\"1st Baron Rawlinson\" Henry Rawlinson Signed Album Page Dated 1868 For Sale

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General Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron February 1864

– 28 March 1925), known as Sir

Henry Rawlinson, 2nd Baronet between 1895 and 1919, was a

senior British Army officer

in the First World

War who commanded the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force at

the battles of well as the breaking of the Hindenburg Line (1918).

He commanded the Indian Army from

1920 to 1925. Rawlinson was born at Trent Manor in Dorset on 20 Henry

Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, was an Army officer, and a renowned Middle East scholar

who is generally recognised as the father of Assyriology. He received

his early formal education at Eton College. After

passing through commissioned officer training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,

Rawlinson entered the British Army as

a lieutenant in the King's Royal

Rifle Corps in India on 6 February 1884. His father arranged

for him to serve on the staff of a friend, General Sir Frederick Roberts, the

commander-in-chief in India. Rawlinson and the Roberts family remained close

friends throughout his life. When Roberts died in November, 1914, Rawlinson

wrote, "I feel as if I have lost my second father  His first military experience was serving

in Burma during the 1886

uprising. In

1889, Rawlinson's mother died and he returned to Britain. He transferred to

the Coldstream

Guards, and was promoted to captain on 4 November 1891. He served

on General Herbert Kitchener's staff during the

advance on Omdurman in Sudan in 1898, and was promoted

to major on

25 January 1899 and to

brevet lieutenant-colonel on 26 January

1899. Rawlinson

served with distinction in a field command in the Second Boer War from

1899 to 1902, earning promotion to the local rank of colonel on

6 May 1901. He was in Western Transvaal during

early 1902, and lead a column taking part in the Battle of Rooiwal, the

last battle of the war (11 April 1902). Following the end of hostilities in

June 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom together with Lord Kitchener on

board the SS Orotava, which arrived in Southampton on 12

July. In a despatch dated

23 June 1902, Lord Kichener wrote of Rawlinson that he "possesses the

qualities of Staff Officer and Column Commander in the field. His characteristics

will always ensure him a front place in whatever he sets his mind to." For

his service in the war, Rawlinson was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in

the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November

1900), and he

received the actual decoration after his return home, from Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on

24 October 1902. Rawlinson

had received the brevet rank of colonel in the South Africa Honours list

published on 26 June 1902, was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel on 1

April 1903, and named as commandant of the Army Staff

College. Rawlinson

was the first of three reforming Commandants who transformed the Staff College

into a real war school. The curriculum was modernised and updated, the teaching

given a new sense of purpose and instructors became 'Directing Staff' rather

than 'Professors', emphasising practicality. Major Godwin-Austen, historian of

the college, wrote: "Blessed with an extremely attractive personality, a handsome

appearance, high social standing, and more than an average share of this

world's goods, he was one to inspire his students unconsciously to follow in

his footsteps." Promoted

to March 1907, he was made Commander of 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot that year

and, having been promoted to major-general on 10

May Commanding 3rd Division in 1910. In

manoeuvres in June 1912, he showed an appreciation of the use of artillery, the

Times's correspondent noting approvingly, "An operation of altogether

unusual character took place yesterday on Salisbury Plain when Major-General

Sir Henry Rawlinson's 3rd Division practised combined field firing on a scale,

which, so far as the writer can recall, has never been attempted before." The

historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson praise Rawlinson's foresight in

considering combining infantry with the fire-power of machine-guns and

artillery. After handing over the division to his successor in May 1914

Rawlinson went on leave, returning on the outbreak of war to briefly serve as

Director of Recruiting at the War Office. In September 1914 Rawlinson was

appointed General Officer Commanding 4th Division in France. Promoted October 1914, he then took command of the IV Corps.

In late September, the Belgian government formally requested British military

assistance in defending

Antwerp. IV Corps, acting under orders from the Cabinet, was chosen

to reinforce the city. Rawlinson arrived in Antwerp on 6 October. It was

soon obvious that the combined British, Belgian, and French forces were too

weak to hold the city, and Kitchener decided on an evacuation two days later. IV

Corps and the remnants of the Belgian Army successfully re-joined

Allied forces in Western Belgium, with the Cabinet returning Rawlinson's Corps

to Sir John

French's command. IV Corps marched into Ypres on the night of 13-14 October,

where the BEF was preparing to meet the German Army advancing Northwards.

Located at the centre of the British line, IV Corps met the main thrust

of the German attacks between 18-27 October and suffered heavy

casualties. On 28 October, IV Corps was put under the temporary command

of Douglas Haig while

Rawlinson went to England to oversee the preparation of 8th Division. When he returned in November

the German attacks on Ypres had died down. Rawlinson

wrote to the Conservative politician Lord Derby (24 December 1914)

forecasting that the Allies would win a war of attrition but it was unclear

whether this would take one, two or three years. In 1915, IV Corps formed

part of the First Army (General Douglas Haig). At the battle of Neuve Chapelle

(10–12 March 1915), he massed 340 guns. The weight of this bombardment on a

comparatively narrow front enabled the attackers to secure the village and

1,600 yd (1,500 m) of the German front line. The arrival of German

reinforcements prevented further advance. Rawlinson concluded that an enemy's

line of trenches could be broken 'with suitable artillery preparation' combined

with secrecy. He also drew a lesson, that trench warfare called for limited

advances: 'What I want to do now is what I call "Bite & Hold" –

bite off a piece of the enemy's line like Neuve Chapelle & hold it against

all counter-attacks...there ought to be no difficulty in holding against the

enemy's counter attacks & inflicting on him at least twice the loss that we

have suffered in making the bite'. At the end of 1915,

Rawlinson was considered for command of the First Army,

in succession to Haig but the command was instead given to Sir Charles

Monro. He was promoted to temporary general on 22

December 1915. Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-general on 1

January 1916, Rawlinson assumed command of the new Fourth Army on

24 January 1916. The Fourth Army would play a major role in the planned Allied

offensive on the Somme.

He wrote in his diary: "It is not the lot of many men to command an army

of over half a million men".The Somme was originally conceived as a joint

Anglo-French offensive but owing to the demands of the Battle of Verdun, French

participation was greatly reduced, leaving the British, and especially

Rawlinson's inexperienced army, to bear the brunt of the offensive. On the

eve of the offensive, he "showed an attitude of absolute confidence". To

his diary he confided some uncertainties: "What the actual results will be

no one can say but I feel pretty confident of success myself though only after

heavy fighting. That the bosh [sic] will break and that a debacle will supervene

I do not believe..." He was not satisfied that the wire was well cut and

enemy trenches sufficiently "knocked about".