Commanders
In 1914, no serving British officer of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had controlled a formation larger than a division on active operations. The first Commander in Chief of the BEF appointed in August 1914 was Field Marshal John French. His last active command had been the cavalry division in the Second Boer War.
The commander of the British I Corps in 1914 was Douglas Haig. French had remarked in 1912 that Haig would be better suited to a position on the staff than a field command. Like French, Haig was a cavalryman. His last active command had been during the Second Boer War, first as a senior staff officer in the cavalry division, then commanding a brigade-sized group of columns. The first commander of the British II Corps was Lieutenant General James Grierson, a noted tactician who died of a heart attack soon after arriving in France. French wished to appoint Lieutenant General Herbert Plumer in his place, but against French's wishes, Kitchener instead appointed Lieutenant General Horace Smith-Dorrien, who had begun his military career in the Zulu War in 1879 and was one of only five officers to survive the battle of Isandlwana. He had built a formidable reputation as an infantry commander during the Sudan Campaign and the Second Boer War. After the Second Boer War, he was responsible for a number of reforms, notably forcing an increase in dismounted training for the cavalry. This was met with hostility by French (as a cavalryman). By 1914, French's dislike for Smith-Dorrien was well known within the army.
After the failed offensive at the Battle of Loos in 1915, French was replaced as commander of the BEF by Haig, who remained in command for the rest of the war. He became most famous for his role as its commander during the battle of the Somme, the battle of Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days Offensive, the series of victories leading to the German surrender in 1918. Haig was succeeded in command of the First Army by General Charles Carmichael Monro, who in turn was succeeded by General Henry Horne in September 1916, the only officer with an artillery background to command a British army during the war.
General Plumer was eventually appointed to command II Corps in December 1914, and succeeded Smith-Dorrien in command of the Second Army in 1915. He had commanded a mounted infantry detachment in the Second Boer war, where he started to build his reputation. He held command of the Ypres salient for three years and gained an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the battle of Messines in 1917. Plumer is generally recognised as one of the most effective of the senior British commanders on the Western Front.
In 1914, General Edmund Allenby was commander of the Cavalry Division and later the Cavalry Corps in the BEF. His leadership was noted during the retreat from Mons and the first battle of Ypres. After commanding an infantry corps, he was appointed to command the Third Army on the western front. He had previously served in the Zulu War, the Sudan campaign, and the Second Boer war. In 1917, he was given command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, where he oversaw the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918. Allenby replaced Archibald Murray, who had been the Chief of Staff of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1914.
Allenby was replaced as Third Army commander by General Julian Byng, who began the war as commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division. After performing well during the First Battle of Ypres, he succeeded Allenby in command of the Cavalry Corps. He was sent to the Dardanelles in August 1915, to command the British IX Corps. He planned the highly successful evacuation of 105,000 Allied troops and the majority of the equipment of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF). The withdrawal was successfully completed in January 1916, without the loss of a single man. Byng had already returned to the western front, where he was given command of the Canadian Corps. His most notable battle was the battle of Vimy ridge in April 1917, which was carried out by the Canadian Corps with British support.
General Henry Rawlinson served on Kitchener's staff during the advance on Omdurman, in 1898, and served with distinction in the Second Boer War, where he earned a reputation as one of the most able British commanders. Rawlinson took command of the British IV Corps in 1914 and then command of the Fourth Army in 1916, as the plans for the Allied offensive on the Somme were being developed. During the war, Rawlinson was noted for his willingness to use innovative tactics, which he employed during the battle of Amiens, where he combined attacks by tanks with artillery.
General Hubert Gough commanded a mounted infantry regiment with distinction during the relief of Ladysmith, but his command was destroyed while attacking a larger Boer force in 1901. When he joined the BEF, he was in command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and was promoted from a brigade to a corps command in less than a year. He was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division in September 1914, the 7th Division in April 1915, and the British I Corps in July 1915. He commanded I Corps during the battle of Loos. In May 1916, he was appointed commander of the Fifth Army, which suffered heavy losses at the battle of Passchendaele. The collapse of the Fifth Army was widely viewed as the reason for the German breakthrough in the Spring Offensive, and Gough was dismissed as its commander in March 1918, being succeeded by General William Birdwood for the last months of the war. Birdwood had previously commanded the Australian Corps, an appointment requiring a combination of tact and tactical flair.
On the Macedonian front, General George Milne commanded the British Salonika Army, and General Ian Hamilton commanded the ill-fated MEF during the Gallipoli Campaign. He had previously seen service in the First Boer War, the Sudan campaign, and the Second Boer War.
Back in Britain, Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), effectively the professional commander of the British Army, was General James Murray, who retained that post during the early years of the war. He was replaced as CIGS in 1916 by General William Robertson. A strong supporter of Haig, Robertson was replaced in 1918, by General Henry Hughes Wilson.
Read more about this topic: British Army During World War I