Horace Smith-Dorrien

Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien

Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien GCB , GCMG , DSO , ADC (born May 26, 1858 in Berkhamsted , Hertfordshire , † August 12, 1930 in Chippenham , Wiltshire ) was a British general and army commander in World War I and Governor of Gibraltar .

Life

Smith-Dorrien was born the twelfth of 16 children to a retired British colonel . After training at Harrow and Sandhurst , he joined the 95th (Derbyshire) Foot Regiment in the British Army in 1876 as a lieutenant .

In 1878 he was transferred to South Africa as a supply officer, where he took part in the Zulu War that broke out in 1879 . He was one of five surviving officers of the Battle of Isandhlwana and was subsequently proposed for a Victoria Cross . For his participation in the Battle of Ulundi he was Mentioned in Despatches . From 1882 to 1887 he served in Egypt where he took part in the campaign against Ahmed Urabi Pasha . On December 30, 1885, he took part in the Battle of Ginnis and received the Distinguished Service Order for his service .

In 1887 he completed a course at Staff College Camberley . He spent the next ten years mainly in India , where he took part in the Tirah campaign from 1897 to 1898. In 1898 he returned to Egypt and Sudan and took part in the decisive battle of Omdurman during the Mahdi uprising . A short time later he commanded a British unit during the Faschoda crisis . During this time he was promoted to the rank of colonel and was given command of a battalion .

In October 1899 he and his unit were transferred to South Africa, where he took part in the Second Boer War that had just broken out . A little later he was given command of a brigade with which he fought at Paardeberg , Sanna's Post and Leliefontein , among others . After the end of the war he was appointed adjutant general of the British Indian Army by Lord Roberts . In April 1903 he gave up this position and became commander of the 4th (Quetta) Division.

In 1907 he was appointed, now with the rank of lieutenant general, to succeed John French as commander of the Aldershot Command . In 1912 he received the same position in Southern Command and was promoted to general.

After the outbreak of the First World War , he received command of the II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force through the protection of his former superior and current Secretary of War, Lord Kitchener , after his predecessor James Grierson died on August 17, 1914. He arrived in France just in time to command the corps in the battle of Mons . At the Battle of Le Cateau , he ignored the order of his superior John French to withdraw from the German troops. Further missions followed in the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of the Aisne . During the race to the sea he fought at La Bassée and in the subsequent First Battle of Flanders . In December 1914, the British 2nd Army was formed from his corps . During the Second Battle of Flanders in April 1915, when the Germans first used poison gas , he suggested that his troops should withdraw to Ypres. The subsequent dispute with the commander-in-chief of the BEF John French led to his replacement as army commander on May 6th. Smith-Dorrien returned to England, and was succeeded by Herbert Plumer .

In 1916 he was given command of the British troops in the East Africa campaign against Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , but was unable to take up the post because of pneumonia . His former opponent Jan Christiaan Smuts was given command in his place . In early 1917 he was made Lieutenant of the Tower of London .

Smith-Dorrien was Governor of Gibraltar from 1918 to 1923. In the summer of 1918 he tried to convince several veterans' associations to merge; this only succeeded in 1921 with the establishment of the British Legion . In September 1923 he resigned from the army and then lived in Portugal and England. He became involved in veterans affairs and published his memoirs in 1925. He played himself in the 1926 film The Battle of Mons . In 1930 he inaugurated the war memorial in Pozières . A few days later, at the age of 72, he was killed in a car accident.

Web links

Commons : Horace Smith-Dorrien  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography at historyofwar.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Herbert Miles	Governor of Gibraltar 1918–1923	Charles Monro