Allenby, FM Edmund Henry Hynman, 1st Viscount of Megiddo and Felixstowe (1861-1936), British cavalry general plucked from the inconclusive battles on the western front in April 1917 and who, given his head, achieved brilliant success against Turkish forces in Palestine in 1917-18. An imposing and intimidating figure, Edmund Allenby (nicknamed the ‘Bull’) was commissioned into the Inniskilling Dragoons in 1882, and saw action in several minor colonial wars of the 1880s. As with so many British Great War commanders, it was his performance in the Second Boer War that established his military reputation and destined him for higher things. From column commander in South Africa he graduated to command the 5th Lancers, 4th Cavalry Brigade, and then became inspector general of Cavalry in 1910. He commanded the Cavalry Division in August 1914 with mixed success, and on the arrival of a second cavalry division, was given command of the Cavalry Corps, whose defence of Messines Ridge during the first battle of Ypres did much for his reputation. He was promoted to lead Third Army in October 1915, and survived the Somme (only two of his divisions attacked at Gommecourt on the battle's first day), but shared the inability of his colleagues to grasp offensive operations on the western front at Arras/Vimy Ridge in April 1917. After a promising start Third Army made relatively little progress, and, much to his irritation, he was sent to command British and Commonwealth forces in Palestine, following the sacking of Gen Murray for failing to take Gaza in March and April 1917.

Arriving on 28 June, Allenby immediately reorganized his command with energy and flair—perhaps there was never the opportunity or incentive to do so in France—and soon showed skill denied him by trench warfare. While he feinted a frontal attack on Gaza at the end of October, his Desert Mounted Corps of horsed and camel units mounted a surprise right-flanking attack on Beersheba. Attacking out of the desert, they began to roll up the enemy flank and forced the general retreat of the Turkish forces. From Gaza, Allenby moved north and entered Jerusalem on 11 December. Lack of reserves robbed Allenby of the ability to take the offensive again until 19 September 1918, when he attacked at Megiddo. In an almost modern battle, using a combination of surprise, artillery bombardment, and air attack, he paralysed the Turks and blasted a 5 mile (8 km) gap in their lines, through which his XXI Corps poured to roll up the coast. His personal drive was echoed by his troops. By 1 October Damascus had fallen, and during a relentless pursuit over 360 miles (579 km), his men took 76, 000 prisoners for 5, 000 casualties, and forced Turkey to sue for peace on 30 October.

Though he had failed to shine in France, Allenby's tactical skill was demonstrated by his success after the failure of Dobell and Murray at Gaza, and at Megiddo. He was lucky to be moved to Palestine, where his cavalryman's feel for manoeuvre could be rewarded, and exploited the opportunity offered to the fullest degree. Fortunate to be able to operate without Haig or Lloyd George breathing down his neck at every turn, this relative freedom may have inspired his operational skill. His hard-won successes in Palestine won him his field marshal's baton and a peerage in 1919, but he never ceased to mourn the loss of his only son Michael, an artillery officer, on the western front.

— Peter Caddick-Adams

The English field marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861-1936), was a commander during World War I. His fame rests largely on his leadership in the Allied victory over the Turkish armies in 1917-1918.

Edmund Allenby was born on April 23, 1861, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England. He attended the school of a local clergyman and then went to public school. After twice failing to pass the Indian civil service examination, he succeeded in passing the examination for the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

Allenby was commissioned in the army in 1882 and sent with his unit to South Africa, too late for the battle of Majuba Hill, won by Boer force. He returned to England in 1886 and continued to advance in the army. He accompanied his regiment to South Africa again after the Boer War started in 1899, and there he made his reputation as an officer in action. The forces under his command were invariably successful in that long war.

At the end of the Boer War, Allenby was promoted from colonel to brigadier general and then to major general by the time World War I began. He was sent to France in command of a cavalry division. He later commanded the V Corps and the 3d Army. He was not an outstanding commander in Europe; his forte was cavalry, and traditional cavalry units were not useful where the front was bogged down in trench warfare. With the need for a new commander in chief in the Middle East, Allenby, because of his unequaled cavalry experience, was chosen. Allenby and Douglas Haig, the British commander in chief in Europe, never had great confidence in each other, and the new assignment for Allenby removed a source of friction on the Western front in Europe. He had unlimited success in his new command. His armies captured Jerusalem and Damascus, defeating the Turkish armies in a brilliant campaign - the last time that cavalry was to be decisive in modern warfare. Allenby and the soldier-scholar T. E. Lawrence of Arabia emerged from that phase of the war as the greatest names.

After the war ended, Allenby was promoted to field marshal, made a viscount, and treated as a hero at home. He was also given the post of high commissioner for Egypt, which he retained until his retirement from public life in 1925.

Lord Allenby was married and had one son. He died on May 14, 1936. Known to his troops as "the Bull," he had exhibited that animal's positive traits of strength and determination but also its weaknesses of bad temper and rash action.

Further Reading

The standard biography is Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell, Allenby: A Study in Greatness (2 vols., 1940-1943), a balanced account by a World War II commander. Brian Gardner, Allenby of Arabia: Lawrence's General (1966; British ed. entitled Allenby, 1965), is valuable because the author was the first to make use of the Allenby family correspondence. Other sources are Raymond Savage, Allenby of Armageddon: A Record of the Career and Campaigns of Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby (1925), and the pertinent chapter in B. H. Liddell Hart, Reputations, Ten Years After (1928; repr. in Barrett Parker, ed., Famous British Generals, 1951).

Additional Sources

James, Lawrence, Imperial warrior: the life and times of Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby, 1861-1936, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993.

For more information on Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe, visit Britannica.com.

Allenby, Edmund, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861-1936). Soldier and administrator. After extensive service in Africa before 1914, Allenby fought in France before being posted to Palestine in June 1917. In the Middle East he proved himself a master of mobile warfare. In October 1917 his troops defeated the Turks at Gaza and by Christmas he had occupied Jerusalem. Further rapid progress was halted when his army was milked of reinforcements to be sent to France. But when he resumed his offensive in September 1918, operating in co-operation with the Arab forces organized by Colonel T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), he destroyed the Turkish armies in Palestine and Syria at the battle of Megiddo.

Viscount (ăl'ənbē) , 1861–1936, British field marshal. Educated at Sandhurst, he saw active service in Bechuanaland (1884–85) and Zululand (1888) and in the South African War (1899–1902). When World War I broke out (1914), he commanded first the cavalry and then (1915–17) the 3d Army in France. Appointed commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in June, 1917, he waged the last of the great cavalry campaigns by invading Palestine, capturing Jerusalem, and ending Turkish resistance after the battle of Megiddo (Sept. 18–21, 1918). He served as British high commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan (1919–25). He was made viscount in 1919.

Bibliography

See A. P. Wavell, Allenby (1941) and Allenby in Egypt (1945); B. Gardner, Allenby of Arabia (1965).

1861 - 1936

British officer who commanded British forces in the Middle East during World War I; military governor of Palestine and high commissioner of Egypt.

Edmund Henry Allenby's early career included extensive service in Africa, including the Boer War (1899 - 1902). Posted to France at the start of World War I, he was sent to the Middle East in June 1917, where he led Britain's Egyptian Expeditionary Force and took Beersheba and Gaza (1917); with the help of Colonel T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and Prince Faisal I ibn Hussein, he occupied Jerusalem in December 1917. He launched his final offensive in 1918, taking Megiddo from 18 September to 21 September. This classic of military strategy led to the collapse of Ottoman Empire forces and the British occupation of Syria.

At the peace conference in Paris, Allenby argued, as military governor of Palestine, that Britain should support Faisal as king of Syria, but the League of Nations awarded the French a mandate over Syria; they occupied the new kingdom and ousted Faisal. Created a viscount in 1919, Allenby was appointed high commissioner for Egypt (1919 - 1925). There he advocated accommodation with rising Arab Nationalism, thus clashing over policy with British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill. His threat to resign persuaded the British government to issue the Allenby Declaration on 28 February 1922, which granted formal independence to Egypt but retained enormous rights for the British over Egyptian affairs.

Bibliography

Wavell, Archibald P. Allenby: A Study in Greatness. 2 vols. London: G. G. Harrap, 1940 - 1943.

— JON JUCOVY

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