left the Western Front to accompany the War Minister Lord Kitchener to the Dardanelles , where the evacuation of the failed Dardanelles expedition was imminent. In January 1916 he was given command of the XV. Corps on the Suez Canal . In March the corps was transferred to France and placed under the 4th Army . From July 1916 it took part in the Battle of the Somme , with Horne successfully using the fire roller. In September Horne was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath and succeeded Charles Monro with the rank of Brevet General as Commander in Chief of the 1st Army .

With the 1st Army Horne took part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917 , during which his Canadian corps stormed the heights of Vimy . He successfully defended this position even after troops had been withdrawn from him for the battles of Messines and Passchendaele further north . In April 1918, his army was exposed to heavy German attacks during the Fourth Battle of Flanders , but withdrew in good order. During this time, part of his front was commanded by Herbert Plumer . During the Hundred Days Offensive , his troops distinguished themselves at Drocourt-Quéant and the Canal du Nord , conquering Lens , Douai and Valenciennes .

After the war, Horne was made Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath and received a note of thanks from Parliament. On October 8, 1919, he was raised to the hereditary nobility as Baron Horne of Stirkoke in the County of Caithness . He was Commander-in-Chief of Eastern Command from 1919 to 1922 and retired from the Army in 1926. He was then appointed Master Gunner of St. James's Park and in 1929 became regiment commander of the Highland Light Infantry . He died on August 14, 1929 on his estate in Stirkoke and was buried in his family's grave. His title expired on his death because he had no male descendant.

literature

• Don Farr: The Silent General: Horne of the First Army: A Biography of Haig's Trusted Great War Comrade-in-Arms. Helion & Co., 2007. ISBN 978-1-874622-99-4 .
• Simon Robbins: British Generalship During the Great War: The Military Career of Sir Henry Horne (1861-1929). Ashgate Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7546-6127-6 .

Web links

Commons : Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• General The Lord Horne Of Stirkoke: Caithness's Greatest Soldier
• Biography on firstworldwar.com