British Generalship during the Great War

The Military Career of Sir Henry Horne (1861–1929)

Simon Robbins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781138253377
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317171966
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Following the career of one relatively unknown First World War general, Lord Horne, this book adds to the growing literature that challenges long-held assumptions that the First World War was a senseless bloodbath conducted by unimaginative and incompetent generals. Instead it demonstrates that men like Horne developed new tactics and techniques to deal with the novel problems of trench warfare and in so doing seeks to re-establish the image of the British generals and explain the reasons for the failures of 1915-16 and the successes of 1917-18 and how this remarkable change in performance was achieved by a much maligned group of senior officers. Horne's important career and remarkable character sheds light not only on the major battles in which he was involved; the progress of the war; his relationships with his staff and other senior officers; the novel problems of trench warfare; the assimilation of new weapons, tactics and training methods; and the difficulties posed by the German defences, but also on the attitudes and professionalism of a senior British commander serving on the Western Front. Horne's career thus provides a vehicle for studying the performance of the British Army in the first quarter of the Twentieth Century. It also gives an important insight into the attitudes, ethos and professionalism of the officer corps which led that army to victory on the Western Front, exposing not only its flaws but also its many strengths. This study consequently provides a judgment not only on Horne as a personality, innovator and general of great importance but also on his contemporaries who served with the British Armies in South Africa and France during an era which saw a revolution in military affairs giving birth to a Modern Style of Warfare which still prevails to this day.

Chapter 1
The Early Years: 1861–80

The senior officers of the British Army had a relatively uniform social and political outlook as a result of its narrow social base of recruitment which was drawn from an old family, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, rural, upper middle-class professional background, sharing not only a set of common experiences and political identifications; but also a common social background and elaborate family ties. One of the most important factors behind this close sense of community was the fact that members came from the same class background, that of a privileged elite. It was from this elite and cohesive officer corps that the leadership of the BEF was drawn. The senior staff and commanders of the Army formed a particularly closely knit and homogeneous community in which an individual officer, such as Horne, could boast that while on active service he met “many old friends”.¹ For example, in September 1914 while attending with General Haig a meeting held by the C-in-C, Sir J. French, Horne “saw many I knew”: including Edmund (later Field-Marshal Viscount) Allenby, Richard (later Brigadier-General R.W.) Breekes, Johnnie (later General Sir John) du Cane, G.T. (later Major-General Sir George) Forestier Walker, J.E. (later Brigadier-General Sir John) Gough, W. (later Lieutenant-General Sir William) Pulteney, H.L. (later General Sir Horace) Smith -Dorrien, John (later Major-General) Vaughan, “& many others”.² Similarly, on arriving in Egypt in January 1916, Horne noted that “I have met a great many men whom I know”, notably many gunners.³

The military elite were traditionally drawn from gentry with a military tradition and scions from such families continued to serve King and Country as officers in the armed services. Members of the British officer corps with its aristocratic and landed-gentry background and its respectable middle-class service families were of a privileged class enjoying social prestige based on family origin and service to the state. A significant minority, such as Field-Marshals Lord Byng and the Earl of Cavan, Major-General Hon W. Lambton and Brigadier-General Hon A.M. Henley, were members of the nobility. The majority, however, came from upper- or middle-class homes as their fathers were often professional men or gentry. General Sir Walter Kirke, a staff officer throughout the war, had a typical background. The Kirkes had been the squires of Mirfield Hall, East Markham, Nottinghamshire, for several centuries.⁴ Similarly, Major-General Sir Hereward Wake, Baronet, was one of the Wakes of Northamptonshire, who when they were not defending the Empire, resided at the family seat, Courteenhall,⁵ while General Sir Sidney Clive’s family home was Perrystone Hall in Herefordshire until it was destroyed by fire in 1959.⁶

Similarly, Henry Sinclair Horne was born on 19 February 1861 at Bilbster House in the Parish of Wick in the County of Caithness as the second surviving son of Constance Mary Shewell, daughter of Edward Warner Shewell of Cheltenham, and James Horne Esquire,⁷ “a Caithness-shire laird and owner of Stirkoke, an estate near Wick of several thousand acres”,⁸ whose family “for several generations had been one of the best known in Caithness” and “had a long association with Stirkoke”.⁹ Horne was thus born both a Scot (like his patron, Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig) and a Highlander. When offered the Freedom of the Royal Burgh of Wick “in recognition of his distinguished career as a soldier and his brilliant services in the War”,¹⁰ General Horne accepted the Freedom “with the greatest pride”, remembering that “I was born within a few miles of Wick, and my earliest and most cherished recollections are closely connected with the town, and with the county of Caithness”.¹¹ The Provost of Wick noted in his speech that “Baron Horne is a Caithness man, a great Caithness man, the member of a well-known and highly respected family, the Hornes of Stirkoke”.¹²

A significant proportion of officers were either sons of serving officers or had relatives in the services. The officer corps was not only a landed elite but also an hereditary elite. General Sir Walter Congreve came from an old Staffordshire family with a tradition of service in the army and a notable ancestor in the inventor of the rocket employed at Waterloo.¹³ Military dynasties were common and a large proportion of military leaders entered the profession as the sons of professional soldiers. This self-recruitment from among the sons of professional officers was extremely widespread among the British military elite. The future Field-Marshal Sir Claud Jacob was one of 28 male members of the Jacob family who, in the period 1817–1926, served in the East India Company’s Army or, later, in the Indian Army.¹⁴ Many senior officers also had brothers and relatives serving in the Army, notably Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood who was one of five sons to serve with the army in India, one of whom was killed in 1914.¹⁵ Like many army contemporaries, Horne also had family connections with the army and was “sprung from a hardy Caithness fighting stock”.¹⁶ His father, Major James Horne, was a soldier having served with the Highland Light Infantry and the Glasgow Highlanders, while his brother, Colonel E.W. Horne, served with the Seaforth Highlanders.¹⁷ Similarly Horne’s mother’s family had produced “many soldiers”,¹⁸ notably his uncle, General Henry Shewell.¹⁹

It was a narrow, almost feudal world whose ethos and values remained those of the landed gentlemen, who moved in ‘county’ circles. These officers still espoused the traditional lifestyle of the gentry and being a ‘Gentleman’ was the status by which officers were judged. It was natural for Horne’s fellow Army Commander, Allenby, to join the Army for a career as “other openings were limited, for commercial business was not in those days considered a suitable occupation for a gentleman”.²⁰ The pre-war Army enjoyed a style of life apart from the outside world which is almost incomprehensible for later generations. For example, in Scottish society of the mid-nineteenth century, Douglas Haig’s mother was regarded as having married beneath her class by marrying into trade (his father sold the well-known whisky bearing his name) and as a result he went to school in England and into an English cavalry regiment, the 7th Hussars, rather than into the Scots Greys.²¹

The officers of the Edwardian Army were born and bred – or at least educated – as gentlemen. The regiment, the surrogate family for the officer and the lodestone for his loyalty, demanded that each member conduct himself in accordance with the customs, values and mores of the upper echelons of society. Officers served for honour, prestige, and to reconfirm their social status, and this was also a manifestation of the ideal of service in the aristocratic tradition. These were the days when it was de rigeur for a ‘Gentleman’ always to carry a walking stick²² which had replaced the sword as a symbol of his position amongst the gentry. In 1914 Major-General Sir Frederic Glubb reminded his son, later Lieutenant-General Sir John Glubb, about to be commissioned, “that you are also a gentleman, a simple honest English gentleman – you cannot be anything better whatever you are”.²³ To be a gentleman was to fulfil the expectations of one’s peers and often had l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editor’s Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• List of Sources
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• Maps
• 1 The Early Years: 1861–80
• 2 Apprenticeship: 1899–1914
• 3 Artillery Commander: 1914
• 4 Divisional Commander: 1915
• 5 Corps Commander in Egypt and on the Somme: 1916
• 6 Army Commander: 1916–17
• 7 Developing a Winning Formula: 1918
• 8 A Career Closes: 1919–29
• 9 A Reappraisal of Horne’s Career
• Bibliography
• Index