Samuel Lomax
Samuel Lomax | |
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Zulu War
First World War
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Awards | Mentioned in Despatches |
Early military career
Born 2 August 1855 to Thomas and Mary Helen Lomax of Grove Park in
Lomax was promoted to major in 1886, lieutenant colonel in 1897, and colonel in 1901. In early 1902, he was transferred to a temporary staff posting as
First World War
The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 put all plans of retirement on hold and Lomax was given command of the British Army's 1st Division as part of the British Expeditionary Force being dispatched to France under the leadership of Field Marshal Sir John French. After taking part in the Battle of Mons in August 1914, Lomax commanded the division through the First Battle of the Marne, and in the counter-attack on the German invasion of the West at the First Battle of the Aisne. His direction of operations was so accomplished that it has been said that he was "the best Divisional General in the early days of the war".[1] On the 19 October 1914 he received notice that he was to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and was marked to be given the command of a corps when one next became available.[1]
First Battle of Ypres
In late October 1914 the 1st Division was engaged in heavy fighting at the
Death
On arrival back in England, Lomax was treated in a nursing home in London, where he received palliative care for the next five months before dying of his wounds in his 60th year on 10 April 1915. His body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, and his ashes were buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery, later to be joined by his wife's under a private headstone.[10]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle later wrote that Lomax's early death in the war had deprived the British high command of a talented general, which "was a brain injury to the Army and a desperately serious one."[9]
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0850524635.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36703. London. 28 February 1902. p. 5.
- ^ "No. 27417". The London Gazette. 18 March 1902. p. 1885.
- ^ "No. 27474". The London Gazette. 16 September 1902. p. 5964.
- ^ LOMAX, Maj.-Gen. Samuel Holt, in Who Was Who (2008) (online edition)
- ^ a b c P.29, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
- ^ 'At G.H.Q.' by John Charteris (Pub. Cassell, 1941), P.51.
- ^ P.84, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
- ^ a b c P.30, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
- ^ Commonwealth War Graves database page for Lieutenant General Samuel Holt Lomax, Retrieved on the 14 March 2007
Bibliography
- Victor Bonham-Carter (1963). Soldier True:the Life and Times of Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson. London: Frederick Muller Limited.
- Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (1995). Bloody Red Tabs. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-463-6.