Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mentioned in Despatches
Other workHigh Commissioner of Palestine

High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine
in 1925 and retiring in 1928.

Early life and education

Herbert Plumer was son of Hall Plumer of Malpas Lodge, Torquay, Devon (a grandson of Sir Thomas Plumer), and Louisa Alice, daughter of Henry Turnley, of Kensington. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[1]

Military career

Plumer was

mentioned in Despatches.[6] He spent from 1886 to 1887 attending the Staff College at Camberley, England, before being appointed Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General in Jersey on 7 May 1890.[7] He was promoted to major on 22 January 1893 and posted to the 2nd Battalion the York and Lancaster Regiment before being appointed assistant military secretary to the General Officer Commanding Cape Colony in December 1895.[6] He went to Southern Rhodesia in 1896 to disarm the local police force following the Jameson Raid and then later that year returned there to command the Matabele Relief Force during the Second Matabele War.[6] He became deputy assistant adjutant-general at Aldershot with promotion to brevet lieutenant colonel on 8 May 1897.[8]

In 1899 Plumer returned to

despatch dated 23 June 1902, Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief in South Africa during the latter part of the war, wrote how Plumer had "invariable displayed military qualifications of a very high order. Few officers have rendered better service."[12]

He was promoted to

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in November 1911.[17] In addition to his military duties, he served as the Commissioner for London Boy Scouts from 1910 to 1912.[18]

First World War

Wartime sketch of General Plumer

Following the unexpected death of Sir James Grierson on his arrival in France in 1914, Plumer was considered for command of one of two Corps of the British Expeditionary Force alongside Douglas Haig: this position eventually went to Horace Smith-Dorrien.[19] Plumer was sent to France in February 1915 and given command of V Corps which he led at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.[20]

Sir William Birdwood, Sir Henry Horne. Back row, left to right: Sir Herbert Lawrence, Sir Charles Kavanagh, Brudenell White, Jocelyn Percy, Louis Vaughan, Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd, Hastings Anderson
.

He took command of the

general on 11 June 1915,[21] he won an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the Battle of Messines in June 1917. The battle started with the simultaneous explosion of a series of mines placed by the Royal Engineers' tunnelling companies beneath German lines. The detonation created 19 large craters and was described as the loudest explosion in human history.[22] After the mines were fired, Plumer's men left their trenches and advanced 3,000 yards.[19] He won further victories at the battle of the Menin Road Ridge and the battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917 and the battle of Broodseinde in October 1917 advancing another 5,000 yards in the process.[19]

In November 1917 Plumer was given command of the

William Robertson: he declined the position.[19] Plumer instead commanded the Second Army during the final stages of the war, during the German spring offensive and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.[20]

Later career

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
, on the right, 11 August 1926

Plumer was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the

High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine.[25] He resisted Arab pressure to reverse commitments made by the British Government in the Balfour Declaration, and dealt firmly with both the Zionists and the Arab Nationalists.[26] On one occasion, an Arab delegation protested a proposal by Jewish battalions to install their regimental colours in the chief synagogues, saying they "wouldn't be responsible for the consequences". Plumer replied, 'That's all right, you're not asked to be responsible for the consequences. I'll be responsible."[27][28] In Mandatory Palestine Plumer gained a reputation as being "genuinely even handed" and was one of the few British administrators who was consistently popular with both the Jewish community and the Arab community in that territory. Privately, he was sympathetic to the cause of establishing a homeland for the Jewish people but he tried his best to "be fair" to Arab concerns as well while he was High Commissioner.[29]

High Commissioner Plumer awarding prizes at a Maccabi event, Tel Aviv 1928

On 24 July 1927 he conducted the inauguration ceremony for the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres in Belgium.[30]

Plumer was created Viscount Plumer for his "long and distinguished public services" on 3 June 1929.[31]

Death

Plumer died at his home in Knightsbridge in London on 16 July 1932 at the age of 75. His body was interred in Westminster Abbey.[26]

Family

In July 1884 Plumer married Annie Constance Goss (1858–1941), daughter of George and Eleanor Goss; they had three daughters and one son.[19]

Honours

Field Marshal Lord Plumer at the unveiling of the Menin Gate memorial, Belgium, 24 July 1927

British

Foreign

See also

Citations

  1. ^ The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, ed. L. G. Pine, Heraldry Today, 1972, page 220
  2. ^ "No. 24761". The London Gazette. 12 September 1879. p. 5454.
  3. ^ "No. 24777". The London Gazette. 31 October 1879. p. 6187.
  4. ^ "No. 25241". The London Gazette. 12 June 1883. p. 3038.
  5. ^ Heathcote 1999, p. 240.
  6. ^ a b c d e Heathcote 1999, p. 241.
  7. ^ "No. 26052". The London Gazette. 20 May 1890. p. 2901.
  8. ^ "No. 26850". The London Gazette. 7 May 1897. p. 2535.
  9. ^ "No. 27238". The London Gazette. 16 October 1900. p. 6326.
  10. ^ "The War". The Times. No. 36743. London. 16 April 1902. p. 11.
  11. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36792. London. 12 June 1902. p. 12.
  12. ^ "No. 27459". The London Gazette. 29 July 1902. pp. 4835–4837.
  13. ^ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6897.
  14. ^ "Army Corps appointments". The Times. No. 36871. London. 12 September 1902. p. 6.
  15. ^ "No. 27498". The London Gazette. 25 November 1902. p. 7939.
  16. ^ a b "Army Commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  17. ^ "No. 28551". The London Gazette. 17 November 1911. p. 8349.
  18. ^ Nevill, Percy Bantock (1966). Scouting in London, 1908-1965. London Scout Council. p. 202.
  19. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35545. Retrieved 16 June 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  20. ^ a b c Heathcote 1999, p. 242.
  21. ^ "No. 29459". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 February 1916. p. 1326.
  22. ^ Wolff 2001, p. 88.
  23. ^ "No. 31352". The London Gazette. 23 May 1919. p. 6363.
  24. ^ "No. 31610". The London Gazette. 21 October 1919. p. 12890.
  25. ^ Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, Extraordinary issue, 25 August 1925.
  26. ^ a b Heathcote 1999, p. 243.
  27. ^ Gwynn, Major General Sir Charles W. Imperial Policing.
  28. ^ Samuel, Horace Barnett (1930). Unholy Memories of the Holy Land. L. and Virginia Woolf. p. 92.
  29. ^ Harington, General Sir Charles (1938). Plumer of Messines. John Murray.
  30. ^ "The Menin Gate Inauguration Ceremony – Sunday 24 July 1927". Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  31. ^ "No. 33501". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1929. p. 3665.
  32. ^ "No. 30450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1917. p. 1.
  33. ^ "No. 27926". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 June 1906. p. 4460.
  34. ^ "No. 27306". The London Gazette. 19 April 1901. p. 2696.
  35. ^ "No. 29438". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 January 1916. p. 564.
  36. ^ "No. 30216". The London Gazette. 3 August 1917. p. 7912.
  37. ^ Whitaker's Almanack 1925
  38. ^ "No. 33059". The London Gazette. 23 June 1925. p. 4193.
  39. ^ "No. 30431". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 December 1917. p. 13205.
  40. ^ "No. 30568". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 March 1918. p. 3097.
  41. ^ "No. 31222". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 March 1919. p. 3281.
  42. ^ "No. 31451". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 July 1919. p. 8938.
  43. ^ "No. 32201". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 January 1921. p. 572.

General and cited sources

Further reading

External links

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Military offices
Preceded by GOC Eastern District
1903–1904 		Succeeded by
Arthur Singleton Wynne
Preceded by
Sir Ian Hamilton
 Quartermaster-General to the Forces
1904–1905 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 7th Division
1906–1907 		Post disbanded
Preceded by GOC 5th Division
1907–1909 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC-in-C Northern Command
1911–1914 		Succeeded by
New command GOC V Corps
February 1915 – May 1915 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC Second Army
1915–1917 		Succeeded by
New command C-in-C British Army of the Rhine
1918–1919 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by
Governor of Malta

1919–1924 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
High Commissioner of Palestine

1925–1928 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Plumer
1929–1932 		Succeeded by
Baron Plumer

1919–1932
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