Archibald Hunter

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For other people named Archibald Hunter, see Archibald Hunter (disambiguation).

Sir

Archibald Hunter
Mentioned in Despatches
Territorial Decoration
Legion of Honour
(France)

GCVO, DSO, TD (6 September 1856 – 28 June 1936) was a senior officer in the British Army who distinguished himself during the Boer War. He was Governor of Omdurman, in Sudan, and later of Gibraltar
.

Early life

Archibald Hunter, born a twin, was the son of an Archibald Hunter (1805–1868), a London businessman and Mary Jane Graham (1833–1905). Having chosen not to follow his father's business routes, Hunter began military education in Glasgow, and then at the

sub lieutenant joined the 4th (King's Own Royal) Regiment.[1]

Mahdi Uprising

Between 1884 and 1885, Hunter joined the Gordon Relief Expedition, which sought to rescue Major General Charles George Gordon from his Mahdi captives. The expedition was, however, too late; Gordon had been killed two days before their arrival. He later saw action at the Battle of Toski in August 1889 during the Mahdist War.[2]

He was appointed Governor of

reconquest of the Sudan, which culminated in the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898.[3] He was made Governor of Omdurman in Sudan in 1899,[1] and was appointed in command of the Quetta district in India later the same year.[4][5]

Second Boer War

Main article: Second Boer War
Hunter caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1899

At the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, Major General Hunter (although actually Chief of Staff to General

Natal and the subsequent 118-day siege.[6] On 8 December he successfully led a small raid against one of the Boers' Creusot "Long Tom" guns and a howitzer which they disabled with cotton charges.[7]

The town was relieved on 1 March 1900 and Hunter was promoted to

General Officer Commanding 10th Division.[8][1]

The 10th Division were sent to join

Transvaal Republic on 3 May.[9] Once Pretoria was captured though Robert's army had to deal with Guerrilla warfare and General Hunter was sent south again as overall commander of five columns that converged on the Free State army camped at Brandwater Basin, forcing the surrender of 4,314 Boers led by Marthinus Prinsloo. It was the largest number of Boers captured in the war so far and cost very little in British casualties; only 33 dead and 242 wounded.[10]

Later life

In early 1901 he was asked by

Sweden and Norway, Russia, Germany, and Saxony.[11]

Archibald Hunter, John Cowans, Horace Smith-Dorrien and Mrs Adam outside Smith-Dorrien's bungalow in Quetta, India, c. 1907

Hunter became General Officer Commanding Scottish District in May 1901,[12] Commander-in-Chief Bombay Command in 1903 (renamed Western Army Corps in 1905) and, promoted to general in December 1905,[13] General Officer Commanding Southern Army in India from 1907.[1]

From 1910 until 1913 he was

King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), a position he held until 1926.[14]

In August 1914 Hunter was living in Scotland as a half-pay officer. Writing to his former commander Lord

Horatio Kitchener he stated "I live in hopes of your giving me a command".[15] Too old for a field command in the First World War, he was posted to Aldershot, first in the key role of GOC Aldershot Training Centre and then as GOC Aldershot Command. He retired in 1918.[1]

Hunter was elected at the

Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster, but stood down at the 1922 general election.[16][17]

Honours and awards

Hunter was an honorary freeman of the borough of Lancaster.[18]

Hunter received the honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901.[19]

He received the following decorations:

Family

Archibald Hunter married, in 1910, Mary, Dowager Baroness Inverclyde (1866–1924), widow of George Burns, 2nd Baron Inverclyde (1861–1905) and daughter of Hickson Fergusson.[2]

Legacy

His archive of over one hundred letters and documents was recently sold. A highlight of the £15,000 collection included twenty six autographed letters from Kitchener.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Hunter, Sir Archibald". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Archive of General Sir Archibald Hunter GCB GCVO DSO TD LLD". King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, Lancaster. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  3. ^ Winston Churchill (1899). The River War Volume 1. Longmans. p. 382.
  4. ^ "No. 27469". The London Gazette. 29 August 1902. p. 5610.
  5. ^ Hart′s Army list, 1901
  6. ^ Pakenham 1979, p.154
  7. ^ Pakenham 1979, pp. 270–271
  8. ^ "No. 27193". The London Gazette. 18 May 1900. p. 3148.
  9. ^ Pakenham 1979, pp. 421–422
  10. ^ Pakenham 1979, pp. 438–444
  11. ^ "The King – the special Embassies". The Times. No. 36410. London. 23 March 1901. p. 12.
  12. ^ "No. 27312". The London Gazette. 10 May 1901. p. 3202.
  13. ^ "No. 27861". The London Gazette. 8 December 1905. p. 8814.
  14. ^ "The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) at regiments.org by T.F.Mills". Archived from the original on 4 January 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2006.
  15. ISBN 978-1-78453-350-2
    .
  16. ^ "House of Commons constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  17. ISBN 0-900178-06-X
    .
  18. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36901. London. 17 October 1902. p. 8.
  19. ^ "Glasgow University Jubilee". The Times. No. 36481. London. 14 June 1901. p. 10. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "HUNTER, Sir Archibald, letters, autographs, documents, manuscripts". www.manuscripts.co.uk.

Further reading

  • Kitchener's Sword-Arm: the Life and Campaigns of General Sir Archibald Hunter, Archie Hunter.
  • C. Grocott, 'A Good Soldier, But a Maligned Governor: General Sir Archibald Hunter, Governor of Gibraltar 1910–1913', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, September 2009
  • Duncan H. Doolittle, "A Soldier's Hero: The Life of General Sir Archibald Hunter," Narragansett, Rhode Island 1991
  • ISBN 0-394-42742-4
    .
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Archibald Hunter.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC Scottish District
1901–1903 		Succeeded by
Preceded by C-in-C, Bombay Command
1903–1907 		Succeeded by
Post disbanded
Preceded by
New post
 GOC-in-C, Southern Army, India
1907–1908 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Governor of Gibraltar
1910–1913 		Succeeded by
Military offices
Preceded by
Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon
 GOC-in-C Aldershot Command
1916–1917 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Colonel of the
King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)

1913–1926 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Norval Watson Helme
Member of Parliament for Lancaster
1918 – 1922
 Succeeded by
John Edward Singleton
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