Walter Braithwaite

Portrait of Walter Braithwaites, 1915

Sir Walter Pipon Braithwaite GCB (born November 11, 1865 in Alne, North Yorkshire , † September 7, 1945 in Rotherwick , Hampshire ) was an officer in the British Army , most recently a general .

Life

Braithwaite was born the son of a clergyman and was the youngest of twelve children. He was trained at Victoria College, Jersey, and Bedford School before joining the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . In 1886 he was accepted as a Second Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry . From 1898 he attended Staff College Camberley and served in the Second Boer War , where he was Mentioned three times in Despatches . After the war, he served on Evelyn Woods' staff in Southern Command . He later served as an instructor at Staff College.

Braithwaite (right) with General Hamilton and Admiral John de Robeck and his Chief of Staff Roger Keyes , 1915

In 1911, Braithwaite was appointed commandant of the Indian Staff College in Quetta , which he remained until the facility was closed at the beginning of the First World War . He was transferred to the War Office as Director of Staff Duties . In 1915 he was appointed major-general to chief of staff of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force under Ian Hamilton . After the disastrous course of the Dardanelles company , he returned to England in October 1915, where he served in staff assignments.

In January 1917 he became commander of the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division , which shortly afterwards took part in the Battle of Arras . At the end of 1917 it was used in the Battle of Cambrai and stood out in early 1918 in the defense of the German "Michael" offensive . In July 1918 she was used in the Battle of the Marne near Fère-en-Tardenois and in the Ardre Valley . In mid-September, Braithwaite was appointed Commanding General of the IX Corps to succeed Alexander Hamilton-Gordon . This was used as part of General Henry Rawlinson's 4th Army in the Hundred Day Offensive during the fighting in Picardy .

After the war, Braithwaite was appointed head of a committee that was supposed to evaluate the performance of the British General Staff during the war and interviewed 48 senior officers. He then became General Officer Commanding of the Indian Western Command in 1920 and of the British Scottish Command in 1923 and of the Eastern Command in 1926 . In 1927 he became Adjutant-General to the Forces , which he remained until his retirement from active service in 1931, at the same time he was also a member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission . He was then until 1938 director ( governor ) of the Royal Hospital Chelsea . From 1933 until his death in 1945 he was also the coat of arms king of the Order of the Bath .

Braithwaite was married and had a son who fell on the Somme on July 1, 1916 .

literature

• JM Bourne: Who's Who in World War I. Routledge, 2001, p. 34 f.

Web links

Commons : Walter Braithwaite  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Walter Braithwaite on firstworldwar.com
• Braithwaite on westernfrontassociation.com