Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley - Biography

Biography

In the battle of Omdurman during the Mahdist War, Wortley led a band of Arab irregulars who secured the east bank of the Nile.

On 1 June 1914, during World War I, Major General Montagu-Stuart-Wortley became GOC of the British 46th (North Midland) Division, a Territorial Force division. In October 1915, the Division saw action in France during the Battle of Loos when it made a costly attack against the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Wortley proposed a bombing attack, but was overruled and ordered to go ahead with a frontal attack by General Richard Haking (his Corps commander). In the event, the attack was a disastrous failure and the Division lost 180 officers and 3,583 men killed wounded or missing. The action was described in the Official History as a ‘tragic waste of infantry’.

Wortley incurred Haig's displeasure by writing regularly to King George V about the activities of the 46th Division (despite having the permission of Sir John French to do so). This and the disagreement with Haking about the Hohenzollern Redoubt attack left Wortley as a "marked man" against whom Haig conspired". At the time opening of the Somme, he was a few weeks short of his 59th birthday, but in ill-health, suffering from sciatica. Despite his experience, he was "past his fighting best" and his fitness for operational command was questionable. One officer later described him in 1916 as:

"a worn-out man, who never visited his front line and was incapable of inspiring any enthusiasm."

As part of General Sir Edmund Allenby's Third Army, the 46th Division was involved in the diversion at Gommecourt on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916. The initial assault at 7.30am had failed completely and Montagu-Stuart-Wortley was called upon to renew the attack at midday, the neighbouring 56th Division having made good progress and needing support. With no artillery preparation or smoke screen, it was clear to Montagu Stuart-Wortley that there was no prospect of success so at 3.30pm he ordered a token effort to be made by two companies. In the end only one platoon went over with only one man surviving unscathed.

The division's attack failed completely and it had the distinction of suffering the lowest casualties, 2 455 killed, wounded and missing, of all 13 British divisions involved on the day. In the opinion of the VII Corps commander, Lieutenant General Thomas D'Oyly Snow:

"the 46th Division ... showed a lack of offensive spirit. I can only attribute this to the fact that its commander, Major-General the Hon. E.J. Montagu Stuart-Wortley, is not of an age, neither has he the constitution, to allow him to be as much among his men in the front lines as is necessary to imbue all ranks with confidence and spirit."

General Allenby ordered a Court of Inquiry but on 5 July, before it had even delivered its findings, he sacked Montagu-Stuart-Wortley. Given that Montagu Stuart-Wortley's orders prior to the attack had been "to occupy the ground that is won by the artillery" his dismissal remains a subject of controversy. According to Alan MacDonald, "the Division and its General were made scapegoats for the failure of a fatally flawed concept dreamt up by higher authority - the diversionary attack at Gommecourt".