Ramsay Weston Phipps
Ramsay Weston Phipps | |
---|---|
Born | 10 April 1838 Oaklands, Royal Military Academy at Woolwich |
Occupation(s) | Army officer, military historian |
Known for | The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I (1926–1939) |
Title | Colonel |
Spouse | Anne Bampfylde |
Children | Edmund Ramsay July–August, 1867[2] Mary 9 February 1869[2] |
Parent(s) | Pownoll Phipps Ann Charlotte Smith |
Relatives | Earl of Mulgrave |
Ramsay Weston Phipps (10 April 1838 – 24 June 1923) was an Irish-born military historian and officer in Queen
Phipps is known for his study of The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I, a five-volume set published posthumously from 1926–1939 by
Background
Ramsay Weston Phipps descended from generations of military and political men. Colonel William Phipps, a Yeoman of Lincolnshire, raised a regiment of horse for Charles I. Another of his ancestors was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of Queen Anne.[5] Captain James Phipps settled the Island of St. Christopher, in the West Indies in 1676.[6] The family was rewarded for its loyalty with titles and lands in Ireland. Ramsay Phipps was also a cousin of the Earls of Mulgrave.[7]
In 1791, Phipps' grandfather, Constantine (1746–1797), rented the Hotel d'Harcourt in
Upon arrival in India, Pownoll Phipps joined the force under command of Colonel
Ramsay Weston Phipps was the second son of Pownoll Phipps and his third wife, the Irish-born Anna Charlotte Smith. Born at the family estate, Oaklands, in County Tipperary, Ireland, he was named Ramsay in honor of an uncle who pioneered slave emancipation in the West Indies, and Weston after another uncle, a scientific clergyman.[17] By 1841, his father had returned to England, to reside in Kent, where the family lived in Yalding. They lodged at the "Parsonage" with a local farmer, Ramsey Warde; Ramsey Warde was also a relative of Phipps' mother. The family of four included three-year-old Ramsay, his older brother, Pownoll (age five),[18][Note 1] his mother (age 30) and his father.[19] Eventually, two more children joined the family: Henrietta Sophia and Robert Constantine, twins born 23 September 1841. The boy died 9 October, but Henrietta lived into adulthood, marrying Lieutenant-Colonel William Smith.[20] After suffering a bout of measles in spring 1847, Ramsay Phipps attended Mr. Barron's School at Stanmore with his older brother, Pownoll, with the intent to following his brother in a year or two to Rugby in Warwickshire.[21]
Military career
Before he could enter Rugby, Phipps was offered instead a cadetship and entered the government preparatory school at Carshalton in
After his return to England, Ramsay Phipps was quartered at the Tower of London.[24] After this assignment, he was sent to Plymouth, serving at the Prince of Wales Redoubt.[25] In 1861, Phipps was stationed in South Shoebury, Essex.[26] He was promoted to the Royal Artillery's unique rank of second captain on 7 April 1864,[27] and appointed brigade adjutant on 14 October 1868.[28] The brigade adjutant functioned as the staff officer for the brigade commander: he supervised all brigade books and records, monitored the execution of orders, supervised the education and training of subalterns, prosecuted in all courts-martial proceedings, and accepted and transmitted all orders.[29]
Promotions
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Ramsay Phipps married Anne Bampfylde, the daughter of a
In 1881, Phipps was stationed in Ireland;
Phipps had little tolerance for foolishness and retained a professional soldier's dislike of civilian interference in military affairs, and ineffective administration, whether from civilians or government. In 1887, shortly after his retirement, he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times addressing some of the highly publicized problems of desertions from the ranks. "War Office civilians", he wrote, "like the plan of indiscriminate enlist, as it swells their list of recruits. Then, when the list of deserters grows, they put on long faces, and say, 'it must be those wicked officers.' The officers would stop this plan in a day if they were allowed."[39] The problem with recruiters, Phipps maintained, lay in the need for quantity, not quality. "What fools you civilians are to pay for these blackguards", he wrote. "If you would let the officers select their men, for the first year or so, you would have fewer men on paper, fewer men in prison, and just as many men for service....I will then give you another hint for saving money...why not do away with the Inspector-General of Recruiting, and spend his pay in horse artillery, who would be very ornamental and very serviceable? What use is the Inspector General?"[39] He had retired from active service in 1883, and Phipps fully retired in 1887, after attaining the rank of colonel.[40]
Phipps and his wife had seven children, five of whom survived into adulthood. The first son, Edmund, born 1867, died less than two months later while the family was stationed at
Phipps' wife died in October 1885. In 1888, Phipps settled with his three youngest children at Chalfont St Giles.[46] The 1891 Buckingham census shows Phipps on the Royal Artillery retired list and living at a country manor house, The Stone, with his sons, 21-year-old Edmund, a student at the University of Oxford, and 16-year-old Henry, a student at Wellington, and 14-year-old Gertrude. Four servants supported this small family, including a cook, a lady's maid for Gertrude, a housemaid, and a scullery maid.[47] In 1901, Henry had left the family household, but Edmund and Gertrude still lived with their father in St. Giles.[48] Phipps remained at The Stone until 1920.[45]
Career as military historian
Chalfont St Giles lies 25 miles (40 km) from London, and about the same distance to Oxford,[49] maintained a foot in the social world of London and the academic world of Oxford. Phipps was chairman of the magistrates for the Burnham division, sitting at Beaconsfield, and was a member of the County Standing Joint Committee and the County Licensing Committee. He also attended annual Diocesan Conferences at Oxford.[45]
Phipps pursued his life-long interest in the
Creation of the magnum opus
Initially interested in the ministers of the Empire, Phipps was diverted to a deeper interest in Napoleon's marshals, primarily by the difficulty of obtaining facts about them. He capitalized on the growing interest of both Britons and the French in the Napoleonic period by purchasing, as they came out, the many personal memoirs published by the descendants of the participants.
By the 1920s, there was still little published in English about the French marshals. Phipps's work was complicated by the regular appearance of new material. The French field armies of the Revolutionary Wars (1793–1800) formed the military education of the future marshals, but little had been published in either French or English about their early military experience.[54] Phipps called these revolutionary armies the Schools for Marshals.[53] Furthermore, he postulated, "the Consulate and the Empire cannot be judged until the Revolutionary period has been studied in detail."[55]
Published works were inconsistent, and French sources frequently misinterpreted the English sources, and vice versa.[56] Phipps wrote both an introduction to his work and a summary of the histories of the armies of the Republic and the Consulate, from 1791 to 1804, and at certain points in his narrative, he paused to review the positions of the various future marshals and other well-known generals. He reflected on the development of their experience, the characteristics of their leadership, and the relationships to one another and to Napoleon.[57] Critically, he posited that generals rarely improved with practice.[58]
A massive typescript remained unfinished on Phipps's death in June 1923. It included an introduction, a summary of the armies, a detailed history of the armies and the coup d'état in Paris, a complete history of the French armies in Spain 1808–1814, accounts of Napoleon's 1814 campaign and of the marshals during the First and Second Restorations. It also included biographical material on the marshals and notes on the ministers of the Empire.[57] Phipps hoped that his children might be able to prepare it all for publication, and he made some provision for that. After Phipps's death, with the support of Charles Oman, his son Charles F. Phipps supervised the publication of the first three volumes.[59] Charles died in June 1932 before proofing the final galleys of volume three. Volumes four and five were left in the hands of Phipps's "very capable granddaughter" and literary executor, Elizabeth Sandars.[60]
Reception
Phipps' effort, and that of his literary executors, was well received as both interesting and informative. "The narrative is that of a gallant gentleman whose life was spent as a 'soldier of the Queen' and in contributing to the greatness of the British Empire, who narrates to his listeners the facts which he has gathered, after his retirement from the army, in the pursuit of his favorite hobby."[61] The narrative itself is informal and charming, not only full of analysis, but also relaying interesting stories and anecdotes about the marshals themselves.[61] Other reviewers found the narrative clear, but undistinguished and "fatigued."[60]
In the first volume, Phipps' analysis covers a categorization of the marshals, although the narrative itself is largely confined to the
Of the five volumes, the second may be the most interesting: it dealt with more interesting times, and more consistent military operations. The army of the north was a "bad army", and the story of its command is one of "honest and brave men hurried in turn to the guillotine, or of less honest men going over to the enemy."
The problems associated with Phipps' lack of professional training as an historian become clear by the third volume. Despite his reading of newly published works, Phipps' idea of what constituted new material included the publications of memoirs and journals of the participants, not the extensive secondary literature and array of historiographical material in the periodic literature written by professional historians seeking to understand the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.[Note 2] Consequently, Phipps' perceptions of the French revolution remained rooted in the outdated theories of Archibald Alison, Adolphe Thiers, and others, while ignoring some of the new theories of Albert Sorel, François Victor Alphonse Aulard and Albert Mathiez. His military background emerged clearly in his hostility to the meddling of the French government in the affairs of soldiers.[64]
Despite his amateur standing, Phipps plowed through an alarmingly confusing mass of material, especially that covering the 1796–1797 campaigns in Ireland and the Pyrenees. He hacked through a tangle of French material to provide a path for the English language reader. This feat in itself made volume three a useful tool; furthermore, Phipps offered an even-handed treatment of the suppression of
Reviewers also gave credit to Elizabeth Sanders, Phipps' granddaughter and literary executor, for her skillful handling of the last two volumes. The purpose of the work becomes even more apparent and direct under her management and editing of the material. The role of the future marshals becomes more clear in the campaigns of 1797, and especially in the Italian campaign; her handling of the material kept it fully focused on the future marshals
By the time of the publication of the final volume, Phipps' work had established for itself a place in the pantheon of Napoleonic literature. It "will always be regarded as a valuable source", well-known to students of the Napoleonic era, and the last volume, critics maintained, was "as interesting as its predecessors."[60] Not only did Phipps achieve his goal of creating a record of the development of the marshals, but his volumes have become a useful history of the progress of the wars themselves, from 1792 to 1799.[60] The true value of the first volume, and indeed the subsequent four, lies in its repeated use as a reference work.[65]
Publications
- Ramsay Weston Phipps. The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926–39.
Edited works
- Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, The private life of Marie Antoinette, queen of France and Navarre; with sketches and anecdotes of the courts of Louis XVI, Revised edition edited by R.W. Phipps, London, Bentley, 1889.
- Barry Edward O'Meara, Napoleon on Saint Helena. Revised edition edited by R.W. Phipps, 2 volumes, London: Bentley, 1888.
- Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, revised edition edited by R. W. Phipps, 3 volumes, London, Bentley, 1885.
Archives
Three photograph albums and a photographic print by Ramsay Weston Phipps are held in the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives. The albums include photos from 1874–1927, from Phipps' time in India (including parts of the North East frontier which is now Pakistan), Egypt, Aden, Burma, South Africa, and Ceylon. There are also images from Shoeburyness, Plymouth, Chalfont St Giles, Charterhouse and Canterbury Cathedral, as well as family photographs from England and abroad. (Ref. 2005/047) (online catalogue).
Sources
Notes and citations
- Notes
- ^ Married Elizabeth Dampier Risley, daughter of Shuckburgh Risley, 26 Jul 1859, Camden, Middlesex, St Pancras Parish Church. See London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Pancras Parish Church, Register of marriages, P90/PAN1, Item 123.
- ^ In a 1905 letter, he refers to Revue des Deux Mondes of 15 July 1905, in which the Marquis Gicquel des Touches describes his grandfather's experience in the Battle of Trafalgar on the French 74-gun Intrépide. See R. Phipps, "The Tactics of Trafalgar." The Times. Friday 11 August 1905, p. 5, Issue 37783, col. 3. Accessed 15 June 2010.
- Citations
- ^ England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005, General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration, vol. 1a, p. 420.
- ^ a b Pownoll William Phipps. The life of Colonel Pownoll Phipps. London: Bentley, 1894, p. 240
- ^ England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. vol. 1a, p. 449.
- ^ England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. vol. 3a, p. 1390.
- ^ Pownoll William Phipps, The life of Colonel Pownoll Phipps. London: Bentley, 1894, pp. 232–233.
- ^ a b Colonel R.W. Phipps (obit). The Times. Thursday 28 June 1923, p. 16, Issue 43379, Col. D.
- ^ New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff. The New England Register. Westminster, MD: Heritage, 2010, p. 197.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, Life, pp. 5, 12, 230–231.
- ^ Charles Phipps, "Preface." Ramsay Weston Phipps, The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armee du Nord. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926. pp. v–ix. Pownoll Phipps, p. 40.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, p. 40.
- ^ Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, 1713–1948. India. Office of the Registrar General. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1966–1967.
- Nathanial Hawthorne. The English Notebooks: 1853–1856. United States: Ohio State University Press 1997, p. 535.
- ^ East India Company, Great Britain. India Office. East-India register and army list. London, W.H. Allen [n.d.], p. 241.
- ^ One of the Protestant side (a pseudonym). Random recollections of Exeter Hall, in 1834–1837. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1837, pp. 160–161.
- ^ P. Phipps. "The Old Bengal Army." The Times. Tuesday, 22 September 1857, p. 11, Issue 22792, column B.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, pp. 205–207.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, p. 119.
- Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: James Parker – via Wikisource.
- ^ District 2, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1841.
- ^ a b Pownoll Phipps, p. 240.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, p. 169.
- ^ a b Pownoll Phipps, pp. 193–194.
- ^ "No. 21764". The London Gazette. 17 August 1855. p. 3129.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, p. 186.
- ^ Pownoll Phipps, p. 199.
- ^ Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861. Class: RG9; Piece: 1086; Folio: 31; Page: 17; GSU roll: 542750.
- ^ "No. 22845". The London Gazette. 19 April 1864. p. 2170.
- . 13 October 1868. p. 5383.
- ^ War Office. Standing orders ... for the Royal Regiment of Artillery. London, Horse Guards, War Office, 1876, pp. 11–12.
- ^ "Phipps." England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1837–1915. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office.
- ^ Africa passenger list. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1820–1891. Micropublication M277. RG036. 115 rolls. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- ^ Obituary, 28 June 1923.
- ^ Ramsay Phipps. "Fatal Accident on the Schreckrhorn [sic]." The Times. Saturday 31 July 1869, p. 12, Issue 26504, col. F. The victim, Reverend Julius M. Elliott, of Brighton, fell out of sight; despite linking their ropes together, the guides could not descend far enough to catch sight of him; shouting produced no response, and eventually guides retrieved his body.
- ^ Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1881. Class: RG11; Piece: 1772; Folio: 55; Page: 1; GSU roll: 1341428.
- ^ Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1881.
- ^ "No. 23966". The London Gazette. 11 April 1873. p. 1923.
- ^ "No. 25089". The London Gazette. 28 March 1882. p. 1412.
- ^ "No. 25115". The London Gazette. 6 June 1882. p. 2641.
- ^ a b R.W. Phipps. "How to Stop Desertion." The Times. Saturday 9 April 1887, p. 4, Issue 32042, Col. F.
- ^ John Kane. List of officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery from the year 1716 to 1889. London, Royal Artillery Institution, 1900, p. 114.
- ^ "Sir Edmund Phipps to retire." The Times. Wednesday 30 October 1929, p. 9, Issue 45347, Col. D.
- ^ "Sir Edmund Phipps, Obituary." The Times. Tuesday 14 January 1947, p. 7, Issue 50658, Col. d.
- ^ a b Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, p. 189.
- ^ British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914–1920.
- ^ a b c d e Obituary, 28 June 1923.
- ^ William Page (editor). Parish of Chalfont St. Giles. A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 184–193. Found at British History online Archived 7 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. 2010. Retrieved on 14 June 2010.
- ^ Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891: Buckingham, St. Giles Chalfont, district 2. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1891. Class: RG12; Piece: 1131; Folio 15; Page 4; GSU roll: 6096241.
- ^ Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives, 1901. Data imaged from the National Archives, London, 1901. Class: RG13; Piece: 1336; Folio: 17; Page: 25.
- ^ Fred Nolan. A brief history of Chalfont St. Giles Archived 4 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Village website Archived 12 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 15 June 2010.
- ^ L.A. Vauvelet de Bourrienne, Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, revised edition edited by R. W. Phipps, 3 volumes, London, Bentley, 1885. See Charles Phipps, p. v.
- ^ B.E. O'Meara, 2 volumes, London: Bentley, 1888. See Phipps, p. vi.
- ^ a b Charles Phipps, p. vi.
- ^ a b Charles Phipps, p. v. Preface to Ramsay Weston Phipps, The Armies of the First French Republic. volume 3.
- ^ Phipps, p. vi.
- ^ Phipps, vol. 1, p. 12.
- ^ Ramsay Weston Phipps. "Scope of Work." The Armies of the First French Republic. volume 1, pp. 5–6.
- ^ a b Charles Phipps, p. vii. Preface of vol. 3.
- ^ Phipps, vol. 4.
- ^ Charles Phipps, Preface to vol. 3, pp. viii–ix.
- ^ a b c d e f Cyril Falls. "Review." The English Historical Review. Vol. 55, No. 218 (Apr., 1940), p. 345.
- ^ a b Frederic L. Huidekoper. "Review." American Historical Review. 34:1, October 1928, pp. 120–123.
- ^ a b Huidekoper, p. 122.
- ^ a b Huidekoper, p. 123.
- ^ a b c Dallas D. Irvine. "Review." The Journal of Modern History. Vol. 4, No. 3 (September, 1932), pp. 471–474.
- ^ a b c Cyril Falls. "Review." The English Historical Review. Vol. 45, No. 180 (Oct., 1930), pp. 656–657
- ^ Troyer S. Anderson. "Review." The American Historical Review. Vol. 41, No. 4 (Jul., 1936), pp. 745–746.
Bibliography
- Anderson, Troyer S. "Review." The American Historical Review. Vol. 41, No. 4 (Jul., 1936), pp. 745–746.
- Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891: Buckingham, St. Giles Chalfont, district 2. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1891. Class: RG12; Piece: 1131; Folio 15; Page 4; GSU roll: 6096241. Found at Ancestry. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
- East India Company, Great Britain. India Office. East-India register and army list. London, W.H. Allen [n.d.].
- England & Wales, Birth Index, 1837–1915. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England. Various volumes. Found at Ancestry. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
- England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. Various volumes. Found at Ancestry. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
- England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1837–1915.General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. Various volumes. Found at Ancestry. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
- Falls, Cyril. "Review." The English Historical Review. Vol. 45, No. 180 (Oct., 1930), pp. 656–657
- Falls, Cyril. "Review." The English Historical Review. Vol. 55, No. 218 (Apr., 1940), p. 345.
- Foster, Joseph. Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886 and Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co. 1888–1892. Retrieved at Ancestry. Accessed 15 June 2010.
- Hart, H. G. The New Army List...for 1873. London: John Murray, 1873.
- Hart, H. G. Hart's annual army list, special reserve list, and territorial force list. London: Murray, 1883.
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The English Notebooks: 1853–1856. United States: Ohio State University Press 1997.
- Huidekoper, Frederic L. "Review." American Historical Review. 34:1, October 1928, pp. 120–121.
- Irvine, Dallas D. "Review." The Journal of Modern History. Vol. 4, No. 3 (September, 1932), pp. 471–474.
- London Gazette. no. 21764, p. 3129, 17 August 1855; no. 23966, p. 1923, 11 April 1873; no. 23966, p. 1923; no. 25089, p. 1412; and 28 March 1882, no. 25115, p. 2641, 6 June 1882. Retrieved on 15 June 2010.
- Lossing, Benson John. "Descendants of Benedict Arnold." The American historical record. Philadelphia: Chase & Town, Publishers, 1872–1874, volume 3.
- New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff. The New England Register. Westminster, MD: Heritage, 2010.
- Nolan, Fred. A brief history of Chalfont St. Giles Archived 4 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Village website. Accessed 15 June 2010.
- One of the Protestant side. Random recollections of Exeter Hall, in 1834–1837. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1837.
- Page, William (editor). Parish of Chalfont St. Giles. A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 184–193. Found at British History online Archived 7 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, 1713–1948. India. Office of the Registrar General. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1966–1967.
- Phipps, Pownoll William. The life of Colonel Pownoll Phipps. London: Bentley, 1894.
- Phipps, Ramsay Weston. The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926–1939, volumes 1–5.
External links
- Works by Ramsay Weston Phipps at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ramsay Weston Phipps at the Internet Archive
- Works by Ramsay Weston Phipps at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)