Thomas Morland

Sir Thomas Morland

Sir Thomas Lethbridge Napier Morland KCB , KCMG , DSO , (born August 9, 1865 in Montreal , Canada, † May 21, 1925 in Villeneuve, Montreux ), was a Lieutenant General in the British Army , Corps Commander in World War I and Commander-in-Chief of the 1920–1922 Rhine Army in Germany.

Life

Origin and family

He was born as the eldest son of the Scottish engineer Thomas Morland, who emigrated to Canada as a young man and played an important role in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. His mother Helen Hannah Elizabeth was a daughter of the English general Henry Servante (1795-1877) and had married Thomas Morland senior in August 1863 in Montreal. She died in 1869 giving birth to her fifth child. When his father also died in 1870, the only five-year-old orphan Thomas and three of his brothers were brought back to England for further education and brought up in a Carthusian monastery from 1878 to 1883. On February 18, 1890, Thomas Morland married Miss Mabel Eleanor Rowens, a daughter of Vice Admiral Henry Graven St. John. The two daughters Marjorie ("Margie", born in 1891) and Phyllis ("Phil", born in 1893), both of whom lost their mother on January 27, 1901 due to pneumonia before the age of ten, came from the marriage .

Early military career

In 1883/4 he began his studies at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst . In 1890 he moved to Staff College in Camberley , in April 1893 he was promoted to captain. In February 1895 Morland accompanied the newly appointed Governor General Sir Arthur Lyon Fremantle to Malta as an aide-de-camp . In addition to his adjutant duties, Morland wanted to quickly become active in the field.

In February 1898 he joined the West African Frontier Force in Nigeria , which was deployed in Niger and the hinterland there. The expedition was the first of six other campaigns Morland subsequently participated in in West Africa . In July 1899, he was given command of the 1st Battalion of the Frontier Force and the rank of lieutenant colonel . At the beginning of 1900 he led the small expedition to Kaduna in northern Nigeria, in the same year he led a foray to Asante and rose to lieutenant colonel. In 1901 he led a campaign against the Emir of Yola and occupied the Emirate of Adamawa . In 1902 he took command of a smaller expedition to Bornü. In 1903 he led a final campaign against the rulers of Kano and Sokoto . After a long home leave, Morland was promoted to colonel in September 1905 and returned to Africa as inspector general of the West African border areas with the rank of brigadier general. After two years of service, which was now without fighting, he returned to England in 1909.

In June 1910 he took command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade in Aldershot . He held this command for three years, before the outbreak of the First World War he was given command of the 47th (2nd London) Division of the domestic Territorial Army, which was being formed .

In the first World War

At the beginning of the war in August 1914 he was given the newly established 14th Division of the New Army, two months later he was sent to the opened Western Front to take command of the now vacant 5th Division of the British Expeditionary Force . After his arrival in Flanders on October 18, he took over the division in the area of La Bassée at the beginning of the First Battle of Flanders . In July 1915 he was given command of the newly created X. Corps , at the same time he was promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant General.

His corps was given an important offensive position within the 4th Army in the Battle of the Somme the following year . Morland's behavior on the first day of the attack on July 1, 1916, which was to lead to the heaviest daily losses of the British Army, achieved notoriety. During the first few days he watched the mass attacks from a viewing platform on a tree two miles behind the main battle line. With his telescope he saw the loss-making attack of his corps against the still intact German lines at Thiepval . General Sir Hubert Gough , the leader of the Reserve Army , told Haig early on the lack of confidence he had in Morland's military capabilities. On July 23, the Xth Corps was taken from the front and the Corps of the Reserve Army took over the lead of the attack. Morland had now confirmed his bad reputation as an innovative tactician with the higher command, and his aloof demeanor did not leave a good impression on his troops. His appearance and behavior reflected the no longer old-fashioned manner of the English officer and gentleman, calm, polite and loyal, but also aloof. From August 17 he represented Lord Cavan during his three-week absence as commander of the XIV Corps . Morland's troops succeeded in storming the towns of Guillemont and Ginchy after several setbacks . Morland returned to his old command on September 10, 1916. The X. Corps was transferred to the 2nd Army in the Ypres area in October 1916 , and Morland participated in General Plumer's successes the following year . During the Battle of Messines (June 7, 1917) the X. Corps was able to take the long-contested Höhe 60 and Mount Sorrel, thereby weakening the German position east of Ypres. In the beginning of the Third Battle of Flanders , the attack on the road to Menin on September 20 near Gheluvelt led to initial successes in the offensive that subsequently stalled.

In the winter of 1917/18 the X. Corps was withdrawn into the reserve and in March and April 1918 also had no part in the defense of the German spring offensive . On April 12, 1918 Morland was with the command of the XIII. Corps of the 1st Army entrusted, which was again as a reserve in the plain on the Lys . In September 1918 he led the XIII. Corps in the 4th Army sector during the attack on the Hindenburg Line . The attack on October 5th was a great success, at Beaurevoir the breakthrough was extended. On November 5th, his troops crossed the Sambre . In the final days of the war, his troops advanced nearly 18 miles towards Belgium in six days.

post war period

Early in 1919 Morland was from influenza - pandemic hit hard and never gained more his previous good health back. He was made an honorary colonel of the Suffolk Regiment by George V. In March 1919 he returned to his reorganized X. Corps, which was now deployed as part of the Rhine Army in the occupation zone on the right bank of the Rhine near Cologne . In March 1920 he succeeded Sir William Robertson in his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Rhine Army. In March 1922 he returned to England to replace Lord Cavan as commander of the Aldershot Command . At the end of February 1923 he resigned from other positions, his health was already too impaired. He died in May 1925 while taking a spa stay on the Riviera , on May 21, 1925 he was buried in the English cemetery in Villeneuve near Montreux.

literature

• Bill Thompson: Morland - Great War Corps Commander : War Diaries & Letters, 1914–1918, Troubador Publishing 2015

Web links

• JM Bourne: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Morland, Sir Thomas Lethbridge Napier (1865–1925), first published 2004; online edn, Oct 2008. doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 35109
• Was Diaries & Letters

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir William Robertson	Commander in Chief of the British Army of the Rhine 1920–1922	Sir Alexander Godley