GeneralSir Herbert Alexander Lawrence, GCB (8 August 1861 – 17 January 1943) was a general in the British Army, a banker and a businessman.
He worked alongside Major Douglas Haig (Assistant Adjutant General) as Intelligence head of General French's staff during the Second Boer War, and was Haig's Chief of Staff in the final year of World War I.
After graduating in 1896 he was appointed a staff captain (intelligence) at the War Office. He was promoted to major on 22 November 1899, at the outbreak of the Second Boer War in South Africa.[8] During the war, he served on the intelligence staff of Major General Sir John French's cavalry division with Douglas Haig and received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the 16th Lancers on 29 November 1900. For his service in the war, he was twice mentioned in despatches and received the Queen's South Africa Medal with six clasps. He stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which ended June 1902 with the Peace of Vereeniging. Four months later, he was among 540 officers and men of the 17th Lancers who left Cape Town on the SS German in late September 1902, and arrived at Southampton in late October, when they were posted to Edinburgh.[9]
Field Marshal Haig and four of his army commanders at Cambrai, France, October 1918. Stood second from the right, holding a cigarette and talking to Lieutenant General Horne, is General Sir Herbert Lawrence.
He resigned his commission in 1903 and became a city banker. He was also a director of the Midland Railway.[2]
Just three months later, Lawrence was promoted again, this time to temporary major general,[12] and became General Officer Commanding (GOC) 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, another TF formation, at Gallipoli in September 1915[13] and during the evacuation at the end of 1915 he oversaw the withdrawal at Cape Helles beach. In 1916 he returned to Egypt and achieved success at the Battle of Romani, but asked to be relieved of his command later in the year and was transferred to the 71st Home Service Division in England.
In 1917 he was in France as commander of the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division, with whom he remained until made chief intelligence officer on Haig's staff on 22 January 1918. He then took over from Sir Launcelot Kiggell as chief of staff of the BEF in France and, after being made a permanent lieutenant general in June 1918,[14] was promoted to full general,[2] which in June 1919 was made permanent.[15]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant General Herbert A. Lawrence, Royal British Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States, during World War I. While serving as Chief of Staff, British Expeditionary Forces, General Lawrence rendered invaluable service to the American Expeditionary Forces and to the cause in which the United States has been engaged.[17]
After the war he was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry in 1925,[19] a trustee of the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1926 and a governor of Wellington College. He became chairman of Vickers in 1926 and of Glyn's Bank in 1934. He was also chairman of several other banks and a director of a number of companies. He lived for some time in Dean's Place in Alfriston and later moved to Little Berkhamsted.[2]
He died in 1943 and was buried at Seal, near Sevenoaks, Kent. He had married Isabel Mary Mills, the daughter of Charles Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon, in Sevenoaks in 1892. Their two sons, Oliver James Lawrence and Michael Charles Lawrence, were both killed in action during the First World War.[2]
Bibliography
Harris, Paul (2019). General Sir Herbert Lawrence: Haig's Chief of Staff. Helion Limited, 2019. ISBN9781911628873.
^"Manchester Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
.jpg)
