Herbert Lawrence

Sir Herbert Lawrence
Born(1861-08-08)8 August 1861
London, England
Died17 January 1943(1943-01-17) (aged 81)
Little Berkhamsted, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1882–1903
1914–1919
RankGeneral
Commands66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division (1917)
71st Division (1916–17)
52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division (1915–16)
127th (Manchester) Brigade (1915)
Battles / warsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France)
Croix de Guerre (France)
Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Croix de Guerre (Belgium)
Army Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Grand Officer of the Order of Karađorđe's Star (Serbia)[1]
Grand Officer of the Military Order of Aviz (Portugal)
RelationsJohn Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence (father)
Other workChairman of Glyn, Mills & Co. Bank

General Sir Herbert Alexander Lawrence, GCB (8 August 1861 – 17 January 1943) was a general in the British Army, a banker and a businessman.

He worked alongside Major Douglas Haig (Assistant Adjutant General) as Intelligence head of General French's staff during the Second Boer War, and was Haig's Chief of Staff in the final year of World War I.

Early life

Lawrence was born in Southgate, North London, on 8 August 1861, the son of Sir John Laird Mair Lawrence, later Lord Lawrence and the Governor-General of India, and his wife Harriette Katherine Hamilton. He was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[2]

Military career

Commissioned into the 17th Lancers as a lieutenant on 10 May 1882,[3][4] he was stationed in India and promoted to captain on 25 February 1892 [5][6] before he entered the Staff College, Camberley in 1894.[7]

After graduating in 1896 he was appointed a staff captain (intelligence) at the War Office. He was promoted to major on 22 November 1899, at the outbreak of the Second Boer War in South Africa.[8] During the war, he served on the intelligence staff of Major General Sir John French's cavalry division with Douglas Haig and received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the 16th Lancers on 29 November 1900. For his service in the war, he was twice mentioned in despatches and received the Queen's South Africa Medal with six clasps. He stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which ended June 1902 with the Peace of Vereeniging. Four months later, he was among 540 officers and men of the 17th Lancers who left Cape Town on the SS German in late September 1902, and arrived at Southampton in late October, when they were posted to Edinburgh.[9]

Field Marshal Haig and four of his army commanders at Cambrai, France, October 1918. Stood second from the right, holding a cigarette and talking to Lieutenant General Horne, is General Sir Herbert Lawrence.

He resigned his commission in 1903 and became a city banker. He was also a director of the Midland Railway.[2]

When the First World War started in August 1914 he was recalled for army service and became general staff officer of the 2nd Yeomanry Division, serving in Egypt and at Gallipoli. In June 1915 he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general[10] and given the command of the 127th (Manchester) Brigade, part of the 42nd (East Lancs) Territorial Division, a Territorial Force (TF) formation.[2][11]

Just three months later, Lawrence was promoted again, this time to temporary major general,[12] and became General Officer Commanding (GOC) 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, another TF formation, at Gallipoli in September 1915[13] and during the evacuation at the end of 1915 he oversaw the withdrawal at Cape Helles beach. In 1916 he returned to Egypt and achieved success at the Battle of Romani, but asked to be relieved of his command later in the year and was transferred to the 71st Home Service Division in England.

In 1917 he was in France as commander of the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division, with whom he remained until made chief intelligence officer on Haig's staff on 22 January 1918. He then took over from Sir Launcelot Kiggell as chief of staff of the BEF in France and, after being made a permanent lieutenant general in June 1918,[14] was promoted to full general,[2] which in June 1919 was made permanent.[15]

Lawrence was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1917[16] and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1926. He also received, as well as other overseas honours, the Croix de Guerre and was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1919. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the citation for which reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant General Herbert A. Lawrence, Royal British Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States, during World War I. While serving as Chief of Staff, British Expeditionary Forces, General Lawrence rendered invaluable service to the American Expeditionary Forces and to the cause in which the United States has been engaged.[17]

In 1919 he was given the Colonelcy of the 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers, transferring after amalgamation to the 17th/21st Lancers, a position he held until 1938. From 1925 to 1932 he was also Colonel of the Manchester Regiment.[18]

Later life

After the war he was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry in 1925,[19] a trustee of the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1926 and a governor of Wellington College. He became chairman of Vickers in 1926 and of Glyn's Bank in 1934. He was also chairman of several other banks and a director of a number of companies. He lived for some time in Dean's Place in Alfriston and later moved to Little Berkhamsted.[2]

He died in 1943 and was buried at Seal, near Sevenoaks, Kent. He had married Isabel Mary Mills, the daughter of Charles Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon, in Sevenoaks in 1892. Their two sons, Oliver James Lawrence and Michael Charles Lawrence, were both killed in action during the First World War.[2]

Bibliography

  • Harris, Paul (2019). General Sir Herbert Lawrence: Haig's Chief of Staff. Helion Limited, 2019. ISBN 9781911628873.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 591.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Herbert Lawrence". RBS Heritage Hub. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. ^ "No. 25105". The London Gazette. 9 May 1882. p. 2157.
  4. ^ Harris 2019, p. 23.
  5. ^ "No. 26270". The London Gazette. 22 March 1892. p. 1702.
  6. ^ Harris 2019, pp. 26–27.
  7. ^ Harris 2019, pp. 31–33.
  8. ^ Hart's Army list, 1903
  9. ^ "The Army in South Africa – Troops returning Home". The Times. No. 36888. London. 2 October 1902. p. 4.
  10. ^ "No. 29245". The London Gazette. 27 July 1915. p. 7438.
  11. ^ Harris 2019, p. 52.
  12. ^ "No. 29331". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 October 1915. p. 10246.
  13. ^ Mackie, Colin. "Army Senior Appointments" (PDF). Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  14. ^ "No. 30716". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1918. p. 6455.
  15. ^ "No. 31395". The London Gazette. 6 June 1918. p. 7421.
  16. ^ "No. 29886". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1916. p. 2.
  17. ^ "Valor awards for Herbert A. Lawrence". Military Times.
  18. ^ "Manchester Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  19. ^ "No. 33082". The London Gazette. 8 September 1925. p. 5911.
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Military offices
Preceded by GOC 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division
1915–1916 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division
February−December 1917 		Succeeded by