Walter Norris Congreve

Walter Norris Congreve

General Sir Walter Norris Congreve VC KCB MVO DL (born November 20, 1862 in Chatham , Kent , † February 28, 1927 in Malta ) was a British officer, most recently a general, and governor of Malta.

Life

Congreve received his education at Harrow School and enrolled at Pembroke College , Oxford in 1881 . However, he left the latter after a short time without a degree and went to the North Staffordshire Militia . In 1883 he decided to join the regular army and attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst , where he was roommate Douglas Haigs . In 1885 he joined the Rifle Brigade as a lieutenant and served with them in India until 1889. In 1893 he was promoted to captain and in 1898 was district inspector for target practice in Aldershot .

At the age of 37, while serving as a captain in the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) in the Second Boer War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross . On December 15, 1899, Congreve and a few other soldiers tried to save the cannons of the 14th and 66th batteries of the Royal Field Artillery during the Battle of Colenso . The guns' crews were either dead or wounded or driven off by their cannons. Some soldiers and horses found refuge in a ravine about 500 meters behind the cannons. The space between them and the cannons was covered with gun and rifle fire. Congreve was able to salvage two of the guns along with two other officers, Lieutenant Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts and Harry Norton Schofield, and Corporal Edward George Nurse. All four soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross for this individual act. Roberts fell in the act. He was the son of Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts , the commander in chief of the British forces in South Africa. When Congreve saw Roberts fall, he and Major William Babtie, although now wounded, recovered the wounded officer. Babtie was also awarded the Victoria Cross. Congreve's Victoria Cross is on display at the Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester .

At the beginning of the First World War , Congreve commanded the 18th Infantry Brigade of the 6th Infantry Division. His troops were involved in the so-called Christmas Peace in 1914 . In May 1915, Congreve became the commander of the 6th Division and in November received command of the XIII. Corps. He led this in the battle of the Somme in 1916 and at Arras in 1917. Congreve was wounded again during the war and lost his left hand. At the beginning of 1918 he took over the VII Corps of the 5th Army , which suffered badly from the German spring offensive of 1918. In April 1918 he briefly took over the X. Corps. He experienced the end of the war in his mother country after Haig sent him home and paid him half pay.

In August 1919 he was sent to Palestine to command the British forces in Haifa . In October of the same year he became the commander of all British troops in Palestine and Egypt. On his return he was promoted to general on November 25, 1922 and in 1923 received command of the Southern Command . In March 1924 he was appointed aide-de-camp of King George V appointed.

Memorial stone for Walter Norris Congreve in Malta

From 1924 to 1927 Congreve was governor of Malta, where he also died. According to his wishes, he was buried at sea in the channel between the islands of Malta and Filfla . There is a memorial stone between the Hamrija Tower and the prehistoric temples of Mnajdra . The sea channel between Malta and Filfla is also known as the Congreve Channel.

Others

Walter Norris Congreve is the father of Major William (Billy) La Touche Congreve, VC. You are one of only three father-son couples who have been awarded the Victoria Cross. (Frederick Roberts and his father are one of the other two couples).

literature

• David Harvey: Monuments to Courage: Victoria Cross Headstones and Memorials . Vol. 1, 1854-1916. Kevin & Kay Patience, 1999, OCLC 59437297
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• Ian Uys: Victoria Crosses of the Anglo-Boer War , 2000

Web links

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

• Ian FW Beckett: Congreve, Sir Walter Norris (1862-1927). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), May 2006, accessed May 31, 2009.
• Walter Norris Congreve in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Congreve was Deputy Lieutenant of Staffordshire. A DL is a deputy to a Lord Lieutenant

predecessor	Office	successor
Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer	Governor of Malta 1924–1927	General Sir John Philip Du Cane