Aubrey Herbert
DL | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for South Somerset | |
In office 1911–1918 | |
Preceded by | Sir Edward Strachey |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
Member of Parliament for Yeovil | |
In office 1918–1923 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | George Davies |
Personal details | |
Born | Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert 3 April 1880[1] Highclere Castle, Newbury, Berkshire |
Died | 23 September 1923 London, England | (aged 43)
Cause of death | Sepsis |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse | Mary Gertrude Vesey |
Children | 4 |
Parent(s) | Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon Elizabeth Catherine Howard |
Education | Eton College |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch/service | British Army |
Rank | Colonel |
Unit | Irish Guards |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Awards | Order of the White Eagle |
Origins
Aubrey Herbert was born at Highclere Castle in Hampshire, the second son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, a wealthy landowner, British cabinet minister, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His mother (his father's second wife and cousin) was Elizabeth Catherine Howard (1856–1929[8]) ("Elsie"), a daughter of Henry Howard of Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland, a son of Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard, younger brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk. Elizabeth Howard's brother was Esmé Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith.
Aubrey Herbert was a younger half-brother of
Early life
Herbert was educated at
His friendship with Middle Eastern traveller and advisor Sir Mark Sykes dates from his entry into parliament in 1911 when, with George Lloyd, they were the three youngest Conservative MPs. They shared an interest in foreign policy and worked closely in the Arab Bureau (1916). He was also a close friend of T. E. Lawrence; their letters do not feature in the standard Lawrence collections, but are quoted by Margaret Fitzherbert in her biography of her grandfather, The Man Who Was Greenmantle.[12] (Greenmantle was one of John Buchan's novels about the adventurer Richard Hannay.)
Languages and travels
Herbert was in his own right a considerable Orientalist, and a linguist who spoke French, Italian, German, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, and Albanian as well as English. A renowned traveller, especially in the Middle East, his trips include journeys through Japan, Yemen, Turkey, and Albania. Herbert often dressed as a tramp on his travels. During the period 1902–04, he was an honorary attaché in Tokyo, then in Constantinople (1904–05).[7]
Albania
Herbert became a passionate advocate of
The second occasion the crown was offered was after the defeat of the Italian Army by the Albanians in September 1920. Again the offer was unofficial, although it was made on behalf of the Albanian Government. Herbert discussed the offer with Philip Kerr and Maurice Hankey, pursuing the idea of perhaps acting under the banner of the League of Nations; Eric Drummond, Herbert's friend, had become its first secretary general, and by lobbying led to Albania's acceptance as a member in the League of Nations in December 1920.[14][15][16] With a change of foreign ministers in the Albanian Government, Herbert's chance of gaining a crown greatly diminished. In April 1921, the crown was, even more unofficially, offered to the Duke of Atholl by Jim Barnes of the British Friends of Albania residing in Italy.[17]
Parliament
Herbert was an independent-minded Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for the Southern division of Somerset from 1911 to 1918, and for Yeovil from 1918 to his death. During his career, Herbert voiced his opposition to the policies of the British government in Ireland.[citation needed]
First World War
1914–1915
Despite very poor eyesight, Herbert was able, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, to join the
When the Gallipoli campaign started, General Alexander Godley, formerly of the Irish Guards and second in command to General Birdwood of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), now commanding the New Zealanders, offered him an appointment as liaison officer and interpreter on the general's staff.[7]
His pre-war contacts (including Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı) and ability to speak Turkish were to prove useful. He became famous for arranging a truce[18] of eight hours, on Whit Monday, 24 May, with the Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal, for the purpose of burying the dead.[19] This episode appears, with him as "the Honourable Herbert", in Louis de Bernières's novel.[20] In Eastern Mediterranean Intelligence, he worked with Compton Mackenzie.[21]
In October 1915, on sick leave in England, Herbert carried with him a memorandum, stating in part: "They [Foreign Office] trust Egypt with the running of the Arabian Question...",[22] from the Cairo Intelligence Department from Colonel Clayton to the Foreign Office explaining the situation in the Middle East. In November, the memorandum, at first favourably received, became obsolete after the visit of François Georges-Picot and his subsequent negotiations with Mark Sykes. It would appear that the Arab Bureau continued working along the lines of the memorandum,[23] which led to contrary promises ensuing accusations of bad faith.[24]
In November 1915, Herbert was in Paris and Rome on a secret mission related to Albania. Following the plan to evacuate
1916
Impatient with the Foreign Office indecision over Albania, at the start of 1916, Herbert went prospecting for new opportunities. Admiral Sir
Back in England in July 1916, Herbert started asking in the House of Commons for a
In October 1916, Herbert started his post as a liaison officer with the Italian army, whose front line lay in Albania. He apparently was unaware of the clause partitioning Albania signed with Italy in the secret
1917–1918
The year 1917 saw him working, under Military Intelligence Director George Macdonogh, on plans for a separate peace with Turkey. On 16 July, he conducted a series of meetings with the Turks in Geneva, Interlaken, and Bern, among them a (secret) representative of an influential anti-Enver group.[27] Mustafa Kemal, whom Aubrey knew from Gallipoli, had fallen out with Enver Pasha over the way that – by the Sultan's personal order – his command over the Seventh Army opposite Allenby in Syria had been bestowed on him on 5 July (he had been a staff captain with the Fifth Army in Damascus in 1905).[28]
Aubrey took his notes to the Inter-Allied Conference in Paris. In a memorandum to the Foreign Office, he said "If we get the luggage it does not matter very much if the Turks get the labels. When Lord Kitchener was all-powerful in Egypt his secretary was wearing a fez. Mesopotamia and Palestine are worth a fez."[29]
In November 1917, Herbert was again sent to Italy under orders from General Macdonogh. Now he was in charge of the British Adriatic Mission,[30] with Samuel Hoare coordinating the Mission's special intelligence in Rome.[31] An earlier Pan-Albanian Federation of America (Vatra) proposal of raising an Albanian regiment under Aubrey's command had been renewed. The matter was a contentious one for the Italians, as Vatra became increasingly anti-Italian. On 17 July 1918, the proposal was formally approved in Boston, and the Italian Consulate accepted, provided it became a unit in the Italian Army. The end of the war prevented the issue from growing more complex.[32] Herbert ended the war as head of the British mission to the Italian army in Albania with the rank of lieutenant colonel.[14]
Aftermath
Unclear policy led to nationalist criticism from imperial bases such as Egypt
By May 1919, the Intelligence Directorate had changed hands, on the authority of
Villa in Portofino
From his mother Elsie Howard he inherited Villa Alta Chiara (an Italian rendering of "Highclere", the English seat of the Earldom) at Portofino in Italy, inherited by her from, and built in 1874 by, her husband and Aubrey's father the 4th Earl. It had been a favoured retreat of Aubrey's elder brother the 5th Earl, but following their father's death it became the property of his step-mother Elsie Howard, who died there, having frequently entertained "eminent folks from the world of politics, religion (mainly Catholic, of course) and science".[37] Aubrey declared: "if a man can have a second country, Italy is my second country". Aubrey bequeathed the Villa to his wife Mary Vesey, and it later became "a veritable literary colony for poets, painters and writers", including their son-in-law Evelyn Waugh, Alfred Duggan, Peter Acton and Brooke Astor.[38]
Marriage and progeny
Aubrey Herbert married his distant cousin, the Hon. Mary Gertrude Vesey (1889–1970
- Auberon Mark Henry Yvo Molyneux Herbert (25 April 1922 – 21 July 1974), only son and heir, who inherited his father's Pixton Park and Portofino properties.[41] Died unmarried.
- Gabriel Mary Hermione Herbert (29 September 1911 – 15 November 1987), eldest daughter, who was one of two volunteer nurses serving with the Spanish Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.[42] She married Major Alexander Dru. Their grandson Alexander Dru married Lady Tatiana Mountbatten.
- (Anne) Bridget Domenica Herbert (22 February 1914 – 8 July 2005),[43] who married (as his second wife) Major Allister Edward Grant (1892–1947), MC, "Eddie", of Nutcombe Manor, Clayhanger, Tiverton, Devon, a steeplechase rider who had twice broken his neck riding in the Grand National,[44] later a publisher, son of Sir Charles Grant and grandson of Sir Robert Grant, MP. She was "the most down-to-earth by far of all the Herberts" and after her husband's early death devoted herself to farming.[44]
- Laura Laetitia Gwendolen Evelyn Herbert (21 June 1916 – June 1973), who in 1937 married (as his second wife) the novelist Evelyn Waugh, whom she had met at Portofino, as a guest of her sister Gabriel.[45] Waugh's first wife, from whom he was divorced, was Evelyn Gardner, a half first-cousin of Laura and Auberon, and a niece of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. The marriage was opposed by her brother Auberon. She was the mother of the journalist Auberon Waugh (1939–2001) (born at Pixton and named after his maternal uncle) and the grandmother of Daisy Waugh and Alexander Waugh.
Death and burial
During most of his life, he had poor eyesight and was almost blind by his early 40s.[
Model for literature
The
Herbert was also, in part, the model for John Buchan's Sandy Arbuthnot.[49]
Books by Aubrey Herbert
- Eastern Songs. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1911.
- Mons, Anzac and Kut. London: Edward Arnold. 1919.
- MacCarthy, Desmond, ed. (1924). Ben Kendim: A Record of Eastern Travel. London: Hutchinson & Co.
- Destani, Bejtullah; Tomes, Jason, eds. (2011). Albania's Greatest Friend: Aubrey Herbert and the Making of Modern Albania: Diaries and Papers 1904-1923. London: I.B. Tauris.
References
- ^ ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
- ^ Per inscription on his monument in Brushford Church, Somerset
- ^ "The Teversal estate in Nottinghamshire, formerly belonging to the Molyneux family, was brought into the Herbert family by Henrietta Howard, daughter of Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard of Greystoke, who married Henry Herbert, Lord Porchester, later 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, in 1830" (Somerset Heritage Centre, Ref:DD\DRU: "HERBERT FAMILY OF PIXTON PARK, Dulverton")
- ^ "Statesmen and M.P's". Nottshistory.org.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (Simon & Schuster, 2002) p. 405 ("[Herbert] had been offered and turned down the Crown of Albania, after Lloyd George, 'who had the imaginative but quixotic idea that the head of a Scottish clan might make an admirable leader of the mountain tribes of Albania', had proffered it twice to Aubrey Herbert, MP.")
- ^ Jeremy Paxman, On Royalty (Penguin Books, 2007)
- ^ a b c d e "Death of Col. Aubrey Herbert". The Times. 27 September 1923. p. 13.
- ^ a b Per inscribed brass tablet in Brushford Church
- ^ Mackenzie, Compton (1929). Gallipoli Memories (1965 Panther ed.). London: Cassel and Company. p. 59.
- ^ "No. 27156". The London Gazette. 23 January 1900. p. 435.
- ^ "No. 27441". The London Gazette. 10 June 1902. p. 3756.
- ISBN 9781780764313. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
- ^ ISBN 019861411X.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ OCLC 749900667
- ^ Margaret Fitzherbert, The Man Who Was Greenmantle: A Biography of Aubrey Herbert, John Murray, London, 1983.
- ^ a b Fitzherbert, Chapter 14: "The dear journey's end".
- ISBN 0-08-036592-2.
- ^ Lord Kinross Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation, K. Rustem & Brother, Nicosia 1984
- ^ Mackenzie, Compton (1929). Gallipoli Memories (1965 Panther ed.). London: Cassell and Co Ltd. p. 59.
- ^ Birds Without Wings]pp. 366–68.
- ^ Fitzherbert, Chapter 9: "Anzac 1915".
- ISBN 0-224-01432-3, p. 171
- ^ Compare: Lord Hardinge's letter on the memorandum to Wingate of 28 November 1915 in Winstone 1978, Gertrude Bell, pp. 171–72.
- ^ a b FitzHerbert, Chapter 10: "Kut 1916".
- ^ A letter from George Lloyd to Wingate of 27 May 1915 reads :"...the Government of India seem to be doubly cursed with a Commander in Chief with too little grip and a Finance Member called Mayer with too much..." in: Winstone 1978, Gertrude Bell p. 177. "Aubrey Herbert's interventions in the House of Commons date 12th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 26th July" ref: FitzHerbert 1985
- ^ Fitzherbert, Chapter 11: "Balkan soldiering and Swiss Peacemaking".
- ^ Fitzherbert 1985, Chapter 11.
- ^ Lord Kinross, Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation, Rustem & Brother Nicosia 1984, Chapter 14.
- ^ Mem. 26 July 1917. F.O. 371/3057 No. 148986 see: Notes: Fitzherbert, The Man who Was Greenmantle, p. 193.
- ^ FitzHerbert, Chapter 12: "Rebellious MP".
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5.
- ^ Fitzherbert, Chapter 12.
- ISBN 0-7190-1717-3
- ^ Chapter 8: Persia and Mesopotamia, p. 136
- ISBN 0-19-285303-1.
- ISBN 0-340-40430-2, p. 336
- ^ Cross, William, The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon
- ^ "Villa Altachiara in Portofino: Comment section entry by William Cross, author of The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon.". blog.abodeitaly.com. 18 June 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ Obituary of her daughter (Anne) Bridget Herbert (1914–2005), Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2005 [1]
- ^ "Yvo" per inscribed brass tablet in Brushford Church
- ^ "Auberon Herbert" (PDF). The Journal of Byelorussian Studies: 183. June 1974. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Obituary, Bridget Herbert, Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2005
- ^ a b Obituary, Bridget Herbert, Daily Telegraph
- ^ Hastings, Selina, Evelyn Waugh: a biography, London, 1994, pp. 284–87.
- ISBN 0297772465.
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ Birds Without Wings, pp 366–368
- ISBN 0-19-281856-2.
Bibliography
- Adam Smith, Janet (1985). John Buchan, A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Asquith, Herbert (1937). Moments of Memory - Recollections and Impressions. London: Hutchinson & Co.
- ISBN 9780316292108.
- ISBN 978-0375703683.
- Clifford, Colin (2003). The Asquiths. London: John Murray. ISBN 9780719565250.
- FitzHerbert, Margaret (1983). The Man who was Greenmantle. A Biography of Aubrey Herbert. London: John Murray.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Aubrey Herbert
- Herbert, Aubrey (2011). Destani, Bejtullah; Tomes, Jason (eds.). Albania's Greatest Friend: Aubrey Herbert and the Making of Modern Albania: Diaries and Papers 1904–1923. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781848854444.
- Herbert, Aubrey (1919). Mons, Anzac and Kut. London: Edward Arnold.
- ISBN 9781552784099.
- Stannard, Martin (1993). Evelyn Waugh. Vol. 1, The Early Years 1903–1939. London: Flamingo.
- Sykes, Christopher (1977). Evelyn Waugh, A Biography. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
- Wallach, Janet (2005). Desert Queen: the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 9781400096190.
- ISBN 9780241111765.