Esher Report - The Committee and Its Recommendations

The Committee and Its Recommendations

The Committee took evidence in private and its Report was in three parts. It analysed the complex arrangements and inefficiencies of the Army administration and the three essential recommendations of the Report were:

• an Army Council modelled on the Board of Admiralty. This was designed as a single collective body to analyse and decide upon issues connected to policy and so end the confusion of the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for War, the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster General. The War Secretary was to have the same power as the First Lord of the Admiralty and all military topics submitted to the Crown would go through him. This would increase civil and parliamentary control over the Army. Also recommended was that the Council would be made up of seven members. These were to be the Secretary of State for War, the First Military Member (with responsibility for operations and military policy), the Second Military Member (with responsibility for recruitment and discipline), the Third Military Member (with responsibility for supply and transport), the Fourth Military Member (with responsibility for armaments and fortifications), a Civil Member (who would be the Parliamentary Under-Secretary with responsibility for civil business other than finance) and another Civil Member (the Financial Secretary). It was recommended that this Council should meet frequently and decide matters by majority vote.
• a General Staff with its Chief having the responsibility for preparing the Army for war. The post of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces was to be abolished. The duties of the General Staff were to be shared by a Director of Military Operations, a Director of Staff Duties and a Director of Military Training.
• the War Office was to be radically reorganised on rational grounds. The British Army had previously grown since 1660 not by grand design but through piecemeal additions and reforms. The administration inside the War Office was to be divided between the Chief of the General Staff, the Adjutant-General, the Quartermaster-General and the Master-General of the Ordnance. The Adjutant-General was given overall responsibility for the welfare and maintenance of the soldiers. Under him would be a Director of Recruiting and Organisation, a Director of Personal Services, a Director-General of Medical Services and a Director of Auxiliary Services. The previous office of Judge-Advocate-General was to be replaced with a Judge-Advocate with more limited power. Apart from manufacture, all parts of the process of material supply would be put under the Quartermaster-General. His department subordinates would be a Director of Transport and Remounts, a Director of Movements and Quartering, a Director of Supplies and Clothing and a Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores. The Master-General of the Ordnance's subordinates would be a Director of Artillery, a Naval Adviser and a Director of Fortifications and Works.

This rationalisation was recommended by the Report to be implemented throughout the Army. The Report also claimed that policy and administration had become too centralised in the War Office to the detriment of initiative. Administrative districts were recommended which would have responsibility for organisation and therefore leave commanders of field units free to train for war.