British field marshal, born on the 18th of March 1857, and entered the army in 1876. He served on the Red Sea Littoral in 1884, and in 1896 commanded a mounted regiment in the Matabele Campaign, for which he was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel. Before the outbreak of the South African War in 1899 he was sent out to the Cape on special service, and he raised the Rhodesian field force, which he commanded during the early months of the contest. He assisted in the relief of Mafeking, and was promoted colonel, appointed A.D.C. to the Queen, and given the C.B. In the later stages he was constantly in command of a column or a group of columns, and he was promoted major-general on the conclusion of hostilities. He commanded a brigade at home from 1902–04 and was then appointed quartermaster-general at headquarters, a position which he vacated at the end of 1905; shortly afterwards he was appointed commander of the 5th Division. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1908 and in 1911 was placed in charge of the Northern Command.
In May 1915 Sir Herbert Plumer was selected to lead the II. Army on the western front, and shortly afterwards he was promoted general. His army was not very actively engaged during the remainder of 1915, nor yet in 1916, in which year he was given the G.C.M.G. for his services. But on June 7, 1917, Plumer gained a signal victory at Messines on the opening of the Flanders offensive, for which he was given the G.C.B. Three months later he assumed charge of the operations east of Ypres, which had been making slow progress, and his dispositions were for a time highly successful; but the recovery of the whole of the high ground could not be accomplished owing to the lateness of the season. Then, just as the Flanders offensive concluded, he was in November selected to take charge of the British troops that were being sent to the basin of the Po after the Italian defeat at Caporetto. He commanded them until March, but he was then summoned back to Flanders to resume leadership of the II. Army just before the great German offensive started. During the later stages of the hostile effort his troops were forced back some miles, but they succeeded in checking the enemy. Then, when the general advance of the Allies began in August, his army took a very prominent part in the operations by which Belgian Flanders was recovered from the invaders. For his services in the war he was raised to the peerage as Baron Plumer of Messines and of Bilton, was promoted field marshal, and received a grant of £30,000. He subsequently commanded the British forces on the Rhine for a short time, and in June 1919 went out to Malta as governor and commander-in-chief.
