[Bart.]. British Field-Marshal, born in Ireland on the 5th of May 1864, and joined the army in 1884. He served in the field in Burma between 1886 and 1888, and was wounded. After some years on the staff at home he went out with the expeditionary force to South Africa in 1899, and he served there, first with the Natal army, and afterward at headquarters till the end of 1900. The period from 1901 to 1906 he spent at the War Office, and after 1904, in which year he was promoted colonel, he had much to do with working out the organization of the newly created general staff. He then became commandant of the Staff College, a position which he occupied until 1910, when he was appointed Director of Military Operations. In this latter capacity he got into close touch with high French military authorities, and gave special attention to the study of strategical possibilities in the event of war with Germany. He was promoted Major-General in 1913.
On mobilization in August 1914 he was appointed deputy-chief of the general staff to the expeditionary force, and he served in that position for the first five months of the struggle, after which he became principal liaison officer between British and French headquarters in the field. He was given the K.C.B., and at the end of 1915 he took up command of the IV. Army Corps; this he held until the opening of 1917 when he went out as head of a military mission to Russia, returning just before the revolution. He was promoted Lt.-General on his return and was then in charge of the eastern command until November, when he was sent to Versailles to act as British Military Representative on the newly established Supreme War Council. In the following February he succeeded Sir W. Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The great German offensive of March took place almost immediately after his taking up this high appointment, and he played a prominent part in the steps taken to strengthen Sir D. Haig’s forces. The friendly terms on which he stood with the French supreme authorities, no less than with the Home Government, contributed materially to ensure that cooperation between the Allies which so greatly assisted in giving victory to their cause. He had been promoted General soon after taking up the appointment, and on the final distribution of honours for the war he was promoted Field-Marshal, was given a baronetcy, and received a grant of £10,000. In December 1921, however, he resigned his position at the War Office (being succeeded by Lord Cavan); and soon afterwards he ranged himself with the supporters of the Northern Irish Parliament in Ulster of which he was elected a member.
