Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer

Gen. Sir Herbert Plumer

Field Marshal Herbert Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE (13 March 1857–16 July 1932) was a British colonial official and soldier born in Torquay. After serving in Sudan and South Africa he was commander of the Second Army in Flanders during World War I, during which he won an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the Battle of Messines in 1917. He became High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1925 and resisted Arab pressure to reverse commitments made by the British in the Balfour Declaration. His three-year term as High Commissioner is generally noted as the calmest period during the British mandate. He was replaced by Sir John Chancellor in 1928.

He is generally regarded as one of the finest army commanders serving in France during World War One. In contrast with many commanding generals on the western front who rose from the ranks of the cavalry, he was from an infantry background and deprecated the insistence on the value of the "breakthrough" and the effectiveness of cavalry to exploit the opening and reach the open country beyond the front line.

As a career Infantry officer and it could be argued that he understood somewhat better what could reasonably be expected of his troops bearing in mind the terrain, the weather and morale. Plumer, a meticulous planner, would often express the plans of the his superiors as being too ambitious and more often than not, as seen at the third battle of Ypres, Passchendaele he would be proved to be right.

Plumer was very popular with the men gaining the affectionate nickname old Plum. He was a cliché of a General to look at; with a receding chin and a white moustache, his appearance suggested on the photographs of the day everything that he was not.

Following the unexpected death of Sir James Grierson on his arrival in France in 1914, Plumer was considered for command of one of two BEF Corps alongside Haig. This position eventually went to Horace Smith-Dorrien. Later in the war, Plumer was sought by Lloyd George for the position of Chief of the Imperial General Staff as a replacement for William Robertson. He declined the position and leaving no private papers and never having expressed a recorded opinion of the conduct of the war, the lengthy debate over the Generalship in World War One largely passed him by.

Further reading

• Powell, Geoffrey Plumer: The Soldier's General: A Biography of Field-Marshal Viscount Plumer of Messines Pen and Sword Books Ltd (19 Jul 1990) ISBN 0-85052-605-1 / Leo Cooper Ltd (Jan 2004) ISBN 1-84415-039-9
• Sykes, Frank W. With Plumer in Matabeleland: an account of the operations of the Matabeleland Relief Force during the rebellion of 1896 Constable & Co, London, 1897. Reprints: Rhodesiana Reprint Library, Vol 21, Books of Rhodesia, Bulawayo, 1972 and Negro Universities Press, 1969 ISBN 0-8371-1640-6.

External links

• National Portrait Gallery