Background

Henry Seymour Rawlinson was born on February 20, 1864, the eldest son of Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, soldier, scientist, and diplomatist, who had married Louisa Caroline Harcourt, daughter of Henry Seymour, of Knoyle, Wiltshire.

Education

Rawlinson received his education at Eton College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (present-day all-purpose Royal Military Academy Sandhurst).

Career

Rawlinson obtained his first commission from Sandhurst in February, 1884, in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. In the following November he was selected by Lord Roberts in India to be his aide-de-camp, and attended his chief through the Burmese Expedition of 1886 - 1887. But in January 1890, he resigned this favoured position and returned to regimental duty.

Promoted captain in November, 1891, he exchanged, in the following July, into the Coldstream Guards. After graduating from Staff College, he was appointed, in November 1895, brigade major at Aldershot. In that appointment he took part in Lord Kitchener's Sudan campaign, and in the following January, having been appointed to the Staff in Egypt as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, he was present at the Battles of the Atbara and Khartum, where he earned much praise.

He also received the unusual distinction of promotion to brevet lieutenant-colonel's rank on reaching the regimental rank of major in January 1899, before he was 35 years old. He had succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1895.

On the outbreak of the South African War he was again appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, and was sent to the Natal Field Force, with which he was present at the engagement of Rietfontein and Lombard's Kop. He served in Ladysmith throughout the siege, after October as an Assistant Adjutant General. Immediately after the relief of the town, his old chief, Lord Roberts, summoned him to fill a similar appointment on his own Headquarter Staff. He then took part in the latter stage of Robert's advance through the Orange Free State, and was present at the actions on the Vet and Zand Rivers, also fighting round Johannesburg and Pretoria. After the fall of Pretoria he accompanied the columns marching eastward towards Koomati Poort and was present at Diamond Hill and at the two days' fighting at Belfast.

In May, 1901, he received the command of a mobile column, and in the ensuing guerrilla war he took part in numerous skirmishes. For his various services he was made a brevet colonel in 1902, and received the C.B. In April, 1903, he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General at the War Office, and at the same time was made substantive colonel. His duties in this appointment comprised the organization of military education and training. In the following December he was selected to be commandant of the Staff College with the rank of brigadier-general, a post which he held until the end of 1906. It was at this juncture that the whole life of the Army was being modernized as a result of the lessons of the South African War. The intellectual gifts of the new commandant, his power of facile speech, and his social position rendered him a fitting instrument to introduce great changes in such a conservative organism as the British military world of that date.

In March 1907, he was posted to the command of the 2nd Brigade at Aldershot, an appointment which he held until August, 1909. In May of that year he had become a major-general and in June, 1910, he was appointed to the command of the 3rd Division on Salisbury Plain, remaining in that position till May, 1914. This successive command of a brigade and then of a division for a period of six years afforded him an unrivalled opportunity to master the art of commanding troops.

The outbreak of the Great War found Rawlinson unemployed. On the first day of mobilization, however, he was summoned to the War Office to act as Director of Recruiting, but six weeks later he was nominated to the command of the 4th Division, then vacant as the result of a serious accident which befell Sir Thomas Snow at the Battle of the Marne. This command he continued to hold during the latter part of the operations on the Aisne, towards the close of which he was sent to Antwerp to take charge of the British forces being assembled in the North.

After visiting the fortress, he returned to Ostend to command the IVth Corps, then consisting of the 7th Division and of the 3rd Cavalry Division. With this force he marched towards Ghent, but the move was too late to prevent the fall of Antwerp. Sir Henry, indeed, had grave difficulty in extricating his troops and getting them back to Ypres during those days in which, division by division, the British Army was being moved into Flanders.

The absurdity of such a command as that of the IVth Corps, composed only of the 7th Division of Infantry and of the 3rd Cavalry Division, soon became apparent. Sir John French, on October 27-28, accordingly transferred the cavalry to Allenby's Cavalry Corps and the infantry to Haig's 1st Corp, Rawlinson being sent home to superintend the organization of the 8th Division, which was designed to complete his IVth Corps.

Returning to Flanders with the 8th Division, he then assumed command of the IVth Corps, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general, and held it for over a year. During this period of service as corps commander he was engaged at Neuve Chapelle in February and at Loos in September 1915, neither of them a battle regarded as a conspicuous success.

With the beginning of 1916, he was selected to command the newly-constituted Fourth Army. It is alleged that he received this appointment owing to the fact that "the IVth Corps was ruled by a single mind, whereas the other corps were a collection of little republics". His temporary rank was then made permanent. It was thus his lot to command the Fourth Army throughout the heaviest of the fighting on the Somme from July to October 1916. In January 1917, he was promoted full general.

In the autumn of 1917 Sir Henry was sent to the coast, where preparations had been set on foot, at the suggestion of the Naval War Staff, for effecting a landing on the Belgian coast in rear of the battle front. But heavy enemy attacks promptly materialized, which pushed Sir Henry's troops back over the Yser at Nieupoort. It became obvious that substantial reserves were being maintained by the Germans on that flank in rear of those attacks. Accordingly, the proposed disembarcation on the Belgian coast was never attempted.

Sir Henry remained in Flanders, taking over the Second Army on General Plumer's departure for the Italian front in November 1917. He thus missed the Cambrai fighting of the following month. In February 1918, he was summoned to succeed Sir Henry Wilson on the Supreme War Council at Versailles. This relief from the responsibilities of a front line command came as a gift of fortune, for it afforded Rawlinson some mental relaxation at a moment when such a change was urgently required by every highly placed soldier.

His stay at Versailles was not long. The great German onslaught of March 1918, provoked the crisis in the highest political circles which resulted in the nomination of Foch to the Supreme Allied Command. Rawlinson, no longer needed at Versailles, was then instructed to reorganize the broken Fifth Army. He held this post for a few days only, and returned to his old command, the Fourth Army, finally breaking through the Hindenburg defences east of Cambrai. He continued in command of that Army until the close of March 1919.

The Armistice did not see the close of Rawlinson's fighting career. He had been nominated to the Aldershot Command during the summer of 1919. On the strength of this appointment, at the beginning of August 1919, he was called upon to carry out the withdrawal of the forces from Murmansk and Archangel. This operation, which was not hampered by any great military difficulties, he completed satisfactorily within the space of 15 weeks. On November 15, he finally assumed his duties at Aldershot, where his activities were mainly limited to experimental work and to administrative reconstruction.

He was next summoned to the Supreme Command of the British Forces in India, and entered on his duties on November 20, 1920. An uneasy situation confronted him on the North-West Frontier, where two years of heavy fighting with the Afghans and certain hill tribes had led to an ill-defined peace with the Ameer. In spite of this, Rawlinson's first task was that of reducing Indian military establishments and expenditure. He took great interest in these problems, spending much time in preparing schemes of retrenchment and reform, and at times inclined, in the opinion of soldiers, to subordinate military security to political pressure. The disposal of the supernumerary officers of the reduced Indian Army also absorbed his attention. But defense matters were to prove pressing. The North-West Frontier had to be rendered secure with a reduced number of troops at a time when the internal condition of India left much to be desired.

In 1924 Rawlinson returned home on leave, under the provisions of the Act, then recently passed, to discuss in Whitehall questions of the adjustment of Army charges between the Home and Indian Exchequers. He died on March 28, 1925 at Delhi in India, after a medical operation for a stomach ailment.

Achievements

• Henry Rawlinson is particularly known for his role as General officer commanding of the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force at the battles of the Somme and Amiens, as well as of the British Forces in India. Under him high army posts were assigned to Indians for the first time, and the northwest frontier was pacified.
  
  For his distinguished service in a field command during the Second Boer War Rawlinson was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in April 1901. Rawlinson was created Knight Commander in 1915 and Knight Grand Cross in 1919, when he was also created Baron Rawlinson of Trent, in the county of Dorset. He was also bestowed with many honours in reward for his role in the First World War. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1917 and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George 1918. In August, 1919, he received the thanks of Parliament for his services during the Great War, together with a grant of £30,000. Cambridge conferred on him an honorary LL.D., and he held the chief decorations of the Allied countries. In 1924, Rawlinson was appointed a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Soldier, Artist, Sportsman: The Life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent

    (First published in 1928, taken from his own journals and ...)

    1928

Personality

Rawlinson was unquestionably a fortunate man from the professional point of view, but his admitted good fortune should not be allowed to detract from a deserved reputation as a highly experienced and clever soldier. His personal qualities proved of high value during the years of stress. He remained an optimist, and would not give way to depression or discouragement.

As a general officer Rawlinson proved popular, both among his superiors and with his subordinates. He was a keen critic of all matters touching the daily training of his troops, and his opinions commanded respect. By his brother generals he was regarded as a dangerous opponent on manoeuvres, fertile in resource, and prompt to act, while the manner in which he obtained intelligence of his

adversary's intentions came to be considered as uncanny. He was always quick to suggest improvements and impatient of slow progress. It was due to these characteristics, on which he came to rely very greatly, that his work was sometimes criticized as being more attractive than profound. But Rawlinson was always a more industrious worker than he allowed his friends to suppose.

Rawlinson was a good sportsman and a gifted water colour artist.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  hunting, polo, cricket, rackets

Connections

Rawlinson married, in 1890, Meredith only daughter of the late Coleridge John Kennard, but left no children, and the peerage became extinct. The baronetcy passed to his brother, Alfred Rawlinson, C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.O., born in 1867, formerly of the 17th Lancers, and during the war a commander, R.N.V.R.

Father:

Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet

(April 5, 1810 - March 5, 1895)

Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology.

Mother:

Louisa Caroline Harcourt

Spouse:

Meredith Sophia Francis Kennard

(1861–1931)

Brother:

Sir Alfred Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet

(January 17, 1867 - June 1, 1934)

Colonel Sir Alfred "Toby" Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet, was an English soldier and intelligence officer, sportsman, pioneer motorist and aviator.

References

• Command on the Western Front: The Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914-1918 This is a history of World War I, seen through the eyes of Sir Henry Rawlinson, a middle-ranking commander who frequently acted under General Haig. By examining Rawlinson's role in the War, the authors are able to follow the actual events of the battlefield and show how they related to the strategies of the High Command. Rawlinson kept a diary in which he recorded his views on tactics and the day-to-day events of the conflict. The authors use the content of the diary as the basis of detailed discussions on night attacks, poison gas, the introduction of the tank, hurricane bombardment and creeping barrages.
  2004
• The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918 The Myriad Faces of War by Trevor Wilson, first published in 1987, is a unique and compelling study of the First World War from the standpoint of British involvement. It explores the reasons for Britain's entry into the war, the nature and course of Britain's participation, and the far-reaching repercussions of the war on British society. The result is a rich and comprehensive chronicle of the social, political, diplomatic and military aspects of the 'Great War.'
  1986
• General Lord Rawlinson: From Tragedy to Triumph In this biography Rodney Atwood details the life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent (1864-1925), a distinguished British soldier whose career culminated in decisive victories on the Western Front in 1918 and command of the Indian Army in the early 1920s. He served his soldier's apprenticeship in the Victorian colonial wars in Burma, Sudan and South Africa. His career provides a lens through which to examine the British Army in the late-19th and early-20th century.
  2018