George Macdonogh

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Sir

George Macdonogh
Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester

KCMG (4 March 1865 – 10 July 1942) was a British Army general officer. After early service in the Royal Engineers he became a staff officer prior to the outbreak of the First World War. His main role in the war was as Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office
in 1916–18.

Early career

He was born on 4 March 1865, son of George Valentine MacDonogh, Deputy Inspector of the

Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 5 July 1884.[1][2][3] Ian Beckett comments that he had "considerable intellectual ability" but was "diffident and taciturn". He was promoted to captain on 22 October 1892.[4]

In 1896 he entered Staff College by examination. The normal order of results was varied in order to conceal the fact that he and his contemporary James Edmonds were far ahead of the other entrants. Both men found their studies easy, and whilst Edmonds wrote a History of the American Civil War in his spare time MacDonogh studied law, qualifying as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1897.[5]

MacDonogh, who was fluent in several Scandinavian languages, married Aline Borgstrom of Helsingfors (now Helsinki) on 8 November 1898. They had one son, who died (of natural causes) in 1915.[6]

From November 1898 to November 1899 he was

Roman Catholicism. In March 1914 Macdonogh was one of the few officers in the War Office willing to coerce Protestant Ulster during the Curragh incident.[8]

First World War and after

In August 1914 he was appointed a GSO1 (Intelligence) at

Brigadier-General, General Staff. He performed distinguished service predicting enemy troop movements at the First Battle of Ypres and again predicting an enemy gas attack on Second Army in December 1915.[9]

On

major-general. By May 1917 he had an accurate picture of the entire German Army in the west, except for a single Landwehr regiment. He helped to create the propaganda department MI7(b) which became very active from the summer of 1917. He conducted operations to reduce German domestic morale.[10]

Macdonogh was distrusted by Haig and Haig's intelligence adviser John Charteris, with whom he had an acrimonious correspondence. He presented figures to the War Cabinet in October 1917, pouring cold water on Haig's predictions that German manpower would be exhausted by the end of the year. An infamous entry in Haig's diary (15 October 1917) mentions that Macdonogh "is a Roman Catholic and is (perhaps unconsciously) influenced by information which reaches him from tainted (that is, Catholic) sources". He also predicted the date, time and location of the German March 1918 "Michael" Offensive, as did Charteris.[11]

He was appointed

Admiral Kolchak, but not appointed. He was promoted to permanent lieutenant-general on 10 September 1922. He retired from the Army on 11 September 1925.[14]

He was appointed CB in 1915, KCMG in 1917, KCB in 1920 and GBE on retirement.[15]

Post-military life

He served on the Royal Commission on Local Government 1923–1929. He held numerous directorships in business, banking and manufacturing, and was President of the

Royal Institute of International Affairs.[16]

During the Winter War of 1939–40, when Finland was being attacked by the USSR[17] he was President of the Anglo-Finnish Society, Vice-President of the Finland Fund, and a member of the Finnish Aid Bureau in 1940. In 1939-41 he served on the Control Committee for Regulation of Prices.[18]

Death

He died on 10 July 1942, at Teddington, Middlesex.[19] His estate was valued for probate at £53,784 1s 10d (over £2,000,000 at 2016 prices).[20][21]

References

  1. ^ Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  2. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  3. ^ "No. 25376". The London Gazette. 15 July 1884. p. 3226.
  4. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  5. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  6. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  7. ^ "No. 27501". The London Gazette. 5 December 1902. p. 8440.
  8. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  9. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  10. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  11. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  12. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  13. ^ Catholic Herald obit, July 1942
  14. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  15. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  16. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  17. loosely allied, and with little fighting taking place in the West
    there was great public sympathy for Finland in the UK
  18. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  19. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6
  20. ^ "Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound". Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  21. ^ Matthew 2004, pp315-6

Sources

Military offices
Preceded by Director of Military Intelligence
1916–1918 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Adjutant General
1918–1922 		Succeeded by
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