- from 'the War Budget', August 24th, 1916
- 'Lieut.-General Sir E. H. Allenby, C.B.'
Famous Soldiers of the Hour
"Have proved themselves to be cavalry leaders of a high order, and I am deeply indebted to them." This is a passage from the first despatch of Lord French, and of the two cavalry leaders to whom he refers one was Lieut. Gen. Sir Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, a dashing lancer, who, on the outbreak of war, had been Inspector of Cavalry for four -years and, after winning distinction in the retreat from Mons, gained further honour in the fighting on the Marne, and is now helping Sir Douglas Haig somewhere North of the Somme. In those early days of fighting the "white arm" of the army played a stronger part in the "great game" than it has done since that day early in September, when Von Kluck's right wing was turned by the French, and "old One o'Clock"-as our ironical soldiers called him-realised that the despised British Army had appeared suddenly from the forests, and that its three corps, unshaken by the retreat were playing havoc with his movements.
It is interesting to note that in one of his latest despatches describing the British advance North of the Somme, Sir Douglas Haig - Lord French's successor in the chief command - tells how a squadron of Dragoon Guards and Deccan Horse from India played a creditable part in an engagement. This, the British Commander adds, "was the first opportunity for mounted action which has been afforded to our cavalry since 1914."
Throughout Lord French's despatches, the name of Lieut-General Allenby frequently occurs and always in terms of complimentary reference. He is, indeed, essentially a cavalry leader and his qualities in this direction were so clearly recognised by the War Office that, in 1913, his position as Inspector was extended for another twelve months. During the three years that preceded the war, the cavalry of the Home Army greatly increased in value, and its excellence won the admiration of foreign critics at manoeuvres. The undoubted moral superiority which our cavalry obtained over that of the enemy, in the early stages of the war, was due, as Lord French recognised, to the skill with which Lieu General Allenby and one or two other officers turned to account the qualities inherent in the splendid troops under their command.
Under Allenby's rule as Inspector of Cavalry, winter and summer training were made practical and interesting. Young officers were encouraged to take themselves seriously, to act upon their own initiative in emergencies. Severe and accurate drill was not discarded, but ceremonial parade movements, constant rehearsals and interminable stable hours, which had formerly occupied too much time, were reduced to proper proportions. The average British officer, to whatever branch of the service he belongs, is not the "gilded popinjay," a certain eminent politician once thought fit to call him and his class; he is more like Kipling's subaltern, who wanted to get into the Egyptian Army because of "the eligible central position of Egypt in the next row."
It is one of General Allenby's greatest merits that he encouraged a spirit of professional intelligence and energy amongst officers, and that anyone who wished to aspire to the command of a regiment had to show some tactical skill at manoeuvres. Unconsciously perhaps, but never-the less successfully, General Allenby was preparing his officers for the great struggle in which they are now engaged.
Lieut-General Allenby's record of active service begins with two expeditions on the marches of Britain's South African dominions, when he served in that country in 1884 and again in 1888, as a young officer in the Inniskilling Dragoons. He was still in the Inniskillings when he went out again to South Africa with Lord French - then a plain Colonel of Cavalry - in 1899, and fought on the Orange and Modder Rivers. In the forced march, which intercepted Cronje and led to the smashing defeat of that capable. Boer leader, Allenby took part, and he figured also in various other engagements, in which he sustained his already well-earned reputation as a dashing, but prudent and thoroughly capable leader.
