Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox military person Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer who fought in the First World War, being perhaps most notable for commanding the Second Army of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918.
Early life and educationEdit
Herbert Plumer was son of Hall Plumer of Malpas Lodge, Torquay, Devon (a grandson of Sir Thomas Plumer), and Louisa Alice, daughter of Henry Turnley, of Kensington. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.<ref>The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, ed. L. G. Pine, Heraldry Today, 1972, page 220</ref>
Military careerEdit
Plumer was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 65th Regiment of Foot on 11 September 1876.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He joined his regiment in India and became adjutant of his battalion on 29 April 1879.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
Promoted to captain on 29 May 1882,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he accompanied his battalion to the Sudan in 1884 as part of the Nile Expedition.Template:Sfn Plumer was present at the battle of El Teb in February 1884 and the battle of Tamai in March, and was mentioned in dispatches.Template:Sfn He spent from 1886 to 1887 attending the Staff College at Camberley, England, before being appointed deputy assistant adjutant general in Jersey on 7 May 1890.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
He was promoted to major on 22 January 1893 and posted to the 2nd Battalion the York and Lancaster Regiment before being appointed assistant military secretary to the General Officer Commanding Cape Colony in December 1895.Template:Sfn He went to Southern Rhodesia in 1896 to disarm the local police force following the Jameson Raid and then later that year returned there to command the Matabele Relief Force during the Second Matabele War.Template:Sfn He became deputy assistant adjutant-general at Aldershot with promotion to brevet lieutenant colonel on 8 May 1897.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
In 1899 Plumer returned to Southern Rhodesia where he raised a force of mounted infantry and, having been promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 17 October 1900,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he led them at the Relief of Mafeking during the Second Boer War.Template:Sfn He was promoted to colonel on 29 November 1900 and was then given command of a mixed force which captured General Christiaan de Wet's wagon train at Hamelfontein in February 1901.Template:Sfn
Plumer arrived back in the United Kingdom in April 1902,<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> and two months later was received in audience by King Edward VII on his return.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> In a despatch dated 23 June 1902, Major General Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief in South Africa during the latter part of the war, wrote how Plumer had "invariable displayed military qualifications of a very high order. Few officers have rendered better service."<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was promoted to major general for distinguished service in the field on 22 August 1902,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was appointed Commander of the 4th Brigade within 1st Army Corps on 1 October 1902.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> The following year he became General Officer Commanding 10th Division within IV Army Corps and General Officer Commanding Eastern District in December 1903.<ref name=commands>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He became Quartermaster-General to the Forces in February 1904, General Officer Commanding 7th Division in April 1906 and General Officer Commanding 5th Division within Irish Command in May 1907.<ref name=commands/> Promoted to lieutenant general on 4 November 1908, he went on to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in November 1911.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
In addition to his military duties, he served as the Commissioner for London Boy Scouts from 1910 to 1912.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
First World WarEdit
Following the unexpected death of Lieutenant General Sir James Grierson on his arrival in France in 1914, Plumer was considered for command of one of two corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) alongside the GOC I Corps, Lieutenant General Douglas Haig: this position eventually went to General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.<ref name=odnb>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> Plumer was sent to France in February 1915 and given command of V Corps which he led at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.Template:Sfn
He succeeded Smith-Dorrien in command of the Second Army of the BEF in May and, having been promoted to full general on 11 June 1915,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and having been largely unemployed during the battles of the previous two years, he won an overwhelming victory over the Imperial German Army at the Battle of Messines in June 1917. The battle started with the simultaneous explosion of a series of mines placed by the Royal Engineers' tunnelling companies beneath German lines. The detonation created Template:Nowrap large craters and was described as the loudest explosion in human history.Template:Sfn After the mines were fired, Plumer's men left their trenches and advanced 3,000 yards.<ref name=odnb/> He won further victories at the battle of the Menin Road Ridge and the battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917 and the battle of Broodseinde in October 1917 advancing another 5,000 yards in the process.<ref name=odnb/>
In November 1917 Plumer, who in August had been made colonel of the York and Lancaster Regiment,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> was given command of the Italian Expeditionary Force sent to the Italian Front after the disaster at Caporetto.Template:Sfn Early in 1918, Plumer was sought by Lloyd George for the position of Chief of the Imperial General Staff as a replacement for General Sir William Robertson: he declined the position.<ref name=odnb/>
Plumer instead commanded the Second Army during the final stages of the war, during the German spring offensive and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.Template:Sfn
Later careerEdit
Plumer was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British Army of the Rhine in December 1918 and Governor of Malta in May 1919.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was promoted to field marshal on 31 July 1919, and was created Baron Plumer of Messines and of Bilton on 18 October 1919.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
In August 1925 he was appointed High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine.<ref name=Gazette>Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, Extraordinary issue, 25 August 1925.</ref> He resisted Arab pressure to reverse commitments made by the British Government in the Balfour Declaration, and dealt firmly with both the Zionists and the Arab Nationalists.Template:Sfn On one occasion, an Arab delegation protested a proposal by Jewish battalions to install their regimental colours in the chief synagogues, saying they "wouldn't be responsible for the consequences". Plumer replied, 'That's all right, you're not asked to be responsible for the consequences. I'll be responsible."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Mandatory Palestine Plumer gained a reputation as being "genuinely even handed" and was one of the few British administrators who was consistently popular with both the Jewish community and the Arab community in that territory. Privately, he was sympathetic to the cause of establishing a homeland for the Jewish people but he tried his best to "be fair" to Arab concerns as well while he was High Commissioner.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
On 24 July 1927 he conducted the inauguration ceremony for the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres in Belgium.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Plumer, placed on half-pay in November 1928,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> was created Viscount Plumer for his "long and distinguished public services" on 3 June 1929.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
DeathEdit
Plumer died at his home in Knightsbridge in London on 16 July 1932 at the age of 75. His body was interred in Westminster Abbey.Template:Sfn
FamilyEdit
In July 1884 Plumer married Annie Constance Goss (1858–1941), daughter of George and Eleanor Goss; they had three daughters and one son.<ref name=odnb/> Their youngest daughter, Marjorie, married Maj. W.H. Brooke who had studied at University College, Oxford and was a chief mourner at the Leeds funeral of Robert Middleton in October 1912.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
HonoursEdit
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British
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath – 1 January 1918<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> (KCB – 29 June 1906;<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> CB – 19 April 1901<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George – 1 January 1916<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order – 14 July 1917<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire – 1924<ref>Whitaker's Almanack 1925</ref>
- Knight of Grace of the Venerable Order of St John – 23 June 1925<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
Foreign
- Legion of Honour (France) – 14 December 1917<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Croix de Guerre (Belgium) – 11 March 1918<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Croix de Guerre with palm (France) – 11 March 1919<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Army Distinguished Service Medal (United States) – 12 July 1919<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Grand Cordon, Order of the Rising Sun (Japan) – 21 January 1921<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
See alsoEdit
CitationsEdit
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Further readingEdit
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External linksEdit
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