Background
Birch was the second son of Major Richard Birch and was born at Llanrhaiadr, Denbighshire and educated at Giggleswick School, Marlborough College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
(INTRODUCTION: The scientific treatment of the art of teac...)
INTRODUCTION: The scientific treatment of the art of teaching riding is no novelty, as the works in many languages which have been consulted by Major Birch bear ample testimony, but the variety of views expressed therein by the authors is confusing, and it is apparent that the methods which have from time to time been adopted and then abandoned, only to be rediscovered as something new, partake rather of the nature of haphazard expedients than of principles established on a well- thought-out foundation. That a similar divergence of views and practice now exists amongst authorities on the subject is equally true. Under these circumstances I venture to think that the present work will be found most valuable the author has by exhaustive research rescued from books no longer generally available much that is good, while his reasons for not agreeing with some of the views expressed by these writers are convincing and, last but not least, he has shown clearly in Sections XV and XVI what the aim of the instructor in riding should be, and the best means to that end. There is, I think, no portion of the book more interesting than Section II, where he deals with the evolution of the present-day seat on a horse, and shows how the pendulum, after oscillating between the extreme of the Haute cole, or straight-legged seat, and its opposite as practised by Tod Sloan and his imitators, both of which are unsuited to general purposes, has finally come to rest at the hunting seat...
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director General lieutenant master
Birch was the second son of Major Richard Birch and was born at Llanrhaiadr, Denbighshire and educated at Giggleswick School, Marlborough College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
The Birch gun was named after him. He was commissioned into the Royal Horse Artillery in 1885. In 1895 to 1896 he took part in the Ashanti expedition, and in South Africa he served with the Royal Horse Artillery in the Cavalry Division under the command of Sir John French, taking part in the relief of Kimberley, the operations in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and being present at the Battle of Diamond Hill.
He was promoted major in June 1900, and served in Cape Colony the following year.
In January 1902 he received the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel when he was given command of the 30th battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry, which left Southampton for South Africa four months later. They arrived in early May, shortly after conclusion of hostilities.
Birch was in command of the Riding Establishment at Woolwich from 1905 to 1907. In 1912 he was promoted to the substantive rank of Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the 7th brigade, Royal Horse Artillery.
Birch went with his brigade to France in August 1914, serving under the command of Sir Edmund Allenby, in the retreat from Mons and in the battle of the Aisne and Ypres-Armentièresearch
In January 1915 he was appointed brigadier-general on the general staff of the Cavalry Corps, and a few months later C.R.A. of the 7th division going in the same position in July to the I Corps, then commanded by Sir Douglas Haig. In May 1916 Haig brought him to general headquarters as artillery adviser, a post he held until the end of the war. He was promoted Lieutenant-General in 1919 when he was made a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery.
In 1920, he became director of remounts at the War Office.
In the following year he was appointed director-general of the Territorial Army and the development of cadet corporations In 1923 he became Colonel Commandant of the Royal Horse Artillery, and in the same year he was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance, a post he held until 1927.
He was promoted general in 1926 and retired from the army in the following year in order to become a director of Vickers-Armstrong.
(INTRODUCTION: The scientific treatment of the art of teac...)
(Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)