Background

Edmund Allenby was born on April 23, 1861, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. He was one of six children and the son of Hynman Allenby and Catherine Anne Allenby (née Cane).

Education

Edmund 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 in 1881. Allenby also attended Staff College in 1896.

Career

Allenby was commissioned in the army in 1882, joined the Inniskilling Dragoons and saw active service in the Bechuanaland and Zululand military expeditions from 1884 to 1888. He returned to England in 1888 and continued to advance in the army. Allenby was given command of the Royal 3rd Cavalry Squadron 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.

Allenby returned to Britain in 1902 and became commanding officer of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers in Colchester with the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on August 2, 1902, and the brevet rank of colonel from August 22, 1902. He was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel and to the temporary rank of brigadier general on October 19, 1905. He assumed command of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in 1906.

Allenby was inspector general of cavalry from 1910 to 1914, and upon the outbreak of World War I, by then already major general, he took a cavalry division to France. In May 1915 Allenby was promoted to full General. After periods in command of the British cavalry and the 5th Corps, he became commander of the 3rd Army (October 1915) and was prominently engaged at the Battle of Arras (April 1917). 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. However, he was successful in the Second Battle of Yeper, Ypres and the capture of Vimy Ridge.

With the need for a new commander in chief in the Middle East, Allenby, because of his unequaled cavalry experience, was chosen. Allenby’s service in the Middle East proved more distinguished. In June 1917 he took command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The strength of his personality created a new spirit in his army, and after careful preparation and reorganization he won a decisive victory over the Turks at Gaza (November 1917), which led to the capture of Jerusalem (December 9, 1917).

Further advances were checked by calls from France for his troops, but after receiving reinforcements he won a decisive victory at Megiddo (September 19, 1918), which, followed by his capture of Damascus and Aleppo, ended Ottoman power in Syria. 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 in 1919, which he retained until his retirement from public life in 1925.

Achievements

• Edmund Allenby was one of Britain's most successful commanders during World War I, who led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the conquest of Palestine. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force won the Third Battle of Gaza, conquering southern Palestine and capturing Jerusalem in December 1917. Allenby’s forces at the final Battle of Megiddo crushed Turkish forces in Palestine, swept forward to occupy all of what would become Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon and secured an armistice ending World War I in the Middle E.
  
  For his gallantry and distinguished service, Allenby was honoured with a great number of national and foreign awards. He was also a recipient of a number of campaign and commemorative medals, such as Queen's South Africa Medal, King's South Africa Medal, 1914 Star and bar, British War Medal, Victory Medal, with mention in despatches oak spray, King George V Coronation Medal and King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.
  
  Allenby was created 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe in October 1919.

Politics

Allenby supported the Hashemites, allowing them to enter Damascus first and so helping to establish British political influence in the region.

As high commissioner for Egypt Allenby steered that country firmly but impartially through political disturbances and saw it recognized as a sovereign state in 1922.

Views

Allenby established up-to-date Western Front standards of operations, restoring the force’s confidence and morale and encouraging a re-assessment of the cavalry’s role in modern warfare, steering a path between the traditionalists and those who favoured the use of mounted infantry. He successfully pioneered the combined use of infantry, cavalry, tanks, artillery and aeroplanes at the Battle of Megiddo. His leadership at Megiddo is considered by some to be a forerunner of the German 'Blitzkrieg' tactics of 1939-41.

Personality

Edmund Allenby was often abrupt with his subordinates and a stickler for presentation and discipline. Combined with his physical stature, these traits led people to nickname him 'The Bull'. Nevertheless, he can be regarded as one of the most successful commanders of the war, using strategies in Palestine that he developed from his experiences in South Africa and on the Western Front.

Physical Characteristics: Edmund Allenby died suddenly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He has been everywhere and is the most energetic commander I have yet come across... He is just the kind of man we wanted here." - General Sir Harry Chauvel [describing Allenby's impact in Palestine]

Connections

Lord Allenby was married to Miss Adelaide Chapman, the daughter of a Wiltshire landowner and had one son, Lieutenant Horace Michael Hynman Allenby. Horace was killed in action at Koksijde in Flanders whilst serving with the Royal Horse Artillery. On Allenby's death, leaving no direct issue, his title passed to his nephew Lt-Col. Dudley Allenby, son of Captain Frederick Allenby, who succeeded as 2nd Viscount.

Father:

Hynman Allenby

Mother:

Catherine Anne Cane Allenby

Spouse:

Adelaide Mabel Allenby (née Chapman), Viscountess Allenby of Megiddo

(1869 - 1942)

Son:

Horace Michael Hynman Allenby

(1898–1917)

rival:

Douglas Haig

(June 19, 1861 - January 29, 1928)

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), the German Spring Offensive, and the final Hundred Days Offensive.

Allenby and Douglas Haig never had great confidence in each other. A rivalry between the two had been running since their time at the Staff College until the First World War.

References

• Allenby of Arabia, Lawrence's general This is a competent military biography of a soldier/imperialist of the old school by Brian Gardner, carefully analyzing Allenby's administrative ability.
  1965
• Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917-1919 A book by Matthew Hughes examines British military, political and imperial strategy in the Middle East during and immediately after the First World War, in relation to General Allenby's command of the Egypt Expeditionary Force from June 1917 to November 1919.
  1999
• Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby 1861-1936 A book by Lawrence James
  1993
• How Jerusalem Was Won Being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine A book by William Thomas Massey
  1919
• Allenby: Making the Modern Middle East In this biography Brad Faught explores the events and actions of Allenby's life, examining his thinking on both the British Empire and the post-World War I international order. Faught brings clarity to Allenby's decisive impact on British imperial policy in the making of the modern Middle East, and thereby on the long arc of the region's continuing and controversial place in world affairs.
  2020
• Allenby, A Study In Greatness: The Biography Of Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby Of Megiddo And Felixstowe A book by Archibald Wavell
  1940
• Allenby in Egypt A book by Archibald Wavell
  1943