by N S Nash
Townshend wrote his book My Campaign in Mesopotamia, which was published in February 1920. It did him no good and was seen as an apologia.
He stood for election to the House of Commons when the member for The Wrekin died suddenly; his retirement was brought forward three months to allow him to stand. Townshend was duly elected as MP for The Wrekin in 1921, but he was not a successful politician. He spoke rarely and then only on military topics. He was in the company of men who were his intellectual equal or superior, with a wider experience of worldly matters. Nevertheless, he entertained ambitions to be the ambassador to Turkey and meddled in the affairs of that part of the world, to the intense irritation of the Foreign Office.
In October 1922, there was a general election and Townshend sought a seat closer to the family home in Norfolk. He was distracted by his only daughter’s wedding, failed to find a seat and his political career spluttered to a close.
It is alleged that General Mellis had sought to have Townshend indicted for neglecting his soldiers. That sounds entirely likely but no evidence has been found to substantiate the claim. Townshend spent more time in Paris and, after a good lunch at The Ritz on 17 May 1924, he was taken ill. He died just before midnight on that day.
He is buried at East Raynham in Norfolk. His grave bears a simple, lichen-covered slab, upon which is engraved ‘Townshend of Kut’. Mellis, Delamain et al were notably absent from the funeral. The obituaries were muted. The Times implied, accurately as it happened, that he was a seeker after glory. The Daily Telegraph carried a more generous obituary by Colonel Repington, but even he commented adversely on the separation of the officers and men after the surrender of Kut.
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Lieutenant General Sir George Gorringe KCB KCMG DSO
GOC 12th Indian Division, April 1915–29 January 1916
Chief of Staff, Tigris Corps, 30 January 1916–12 March 1916
Commander, Tigris Corps, 12 March 1916 – ?? July 1916
Gorringe was a direct contemporary of Townshend but did not share the gregarious nature of Charlie. He is described in negative terms by all contemporary sources. ‘Bully’, ‘rude’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘domineering’ are usually the words used. He was not popular at any level.
In Cockney rhyming slang, he was known as ‘bloody orange’.314 He was an officer who demonstrated little innovative flair and formations under his command suffered high casualty rates. He was removed from command of the Tigris Corps in July 1916, but went on (as major general) to command 47th Division in France, a post he held until March 1919.
During his period with 47th Division, his chief of staff, the senior of his staff officers, was Lieutenant Colonel B.L. Montgomery, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, who said later of Gorringe, ‘All the corps commanders under whom he served were junior to him in service but he was very unpopular and Haig would not give him a corps.’
The influence of the bachelor general on the aspiring Montgomery was considerable, and as the GOC liked and trusted his 30-year-old Chief of Staff, so he delegated enormous responsibility to him, ‘Thus despite his young age Monty now assumed complete responsibility, under General Gorringe, for the running of a division – involving 15,000 troops including infantry, machine gunners, field gunners, heavy artillery, tanks, engineers and cavalrymen.’315
Montgomery was a bombastic and unpleasant man; to what extent he took his cue from Gorringe, one can only surmise.
Post-war, Gorringe commanded the 10th Division in Egypt. In 1921, he was promoted to lieutenant general and retired in 1924. He went to live and farm near Shoreham-by-Sea, and died there, aged seventy-seven, on 24 October 1945, having lived to see the accomplishments of his protégé.
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Lieutenant General Sir Walter Delamain KCB KCMG DSO
Commander, 16th Brigade Indian Army, 27 September 1914–29 April 1916
Delamain survived his capture at Kut. After his release he was given command of a division and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant general in April 1920. In that rank he served as Adjutant General of the Indian Army until his retirement in March 1923. Delamain died in 1932.
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Lieutenant General Sir Fenton Aylmer VC KCB, 13th Baronet of Donadea
Commander, the Tigris Corps, 10th December 1915–12 March 1916
Aylmer was a contemporary of Townshend and, like so many others mentioned in this book, had served in the relief of Chitrál. He was a brave man but by most accounts a weak personality who was dominated by Nixon for the first critical five weeks of his command of the Tigris Corps. It was Nixon who made all the strategic decisions, but also greatly influenced the tactical battle from 9 December 1915 until he left the theatre in mid-January 1916. General Lake, who replaced Nixon, was similarly assertive and Aylmer found himself fighting battles with plans not of his making.
He was relieved of command and replaced by Gorringe. When he gave his evidence to the MC, he emphasised that on operations all of his plans had been overruled. He retired from the Army in 1919, having conducted himself with admirable dignity. Fenton Aylmer died in Wimbledon, Surrey, on 3 September 1935, aged seventy-three.
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Major General Sir Charles Mellis VC KCB KCMG
GOC 6th Indian Division at the Battle of Shaiba, 12–14 April 1915, Commander of the Cavalry column at the Battle of Ctesiphon and, thereafter, 30 Brigade
Mellis was the very epitome of the soldier’s general. He was as brave as a lion and his soldiers venerated him. The enemy, too, held him in great respect.
He was captured at Kut but was in poor health, so he travelled upriver to Baghdad by steamship. From choice he would have remained with his men, but his health in the short term precluded that. However, as soon as he recovered, he joined the survivors of the dreadful march as they trudged towards Anatolia.
He was given assistance and rather better rations on his journey, but was enraged by the plight of his soldiers he encountered on the march. Mellis collected up survivors and berated the Turkish guards on behalf of his men. He insisted that some men be accommodated in hospitals.
He was a tower of strength and an inspiration to all who saw him. Charles Mellis was eventually imprisoned at Broussa, in north-west Anatolia, and, while there, continued to be a thorn in the side to the Turks and Enver Pasha, the War Minister, in particular.
After his release, he returned to the Indian Army, from which he retired on 24 February 1920. He died on 6 June 1936, aged seventy-six, and is buried in St Peter’s Churchyard, Frimley, Surrey.
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Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCVO ISO PC
Viceroy of India, 1910–1916, Permanent Secretary, the Foreign Office, 1916–1920, Ambassador to France, 1920–1922
Charles Hardinge is, arguably, the most highly decorated British subject and, on the basis of government approbation over many years, must surely be considered to be the most capable and talented public servant ever. Lord Mountbatten, an assiduous collector of ‘honours’, pales into insignificance in comparison.
Hardinge had been lionised throughout his distinguished career. It was three years after his death, in 1944, that his autobiography was published. In this book, Hardinge devoted a little over two pages to the Mesopotamia Commission. In his text he listed the membership of that commission and then commented in these words:
It should be observed that not one of these gentlemen had ever been to India except General Lyttelton when a subaltern, nor had any of them any knowledge of Indian administration except Lord Hamilton, who had, many years earlier, been Secretary of State for India.
The Report when published was regarded by all those who knew anything of Indian affairs as unfair and narrow-minded, and as a travesty of fact and justice … while 132 pages of closely printed matter was given to the Report, only eight lines were given to the dangerous and anxious situation in the interior of India and on the frontier, after India had sent no less than 300,000 troops across the seas to France, Egypt
, China, and East Africa.
Everybody was blamed all round, beginning with Austen Chamberlain and myself and ending with many distinguished military officers. To achieve this end important official telegrams bearing on the issue were omitted and some mutilated, while private letters were turned to mean the reverse of what was intended and important portions omitted. It was really an inexplicable performance.316
Thirty years after the event, in 1947, the MC was no more than a footnote to history, and Hardinge was too. He could not be challenged. From beyond the grave he went on to say that after the publication of the Report he tendered his resignation, on 30 June 1917, to Balfour, the Foreign Secretary and his superior. Balfour ‘refused to accept it’. He referred to his statement to the House of Lords on 3 July and recorded that, ‘It was enthusiastically received in India and received commendation from the moderate opinion in the Press and elsewhere.’ That is an overstatement not borne out by the headlines of the day.
It appears that although Hardinge had the support of Balfour, he did not enjoy the same degree of approbation from Lloyd George, the Prime Minister. Hardinge recalled the sequence of events and wrote:
It was on 9 July that Lord Curzon came to see me at the Foreign Office and told me at some length that, as an old friend, he was the bearer of a message from the War Cabinet to the effect that the Government would not ask me to resign but they made the suggestion to me to do so in order to ‘ease the situation and to avoid hostile criticism of the Foreign Office in the future which my position there might provoke.’317
He spoke without interruption for about twenty minutes while I was growing angrier every minute. When he stopped, I let fly and told him that his action was hardly that which could be described as that of a friend when he came as an emissary of a craven cabinet to ask me to ‘ease the situation’ for them.
Hardinge drew Curzon’s attention to his thirty-seven years of exemplary public service at the highest levels and, by his account, lambasted Curzon to such effect that, ‘he slunk from my room like a whipped hound.’ It is worth noting that Curzon had an unfortunate manner at the best of times, with an unusual capacity to spread discord, and was not the best choice of an emissary. The meeting between the two men was unlikely to be amiable, and although Curzon and Hardinge had once been close associates, they had not been friends for a decade or more.
Following this meeting, Harding wrote another letter of resignation, which was in Balfour’s hands on 11 July. Balfour’s speech in the House of Commons on the 12th clearly rejected the gesture.
About a week later, Hardinge realised that Balfour was putting himself at risk by defending him. By his account, he selflessly and in the public good offered his resignation a third time, pending the verdict of a judicial tribunal. The War Cabinet considered a statement to this effect, written by Balfour, in which he said that Hardinge ‘could not devote his whole energies to the work of his laborious and difficult office … until the result of the inquiry is known.’
The War Cabinet reconsidered its position and on 18 July, Bonar Law announced in the House that, ‘The Government has decided that it would be detrimental to the public interest if the Foreign Office were deprived, at the present juncture, of the services of Lord Hardinge.’
Hardinge noted, ‘Thus ended a very unpleasant interlude in my work but thanks to Mr Balfour’s chivalrous championship, I came out on top in the fight for my reputation, which was dearer to me than life.’ (Author’s italics) In his autobiography, Hardinge expresses no remorse for any of the tens of thousands of Indian Army soldiers killed in pursuit of his aims, and far from refuting the criticism of him, he merely ignores it. He emerges from the pages of his autobiography as an arrogant, vain, pompous and mean-minded person.
The freeing of Hardinge from blame now made it all the more difficult for HMG to deal with the military officers. Hardinge’s biographer, B.C. Busch, made the judgement that:
Hardinge had supported the parsimonious, pre-war attitude which served soldiers ill in Mesopotamia; he did not intervene effectively enough to cure the medical problems, he was blind to Duff’s faults; he failed to consult his council, and circumvented the meaning if not the law of India’s constitution. But his guilt was hardly the sort for which he could be tried and his contribution … far outweighed his faults in listening too willingly to his military advisors.318
The final accolade for Hardinge was his appointment as Ambassador to France in November 1920. He served in Paris for two years but during this period he had to deal with the difficult Lord Curzon, who had urged his resignation in 1917. Anglo-French relations deteriorated to such a degree that he decided to retire to Kent in 1922. Unexpectedly, Lord Curzon wrote a generous valedictory letter to Hardinge on his retirement. The impact of the letter on the recipient was such that it was reproduced in his autobiography twenty-five years later.
He was a cold, reserved personality with a well-developed sense of self-worth, and had very few close friends. His work had been everything to him and, after his retirement, he never filled the gap in his later life. He served as a Special Constable during the General Strike of 1926 and revisited India at the invitation of Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, in 1933. He was a reclusive individual and in the twilight of his life he was lonely. He died on 2 August 1944 and is buried at Fordcombe, Kent.
Chapter notes
309 Dixon, N.E., On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, p.155.
310 From the service record of Major General Hathaway provided by Becks Skinner, Director, the Army Medical Services Museum, Ash Vale, Surrey.
311 Barker, A.J., Townshend of Kut, p.210.
312 Sherson, E., Townshend of Chitrál and Kut, p.337. Sherson’s italics.
313 Stockholm syndrome is not a medical term, but is a phenomenon in which captives begin to identify with their captors. At first this seems to be a defensive response generated by fear of violence. Insignificant acts of kindness by the captor are magnified out of proportion in the captive’s mind, not least because in a hostage situation the captive will have lost all sense of perspective. All the key factors appear to be in place to induce Stockholm syndrome in Sir Charles Townshend.
314 University of Birmingham for First World War Studies (General’s Nicknames).
315 Hamilton, N., The Full Monty, Allen Lane, London, 2002, p.117.
316 Hardinge, Lord, Old Diplomacy – The reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, J. Murray, London, 1947, p.215.
317 Hardinge incorporated a footnote, which said that he recorded the precise form of words used at this interview immediately after the meeting, p.216.
318 Busch, B.C., Hardinge of Penshurst, p.274.
Appendix B
Witnesses Called to Give Evidence
The Mesopotamia Commission took evidence from 118 witnesses who testified on oath. In the Report it listed the names of those whose evidence it judged to be the most significant. These are tabulated below.
The Marquess of Crewe KG PC MA FSA
Late, Secretary of State for India
Rt Hon Austen Chamberlain PC MP
Secretary of State for India
Lord Hardinge PC GCB GCMG ISO
Former, Viceroy of India
Lord Inchcape GCMG KCSI KCIE
Director, Anglo-Persian Oil Co
Sir Thomas Holderness KCSI KCB LCS BA
Under Secretary of State for India
Gen Sir Beauchamp Duff GCB KCVO KCSI CB CIE
Former, C-in-C, India
Gen Sir O’Moore Creagh VC GCB GCSI KCB
Former, C-in-C, India
Gen Sir Edmund Barrow GCB
Military Secretary at the India Office
Gen Sir John Nixon KCB ADC
Late, GOC IEF‘D’
Maj Gen Sir George Gorringe KCB CMG DSO
Late, GOC Tigris Corps
Lieut Gen Sir Percy Lake KCB KCMG
Chief of General Staff, GOC IEF‘D’
Lieut Gen Sir Fenton Aylmer VC KCB
Late,
GOC Tigris Corps
Maj Gen M. Cowper CB CIE
Late, Deputy Adjutant & Quarter Master General (DAQMG) IEF‘D’
Maj Gen K.S. Davison CB
Late, Inspector of Communications IEF‘D’
Maj Gen G.V. Kemball CB DSO
Late, Chief of General Staff, IEF‘D’
Maj Gen Sir George Younghusband KCMG KCIE CB
GOC 7th Division
Brevet Col S.H. Climo CB DSO
Late, Commander 30th Brigade
The following officers of the Royal Indian Marine
Capt W. Lumsden CVO CIE RN
Director, RIM
Comdr A. Hamilton
Late, Principal Marine Transport Officer
Capt W.B. Huddleston
Late Principal Marine Transport Officer
Representing the War Office
Maj Gen F.B. Maurice CB
Director Military Operations
Brig Gen The Hon R. Stuart-Wortley
Director of Movements
Lieut Col H.F.P. Percival DSO
Assistant Director of Supplies
Medical Witnesses
Sir Alfred Keogh GCB
Director General, Army Medical Services
Surg Gen Sir William Babtie VC KCMG CB MB KHS
Late, Director of Medica Services, India
Surg Gen H.G. Hathaway CB
Late, Assistant Director of Medical Services, India
Surg Gen J.G. MacNeece CB