The Last Great Cavalryman

by Richard Mead

  Dick was as good as his word, the conference was held and was very well attended, to be followed by courses further down the ranks. Bardsley believed that Dick’s courage in taking on himself the responsibility for initiating this move had a beneficial effect on hundreds of lives and significantly improved morale.

  Dick’s life, hectic though it may have been, was not all work and no play. Squadron Sergeant Major Watson had brought his horses, Jumbo and Perugia, by train from Austria and Dick took every opportunity to go out riding on them, ideally before breakfast. In the absence of equestrian-minded visitors he expected his personal staff to accompany him and this presented something of a problem for George Brown when he arrived to replace Paget as Dick’s ADC. Brown had a wartime commission in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, in which he had served in Austria during Dick’s time there, but had recently been selected for a regular commission.5 He had won a Belt of Honour at Sandhurst and came recommended by Blakiston-Houston, whilst his CO had passed the word that he was a brilliant horseman. In truth, he could hardly ride at all. When this admission came out on his arrival, Abraham’s face was a picture, but Dick merely said, ‘Oh well, I’ll have to teach you then.’ The morning rides, far from being a gentle hack, became a riding school, including the other officers as well, with Dick as instructor. He liked Brown enormously, but despaired initially of his riding skills, although by the end of Dick’s time in Germany his ADC was showing distinct signs of improvement. Dick himself entered for a number of the horse shows and gymkhanas held in BAOR. In July 1947, for instance, he participated in three of the events at the Rhine Army Gymkhana at Bad Oeynhausen and came second on Jumbo out of over 40 entries in the showjumping. (He was not always so successful with his mounts however, as Abraham subsequently recounted of an incident which was very revealing of Dick’s character – see Appendix II.)

  With the onset of winter, especially harsh in 1946/7, opportunities emerged for skiing. The Alps were much too far away, but there were good ski centres at Winterberg in the Hochsauerland area and at Hahnenklee and St Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains. Crankshaw and his wife were keen skiers and they or other members of the staff would usually accompany Dick. Brown remembered one occasion when the Norwegians were on manoeuvres in the area and Dick went off to inspect them on skis. Spotting them down in the valley, Dick set off at speed, which increased significantly as it became apparent that the intervening slope was much steeper than anticipated. Dick intended to demonstrate what good skiers he and Brown were, but instead ran out of control and took a tumble in the middle of the Norwegians, who were surprised but also delighted that the general had come to visit them in this unexpected way!

  Another feature of Dick’s appointment which had figured relatively little in Austria was the constant stream of visitors who came to stay at Kostedt. Many of them were there in an official capacity, not only Montgomery, who came twice, and other members of the Army Council and senior staff officers from the War Office, but also the two Secretaries of State for War during Dick’s tenure, F. J. Bellenger, whom he found friendly and cooperative, and Emmanuel Shinwell, whom he admired enormously. Other guests included Archie Wavell and Bill Slim, the latter with a party from the Imperial Defence College of which he was then commandant. Perhaps even more welcome were old friends, contemporaries like Harding and Templer and former 12th Lancers including Paul Hornby, George Kidston and Andrew Horsburgh-Porter, who was serving as a liaison officer with the Americans.

  The visitors who gave Dick the greatest pleasure were his family. His frequent visits to England allowed him to see much more of them than hitherto, although contact was sometimes limited to lunches and dinners in London. He did manage to take a few longer breaks at Stowell, including several weeks’ leave over both the Christmases of his appointment, during which he devoted as much time as possible to hunting. His intention from the outset, however, was to get Lettice and the children over to Germany.

  The first family member to stay was actually Dick’s brother Selby, making his first post-war trip to Europe. Getting the others out was more difficult. Michael was doing National Service and was firstly at OCTU and then with the 12th Lancers at Barnard Castle, so was only able to come once and then briefly. Bob and Jon were still at boarding school, and Sarah and Charles were at Stowell under the care of a nanny-cum-governess, Miss Gigg (known as Giggums), so choosing the right time to coincide with terms and holidays was not always easy for Lettice. She came first at the end of November 1946 for just two weeks, the main event of which was a Christmas party for 60 local children. The next visit began early the following February, this time with Sarah, Charles and Giggums. The weather was particularly cold, with a great deal of snow, but the children enjoyed tobogganing on the frozen lakes, egged on by an enthusiastic Corporal Roberts, and started to learn to ski on the nursery slopes. Teddy Gosling, Lettice’s brother-in-law, had been posted to BAOR, so she was also able to see something of Lucia. The whole family returned to England in late March in time for the boys’ Easter holidays.

  Lettice came out again in mid-May, alone this time, her visit coinciding with a tour of inspection by their old friend the Duke of Gloucester. She and Dick went off to Berlin for a few days, but she returned to England after only two weeks. The whole family except Michael then spent the summer holidays in Germany and Michael joined them for ten days’ leave, part of which was spent with Lettice visiting Brussels. The boys went back to school, but Lettice, Sarah and Charles stayed on and did not return to the UK until early November. She came out only once more, from mid-February 1948 for a month, allowing her to act as hostess at the many social occasions marking the end of Dick’s tour of duty, which came at the end of March.6

  Chapter 27

  Winding Down

  Like most of his generation of Regular officers, Dick gave little thought to his future in the Army as long as the War continued, nor in his case during its immediate and hectic aftermath. The two or three years after the end of hostilities, however, saw the retirement of almost all those who had been born in the 1880s, with Montgomery a notable exception, while a number of younger generals, doubtful about their future in a rapidly shrinking Army, also sent in their papers. Even an officer of the quality of Templer told Dick in late 1946 that he would like to retire, but that with modest means he felt he had to stay on to get a better pension.

  Dick’s major concern was Lettice, who had not enjoyed being left alone. Dick had been abroad since March 1942 and they had effectively lived apart for more than two years before that. It was Lettice who had dealt with the children growing up and going to new schools, with the hardships of rationing, with renting houses for them to live in and, over a frustrating period in 1944 – 45, with the sale of Runwick. Although she had had help with the children and in the house, she found the whole experience exhausting and as a result was frequently unwell. At one point in late 1944 she had suffered a nervous breakdown and had dropped in weight to only 7 stone. All she wanted now was to have Dick permanently at home.

  An early intimation of this came in a letter from Dick in January 1946, when he wrote: ‘I shall certainly press to be moved from here [Austria] in May, and if I don’t get the offer of something which you think satisfactory, I am quite ready to leave the Army.’ BAOR was clearly more acceptable to Lettice, the incidence of both his trips to England and hers and the family’s to Germany allowing them to see a lot more of one another than they had done for years, but she felt unable to join him permanently because of the children. Over the summer of 1946 the debate over his future intensified, with Lettice making it clear that she wanted him to retire sooner rather than later. In August he wrote to her from Camberley, where he was attending one of Montgomery’s conferences: ‘I absolutely agree that you must not be left alone for long periods ever again, and I am quite willing to leave the Army if that is the right answer. The war over, that might be the best thing to do, because I don’t think for a moment that I shall be C.I.G.S. after Monty, or ever. On the othe
r hand I have done useful work since the end of the fighting and I should probably be pretty miserable at leaving.’

  The pressure from Lettice increased, with accusations that he took her for granted, that he failed to appreciate what she had achieved during the War and that he appeared to think that she never needed a break and a little fun. Less than a month later he wrote that he intended to leave the Army the following summer and that he even regretted taking the job at BAOR and not retiring after Austria. He agreed to talk to Montgomery when he visited Germany at the end of October. The opportunity arose when Montgomery suggested that he might be needed as C-in-C Middle East, to which Dick responded that he would not want the job, indeed that it was his wish to retire at the end of his tour in Germany, for family reasons. Montgomery was remarkably sympathetic and asked if it would help if he was appointed to one of the Home Commands, going on to say that Dick’s age meant that he was well placed to get to the top of the Army. Dick replied that he would prefer to leave, but Montgomery asked him to stay on in Germany until at least the end of 1947, to which he agreed, and to write formally in due course to confirm his intention to retire.

  Shortly afterwards Lettice had an abrupt change of mind, indeed she described herself as being demented by worry over what she had done. She wrote to Dick that she understood what a wrench it would be leaving the Army and that they would both always regret that he had sacrificed the chance of getting to the top. On 14 November, without telling Dick in advance, she went by appointment to see Montgomery in his London flat in order to tell him that she had been the cause of Dick’s decision, which she now regretted. Montgomery, who welcomed her approach and was charm personified, replied that he had in any event asked Dick to think it over and that it would be no sign of weakness to change his mind over such a big issue. In the end Dick decided not to send a letter, agreeing to extend his time in Germany into 1948 and then to accept an appointment as British Representative on the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations in New York, where Lettice and the two younger children could join him.

  A compromise was now reached between Dick and Lettice whereby he would remain in the Army until Montgomery’s successor was chosen: if it was not to be Dick, he would retire at the end of his appointment at the UN. As it happened Montgomery moved on in November 1948, earlier than expected, to become chairman of the Western European Union Chiefs of Staff Committee. His own choice as successor was John Crocker, who was not considered by Attlee, then Prime Minister, to have the necessary stature. With no other apparently suitable candidates, Slim was brought back from retirement. Dick probably had some early intimation that he would not be a contender, writing to Lettice in August 1948: ‘I think myself that there is very little chance of my becoming C.I.G.S. but I shall not mind in the least. I think the autumn of next year we shall be settled in Stowell for good!’

  Although he was one of the most senior officers in the Army – he had been promoted to full general on 30 January 1948, with seniority of 4 October 19461 – it seems unlikely that he was even considered. From his earlier comments Montgomery might have accepted Dick being appointed CIGS at a much later date, but he would certainly have objected strongly to him as his immediate successor. Moreover, Dick was still only 50 and his appointment would have made him the youngest ever CIGS. On the other hand, he would have been a strong contender to follow Slim – indeed his wartime record alone would have put him ahead of Harding, Slim’s successor in 1952, who in spite of being two years older than Dick had been his subordinate in both GHQ Middle East and Eighth Army. Dick’s lack of experience at the War Office would not have been held against him: neither Montgomery nor Slim had served there previously. Some people later questioned whether being CIGS would have suited him, advancing the argument that he was too upright and honest. Slim, Harding and Harding’s successor, Templer, possessed the same qualities and all were excellent in the job, but Dick would probably have shown less inclination than any of them to compromise on matters of principle.

  After three months’ leave, spent largely at Stowell, Dick sailed for New York in the Queen Elizabeth on 24 June, arriving five days later to be met by the man he was to replace, General Sir Edwin Morris, one of his instructors at the Staff College. The sole member of his own staff to accompany him was Corporal Roberts. He had arranged to stay for the first week with Sir Ashley Sparks, the deputy chairman of Cunard, and Lady Sparks, before moving to the Drake Hotel. His first days were largely taken up with briefings by Morris and others, but there were also numerous social engagements, during which he met his American, French, Chinese and Russian counterparts, Lieutenant Generals Hubert Harmon, Pierre Billotte, Mow Pong-tsu and Alexander Vasiliev, and the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative at the UN, Sir Alexander Cadogan, with whom he got on well immediately.

  The Military Staff Committee of the United Nations is the only subsidiary body of the Security Council that is named in the UN Charter, defined in Article 47 as ‘the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives’. Ironically it is also the one which has represented its greatest disappointment, almost from the outset. Its primary purpose is ‘to advise and assist the Security Council on all questions relating to the Security Council’s military requirements for the maintenance of international peace and security, the employment and command of forces placed at its disposal, the regulation of armaments, and possible disarmament.’ At the time of its inception, it was anticipated that the UN would have permanent standing forces at its disposal, the MSC providing a body of military experts to advise on their employment.

  In March 1946, the MSC was instructed by the Security Council to produce a number of general principles governing the organization of the UN’s forces, but when these were received there was disagreement amongst the permanent members on a number of issues, notably the relative sizes of the contributions to be made by each, the location of the forces concerned, the time limits for withdrawal after the completion of a task and the provision of assistance by members, including rights of passage. When asked to produce estimates of the numbers required, other differences emerged. Progress was agonizingly slow and came to a complete halt the day after Dick took up his appointment, when the MSC reported to the Security Council that it was unable to fulfil its mandate. Different reasons were given by China, France, the UK and the US on one side and by the Soviet Union on the other, but the underlying cause was the beginning of the Cold War. On the day Dick sailed from Southampton the Russians severed land and water communications between the Western Zones of Germany and Berlin, provoking the first major crisis of the post-war era.

  When Jack Winterton wrote from Austria, ‘The job seems to me to be not worthy of your calibre,’ he was expressing a common view.2 As it turned out, what might have been an opportunity to put some teeth into the rather vague original intentions of the UN now became a fruitless exercise to reconcile the irreconcilable. The Soviets proved highly obstructive to any proposals put forward by the other four members of the MSC and the meetings became tedious talking shops where little was achieved. Supposedly weekly, they occurred more and more sporadically in late 1948 and early 1949 as the Soviets withdrew their cooperation, although later restored to a fortnightly basis. Dick and the other representatives were asked to provide some advice to their respective UN delegations, but the major decisions on the Berlin Airlift and other contentious issues were taken elsewhere.

  There was thus no real job for Dick. He went into his office at 350 Fifth Avenue several times a week, but was not required every day. This allowed him to take up a number of leisure activities and to see something of both the United States and Canada. He became a member of Piping Rock Country Club, located in Locust Valley, an affluent area of Nassau County on the north coast of Long Island and not far from New York City. This offered tennis, which he had always enjoyed, and had a separate beach facility on Long Island Sound, but was best known for its excellent golf course. Dick, who had not played since his tee
ns, took up the sport with enthusiasm, becoming competent within a relatively short time after a course of lessons, but experiencing all the frustrations of its practitioners. Unhappy at the Drake Hotel, he also decided to take a room at the club, which he found far more congenial.

  Although there was a train service, Dick much preferred to drive himself into the city. He acquired two cars, one a small Austin imported from the UK for commuting, the other a Buick which he far preferred, finding it very comfortable and sufficiently fast for his taste! This allowed him to take up a welcome invitation from Charles Foulkes to visit Canada. He drove up for ten days in the second half of September with Rear Admiral Lord Ashbourne, his Royal Navy subordinate on the MSC, as his passenger. Their route took them through the Adirondacks to Lake Placid and then on to Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa, where Dick lunched with Alexander at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence. Foulkes had arranged a full social diary and Dick was able to meet a number of old friends from Italy and elsewhere. He stayed one night with Jock Whiteley, now commandant of the National Defence College at Kingston, and then moved on to Toronto, where he was entertained by Chris Vokes before returning to New York via the Niagara Falls.

  A week later Dick went down to Washington by train to see ‘Monkey’ Morgan, who had recently become head of the British Army Staff in the US capital. Another round of social engagements ensued, where he had the opportunity to meet his old friends Al Gruenther and Lyman Lemnitzer, the latter Alexander’s former deputy in Italy. Dick was clearly popular with the Americans, with whom he had always got on well personally and, with the occasional exception of Mark Clark, professionally. Over the coming year he was to meet most of the US Army’s former leaders in Italy, including Eisenhower, Clark and Truscott, and many other Americans from all walks of life. He saw a lot in particular of Willis Crittenberger, the former commander of IV US Corps, who was now the commanding general of First US Army, with his headquarters on Governors’ Island.