James Harbord

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Harbord as Major General

James Guthrie Harbord (born March 21, 1866 in Bloomington , Illinois , † August 20, 1947 in Rye , New York ) was an American officer with the rank of Lieutenant General and from 1922 to 1930 Chairman of the Board of Radio Corporation of America .

biography

Training and military career

Harbord grew up in Bushong and Manhattan , Kansas , and graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1886 . He then worked as a teacher at the college for three years.

In 1889 he enlisted in the United States Army to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point. When another applicant was preferred to him despite his better performance, he nevertheless entered the 4th Infantry as a private and reached the rank of officer in 1891. In 1895 he graduated from the School of Cavalry and Infantry at Fort Leavenworth . During the Spanish-American War he served in Cuba without having been involved in combat, and served here with the 10th Cavalry Regiment and under Leonard Wood as an adjutant in Santiago and Puerto Principe until 1901 . In 1901 he was promoted to captain ( captain ). In 1902 he asked for his transfer to the Philippines , where he again served under Wood and from 1903 set up the Moro Constabulary . He served in the islands for the next ten years and was temporarily chief of the Philippine Constabulary , a forerunner of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
After returning to the United States, he initially served on the Mexican border and then attended the United States Army War College from 1916 to 1917 .

First World War

In May 1917 promoted to Lieutenant Colonel , Harbord accompanied John J. Pershing as Chief of Staff of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) to Europe in the same month . In May 1918 he was promoted to Brigadier General in command of the Marine Brigade attached to the 2nd Infantry Division , which he led at Château-Thierry and in the Belleau Forest . On July 14, 1918, he took over command of the 2nd Division from Omar Bundy and led it in the Second Battle of the Marne . At the end of the month he received the command of the Services of Supply of the AEF as major general and worked in this role until May 1919. He was then again Chief of Staff of the AEF.

post war period

In August 1919, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him head of the American military mission in the Middle East. Among other things, he reported on the situation in Palestine and Armenia , and the final report he wrote was published in 1920.

In the USA Harbord commanded the 2nd Division again until July 1921 and was then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army under General Pershing until his retirement from active service in December 1922. In the pension list was listed from 1942 as Lieutenant General.

Radio Corporation of America

In early 1923, Harbord took over as chairman of the board of directors of Radio Corporation of America (RCA). His term in office officially lasted until 1930, although he took a long break in 1928 to work for Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign . He was succeeded by David Sarnoff . Harbord remained on the RCA's Board of Directors until shortly before his death at the age of 81.

Harbord was married to Emma Ovenshine (1867-1937).
His grave is in Arlington National Cemetery .

Awards

Fonts

  • Leaves From a War Diary (1931)
  • The American Army in France 1917-1919 (1936)

literature

  • John S. Guthrie Jr. (Ed.): The Military Order of World Wars. Turner Publishing, 1995, pp. 21-22.

Web links

Commons : James Guthrie Harbord  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ^ Conditions in the Near East. Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia at armenianhouse.org
  2. ↑ See headstone, Arlington National Cemetery
personal data
SURNAME Harbord, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harbord, James Guthrie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Lieutenant General
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Bloomington , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1947
Place of death Rye , New York