Horace Smith-Dorrien

General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, (26 May 1858 – 12 August 1930) was a British Army General. One of the few British survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana as a young officer, he also distinguished himself in the Second Boer War.

Smith-Dorrien held senior commands in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the First World War. He commanded II Corps at the Battle of Mons, the first major action fought by the BEF, and the Battle of Le Cateau, where he fought a vigorous and successful defensive action contrary to the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief Sir John French, with whom he had had a personality clash dating back some years. In the spring of 1915 he commanded the Second Army at the Second Battle of Ypres. He was relieved of command by French for requesting permission to retreat from the Ypres Salient to a more defensible position.

Early life

Horace Smith-Dorrien was born at Haresfoot, a house near Berkhamsted, in the county of Hertfordshire to Colonel Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien and Mary Ann Drever. He was the twelfth child of sixteen; his eldest brother was Thomas Smith-Dorrien-Smith, the Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly from 1872 until 1918. Another elder brother was Rear-Admiral Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien. He was educated at Harrow School and on 26 February 1876 entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Career

On graduation from the Royal Military College in 1877 he had hoped to receive an infantry commission with the 95th Rifle Brigade, but instead received one with the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot, later to become the Sherwood Foresters.

Zulu War

On 1 November 1878, he was posted to South Africa where he was employed as a Transport Officer. He was present at the Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War on 22 January 1879, serving with the British invasion force as a transport officer for a detachment of Royal Artillery. As the Zulu impis overwhelmed the British lines, destroying it in hand-to-hand fighting, Smith-Dorrien narrowly escaped on his transport pony over 20 miles of rough terrain with twenty Zulu warriors in running pursuit, crossing the Buffalo River, 80 yards wide and with a strong current, by holding the tail of a loose horse. Smith-Dorrien was one of fewer than fifty British survivors from the battle (many more native African troops on the British side also survived), and one of only five Imperial officers to escape it with his life. Because of his conduct in trying to help other soldiers escape from the battlefield, including a colonial commissariat officer named Hamer whose life he saved, he was recommended for the Victoria Cross, but it was not awarded. He took part in the rest of that war. During this time, he forged a lifelong friendship with the then Major Herbert Kitchener. He met Charles George Gordon more than once, but his bad knee kept him off the expedition to relieve Khartoum. He served on the Suakin Expedition. On 30 December 1885, he witnessed the Battle of Gennis, where the British Army fought in red coats for the last time. The next day (31 December 1885) he was given his first independent command, 150 men (a mixture of hussars, mounted infantry and Egyptians) with fifty infantry in reserve. His task was to capture nine Arab river supply boats (nuggars), to achieve which he had to exceed his orders by going beyond the village of Surda, making a 60-mile journey on horseback in 24 hours. For this, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1886.

Smith-Dorrien then left active command to go to the Staff College, Camberley (1887–89). Staff College was not yet much respected, and he later recorded that he devoted much time to sport while there.

He was posted to India, and promoted major on 1 May 1892. He became Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General, Bengal, on 1 April 1893 and then Assistant Adjutant General, Bengal, on 27 October 1894. He returned to his regiment where he commanded troops during the Tirah Campaign of 1897–98.

In 1898, he transferred back to Egypt. He was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel on 20 May 1898 and appointed Commanding Officer of the 13th Sudanese Battalion (16 July 1898). He later commanded a division in South Africa.

At Sanna's Post (31 March 1900), Smith-Dorrien ignored inept orders from Colvile to leave wounded largely unprotected and managed an orderly retreat without further casualties. He took part in the Battle of Leliefontein (7 November 1900). On 6 February 1901, Smith-Dorrien's troops were attacked in the Battle of Chrissiesmeer.

Smith-Dorrien's qualities as a commander meant he was one of few British commanders to enhance his reputation during this war. Smith-Dorrien was mentioned three times in despatches in The London Gazette (including by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902), and Ian Hamilton later wrote highly of his performance and his grasp of the men's morale, while Roberts also thought highly of his South Africa performance.

India

left|thumb|140px|Smith-Dorrien caricatured by [[Leslie Ward|Spy for Vanity Fair, 1901]]

On 22 April 1901, he received orders to return to India where he was made Adjutant-General (6 November 1901) under Kitchener (who returned to India after the end of the Second Boer War, in late 1902). He was placed in command of the 4th (Quetta) Division in Baluchistan, a post he held from 30 June 1903 until 1907. He was raised to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1904, made colonel of the Sherwood Foresters in July 1905, and promoted lieutenant general on 9 April 1906. He introduced the staff ride, erroneously attributed by John Terraine to Haig. He also helped found the Staff College at Quetta in 1907.

Aldershot

Smith-Dorrien returned to England and, on 1 December 1907, became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Aldershot Command. Unlike many senior generals of the era, Smith-Dorrien could speak to troops with ease and was greatly admired by regimental officers. In prewar training he wanted "individual initiative and intelligence" in British soldiers. He later wrote: "one could never become an up-to-date soldier in the prehistoric warfare to be met with against the Dervishes". Smith-Dorrien improved the frequency and methods of training in marksmanship of all soldiers (including cavalry, and including shooting at moving targets). Aylmer Haldane recorded that at the 1909 manoeuvres French was "unfair" in summing up for Arthur Paget against Smith-Dorrien. On 21 August 1909 he lectured all his cavalry officers – in the 16th Lancers’ mess – about the importance of improving their men's musketry. He also tried to get the army to replace the old Maxim gun with the new Vickers machine gun, which weighed less than half as much and had a better water-cooling system but the War Office did not approve the expenditure.

By 1910 the feud between French and Smith-Dorrien was common knowledge throughout the Army. Smith-Dorrien objected to French's womanising, a fact which Richard Holmes attributes in part to Smith-Dorrien being happily married to a young and pretty wife; French's nephew later claimed to have overheard "a ferocious exchange" between them, in which Smith-Dorrien declared "Too many whores around your headquarters, Field-Marshal". He was part of the King's hunt in the Chitwan area of Nepal; on 19 December 1911, Smith-Dorrien killed a rhino and on the following day shot a bear.

Southern Command

On 1 March 1912, he was appointed GOC Southern Command, taking over from General Sir Charles Douglas while Haig had succeeded him as GOC Aldershot. At Southern Command he had jurisdiction over twelve counties and many regimental depots. He had experience of dealing with Territorials (who would make up much of II Corps in 1914) for the first time and instigated training on fire-and-movement withdrawals which would also prove useful at Le Cateau. and raised to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1913.). Unlike French, he was politically astute enough to avoid becoming entangled in the Curragh incident of 1914. Unlike a number of British generals of the era, Smith-Dorrien was not a political intriguer.

With the outbreak of the First World War, he was given command of the Home Defence Army, part of Ian Hamilton's Home Defence Central Force. However, following the sudden death of Sir James Grierson, he was placed in charge of the British Expeditionary Force II Corps, by Lord Kitchener, the new Secretary of State for War. Field Marshal Sir John French had wanted Sir Herbert Plumer but Kitchener chose Smith-Dorrien as he knew he could stand up to French, and in the full knowledge that French disliked him. Kitchener admitted to Smith-Dorrien that he had doubts about appointing him, but put them to one side.

Smith-Dorrien arrived at GHQ (20 August) and formally asked French's permission to keep a special diary to report privately to the King as His Majesty had requested. French could hardly refuse, but this further worsened their relations. Smith-Dorrien later claimed in his memoirs that French had received him "pleasantly", but his diary at the time simply records matter-of-factly that he "motored into Le Cateau and saw the Commander-in-Chief" which may be suspiciously brief in contrast to the diary's normally detailed description of other events. There was also personal friction between George Forestier-Walker and Johnnie Gough, the chiefs of staff of II Corps and I Corps respectively.

Mons (23 August 1914)

French still believed (22 August) that there were only light German forces facing the BEF, but after hearing intelligence that German forces were stronger than thought and that the BEF had moved far ahead of Charles Lanrezac's Fifth French Army on its right, Sir John cancelled the planned further advance. He told Lanrezac that he would hold his current position for another 24 hours.

French's and Smith-Dorrien's accounts differ about the conference at 5.30 am on 23 August. French's account in his memoirs "1914" stated that he had become doubtful of the advance into Belgium and warned his officers to be ready to attack or retreat. This agrees largely with French's diary at the time, in which he wrote that he had warned Smith-Dorrien that the Mons position might not be tenable. When "1914" was published, Smith-Dorrien claimed that French had been "in excellent form" at the meeting and had still been planning to advance. However, in his own memoirs Smith-Dorrien admitted that French had talked of either attacking or retreating, although he claimed that it had been he who had warned that the Mons position was untenable. James Edward Edmonds in the "Official History" agreed that French had probably been prepared either to attack or to retreat. Edmonds – who was not an eyewitness – later claimed in his memoirs that French had instructed Smith-Dorrien to "give battle" on the line of the Conde Canal, and that when Smith-Dorrien queried whether he was to attack or defend he was simply told, after French had whispered with Archibald Murray, "Don’t ask questions, do as you are told".

Smith-Dorrien's II Corps took the brunt of a heavy assault by the German forces at Mons, with the Germans under Alexander von Kluck attempting a flanking manoeuvre. Forestier-Walker, Chief of Staff II Corps, was driven by Smith-Dorrien's foul temper to attempt to resign his post during the Battle of Mons but was told by the BEF Chief of Staff Murray "not to be an ass". During the battle of Mons Smith-Dorrien's car was almost struck by a German shell. French agreed to Haig's retreat east of the Forest (Haig Diary, 24 August) without, apparently, the initial knowledge of Smith-Dorrien. Joseph Joffre had intended that both BEF Corps should pass west of the Forest. Smith-Dorrien was at GHQ at Bavay at 1800 on 24 August – he sought orders from Sir John, but was told to do as he pleased and that Haig would be starting at 0500 the next morning. Smith-Dorrien later recorded that he "remonstrated" with Sir John that he wanted to begin his retreat soon after midnight and have his rearguard underway by 0500, to lessen the risk of their being pressed by the Germans, and that Sir John "concurred", but that Haig could still move east of the Forest as he intended. Smith-Dorrien recorded that he "implored" Murray to issue an order that both Corps were to move west of the Forest. Smith-Dorrien's biographer AJ Smithers believes it more likely that he "bullied" Murray into issuing an order, and is highly critical of Sir John for failing to "grip" the situation. Orders were finally issued at 2015, and were later published as Appendix XIII of the relevant volume of the Official History. Prior to the publication of the Official History, Sir John had falsely claimed in his unreliable memoirs (1914) that he had already issued the orders at 1500.

Murray noted in his diary (25 August) that GHQ had moved back from Le Cateau to St Quentin and that I Corps was being heavily engaged by night (at Landrecies) – making no mention of II Corps's situation. Smith-Dorrien later remarked on Sir John's failure to explain in his memoirs how the eight-mile gap between the two British corps had come about, that had it been he rather than Haig who had ignored orders Sir John would have criticised him for it, and that had the order been followed both BEF Corps would have been concentrated at Le Cateau by the night of 25/26 August under Sir John's personal command.

Le Cateau (26 August)

French had a long discussion with Murray and Henry Hughes Wilson (25 August) as to whether the BEF should stand and fight at Le Cateau, a position which had been chosen for both I and II Corps to hold after they had retreated on either side of the Forest of Mormal. II Corps had been harried by German forces as it retreated west of the forest and Sir John wanted to fall back as agreed with Joffre and hoped that the BEF could pull out of the fight altogether and refit behind the River Oise. Wilson issued orders to Smith-Dorrien to retreat from Le Cateau the next day. A French cavalry corps under André Sordet, and especially its artillery, also took part on the west flank.

French was awakened at 2 am on 26 August 1914 with news that Haig's I Corps was under attack at Landrecies, and ordered Smith-Dorrien (3:50 am) to assist him. Smith-Dorrien replied that he was "unable to move a man". This irritated French, as Haig (who already had serious doubts about French's competence) was a protégé of his.

Smith-Dorrien finally managed to locate Thomas Snow (GOC of the newly arrived 4th Division), at 5:00 am (his brigades were assembling in their positions between 3:30 am and 5:30 am). He was not under Smith-Dorrien's orders but agreed to assist II Corps.

Von Kluck believed that he was facing the entire BEF (numbering, he believed, six divisions) and hoped to envelop it on both flanks to its destruction, but lack of coordination among the German attacking forces thwarted this ambition.

After Le Cateau

Smith-Dorrien's decision to stand and fight enraged French, who accused him of jeopardising the whole BEF. French and his staff believed that II Corps had been destroyed at Le Cateau, although its units reappeared and reassembled after the retreat. Haig, despite believing French to be incompetent, wrote in his journal (4 September 1914) of Smith-Dorrien's "ill-considered decision" in electing to stand and fight at Le Cateau. Murray later (in 1933) called Smith-Dorrien "a straight honourable gentleman, most lovable, kind and generous" but thought he "did wrong to fight other than a strong rearguard action". However, the historian John Terraine praised Smith-Dorrien's decision, arguing that despite heavy casualties sustained by II Corps in the action, it materially slowed the German advance.

GHQ (French) fell back to Noyon on 26 August 1914, and then and the next day Huguet and other French-national liaison officers attached to it gave Joffre a tale with their communications of shattered British forces falling back from Le Cateau in defeat. In fact Smith-Dorrien's staff had held II Corps' formation together, although at a meeting (held at 2 am on 27 August 1914, as Smith-Dorrien had found GHQ's present location with great difficulty) French accused him of being overly optimistic.

Smith-Dorrien (2 September 1914) recorded that his men were much fitter and had recovered their spirits after the Le Cateau engagement. Smith-Dorrien's II Corps led the counter-attack upon the German advance at the subsequent First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne, Haig's I Corps to his right being delayed by forests in its path of advance.

II Corps, with its heavy casualties was effectively temporarily broken up in late October 1914 to reinforce I Corps (Haig), but Smith-Dorrien was given command of the newly formed British Second Army when it was reconstituted on 26 December 1914. His writings from the time show that he was fully aware of the importance of artillery, machine guns and aircraft working in close cooperation with the infantry.

Smith-Dorrien later recorded that General French inflicted "pin-pricks" on him from February 1915 onwards, including the removal of Forestier-Walker as his chief of staff. This was supposedly on the grounds that Forestier-Walker was needed to command a division training in England, although two months later he was still waiting to receive its command. Smith-Dorrien was not always immune to the excessive optimism which British officers were expected to display throughout the war: Aylmer Haldane recorded in his diary on 15 March 1915 that prior to the battle Smith-Dorrien had been claiming that the war would be won in March 1915. French complained to Kitchener (Secretary of State for War) about him on 28 March 1915. Smith-Dorrien wrote a long letter on 27 April 1915 explaining the situation to Robertson (then French's Chief of Staff BEF). He received in response a curt telephone message telling him that, in French's view, he had adequate troops to defend the salient. A few hours later written orders arrived, directing Smith-Dorrien to turn command of the salient over to Herbert Plumer

After French refused permission to retreat, Smith-Dorrien noted (6 May 1915) that the planned counterattack was a complete failure with casualties higher than predicted by GHQ. Smith-Dorrien's offer to resign his command on 6 May 1915 was ignored, and on that same day French used the 'pessimism' of the withdrawal recommendation as an excuse to sack him from command of Second Army altogether. "Wully" Robertson is said to have broken the news to him with the words " 'Orace, yer for 'ome " (Robertson was a former cavalry trooper [enlisted man] who dropped his aitches), although by another account he might have said " 'Orace, yer thrown " (a cavalry metaphor).

The Official Historian Brigadier Edmonds later alleged that French had removed Smith-Dorrien as he was senior to Haig and stood in the way of Haig becoming Commander-in-Chief, and that Wilson had put the idea in French's mind, but this may be doubtful as their antipathy went back a long way, and French was later (December 1915) replaced by Douglas Haig as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF against his will.

French's memoirs

French, partly in response to criticism inspired by Smith-Dorrien, later wrote a partial and inaccurate account of the opening of the war in his book 1914, which attacked Smith-Dorrien. Smith-Dorrien, as a serving officer, was denied permission to reply in public.

French's official despatch after Le Cateau had praised Smith-Dorrien's "rare and unusual coolness, intrepidity and determination". In 1914 French wrote that this had been written before he knew the full facts, and that Smith-Dorrien had risked destruction of his corps and lost 14,000 men and 80 guns (actual losses of each were around half of this number). Smith-Dorrien, in a private written statement, called 1914 "mostly a work of fiction and a foolish one too". he married Olive Crofton Schneider (1881–1951) at St Peter's, Eaton Square, London, in a ceremony performed by his brother Rev. Walter Smith-Dorrien.

Olive was the eldest daughter of Colonel John Henry Augustus Schneider and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (née Crofton) Schneider, of Oak Lea, Furness Abbey. Her brothers were Henry Crofton Schneider and Major Cyril Crofton Schneider. Olive's mother was the stepsister of Gen. Sir Arthur Power Palmer who died in 1904.

The Smith-Dorriens had three sons:

Grenfell Horace Gerald Smith-Dorrien (born 1904) served in the army, reaching the rank of brigadier. He was killed by shellfire on 13 September 1944 during the Italian Campaign, while commanding the 169th (London) Infantry Brigade. His grave is in the Gradara War Cemetery, in the Commune of Gradara in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino.
Peter Lockwood Smith-Dorrien (born 1907) was killed in the King David Hotel bombing on 22 July 1946.
Bromley David Smith-Dorrien (1911–2001) He joined the Foresters in 1940. After the war, he worked to keep alive his father's reputation, designing a first-day cover commemorating the Battle of Le Cateau and helping his father's biographer A. J. Smithers. His grave is at Kennington Cemetery.

Horace and Olive Smith-Dorrien informally adopted Power Palmer's two daughters, Frances Gabrielle (b. 1902) and Celia de Courcy (b. ca. 1903), who were left homeless after their mother, Power Palmer's second wife, died in 1912. and retired, living in Portugal and finally in England. He devoted much his time to the welfare and remembrance of Great War soldiers. He worked on his memoirs, which were published in 1925. As French was still alive at the time of writing, he still felt unable to rebut 1914. Despite his treatment by French, in 1925, he journeyed across Europe to act as a pallbearer at French's funeral, an act appreciated by French's son.

He played himself in the film The Battle of Mons, released in 1926. In June 1925, he unveiled the war memorial in Memorial Avenue, Worksop. On 4 August 1930, he unveiled the Pozières Memorial.

Smith-Dorrien died on 12 August 1930 following injuries sustained in a car accident at Chippenham, in Wiltshire; he was 72 years old. His body was buried at the Rectory Lane Cemetery of the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. His grave is marked by a tall stone cross, once adorned by a bronze sword of sacrifice which has since been stolen. The grave was restored in 2018, although the sword is still missing.

His wife Olive outlived him by more than twenty years and died on 15 September 1951 in the Chelsea area of London.

Legacy

thumb|right|The Smith-Dorrien Monument in St Peter's Churchyard, Berkhamsted.

The following memorials have been established:

Stall plate 14 in the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey (1913)
In 1931, after his death, the Smith-Dorrien Memorial was added to the Sherwood Foresters Memorial in Crich, Derbyshire, which Smith-Dorrien himself had opened on 6 August 1923.

Several places and institutions around the world have been named after Horace Smith-Dorrien, including:

Dorrien, a vineyard area in South Australia (1916)
Mount Smith-Dorrien, Alberta, Canada (1918); the Smith-Dorrien Trail and Smith-Dorrien Creek, Alberta are also named after him.
Smith-Dorrien Institute in Aldershot Smith Dorrien Bridge, and Smith Dorrien House, Gibraltar

<blockquote>Lead out, lead out, Brave Mother, for the sake of sacked Louvain!<br />

Give us our own Smith-Dorrien, yield us the van again!</blockquote>

References

External links

Obituary: General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien
Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien (1858–1930), General; Governor of Gibraltar: Sitter in 11 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)
Olive Crofton (née Schneider), Lady Smith-Dorrien (National Portrait Gallery)
Haresfoot, his birthplace, now a school
'The Story of a General' by Henry Newbolt (1916)
General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien at South Lodge
The London Gazette, 8 February 1901. p. 863 (Boer War)
The London Gazette, 8 February 1901. p. 877
Some Prominent British Generals and their Fortunes in The Great War – Smith-Dorrien
A Book of Poems for the Blue Cross Fund (to help horses in war time) President, Lady Smith-Dorrien
Smith-Dorrien, Horace Lockwood
Horace Lockwood Smith Dorrien 1858–1930 (Family tree details)