Great War
When war was declared the Staff of the Irish Command became automatically the Staff of the 2nd Army Corps and accordingly with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he was promoted Brigadier-General, and as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France took charge of the Adjutant and Quartermaster-General's Department during the retreat of the 2nd Corps after the Battle of Mons, to Paris, and during the Battle of the Marne. In the middle of September 1914, he relieved one of the brigadiers in the fighting line as commander of the 13th brigade (5th Infantry Division) and then commanded the 53rd brigade (18th Infantry Division) till December 1915, when he was ordered home to assume command of the 16th (Irish) Division at Blackburn.
Promoted Major General he took over from Lt. General Sir Lawrence Parsons. Hickie - one of a rare breed, a senior, Irish, Catholic officer - was a popular replacement. It was a politically highly sensitive appointment which required the professionalism and political awareness Hickie fortunately possessed as the division was formed around a core of Irish National Volunteers in response to Carson’s Ulster Volunteers. He was much more diplomatic and tactful than his predecessors and spoke of the pride which his new command gave him, but did not hesitate to make sweeping changes amongst the senior officers of the Irish Division. After putting the division through intensive training, it left under Irish command of which each man took personal pride. The 47th and 48th Brigade were in the trenches behind Abbeyville by Christmas 1915, the 49th Brigade reaching the Western Front in February 1916.
Read more about this topic: William Bernard Hickie
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“Our lives laid down in war and peace may not
Be found acceptable in Heaven’s sight.
And that they may be is the only prayer
Worth praying. May my sacrifice
Be found acceptable in Heaven’s sight.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)