Thomas Snow (British Army officer)

Snow was born at Newton Valence, Hampshire, on 5 May 1858.^[1] He was the eldest son of the Reverend George D'Oyly Snow and his wife Maria Jane Barlow,^[1] Snow attended Eton College (1871–1874) and went to St John's College, Cambridge in 1878.^[2][1]

Snow obtained a commission in the

On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Snow was still in command of 4th Division,[3] which was initially deployed for home defence on the eastern coast, headquartered in Suffolk.^[6] Although Snow had written the Eastern Command's Defence Scheme for event of war as a staff officer years before, he recalled he found that "very few people knew, or cared, that such a scheme existed and the chaos on the East Coast was appalling".^[7]

When the division arrived at the front (25 August) Snow's orders were to help prepare a defensive position on the Cambrai-Le Cateau position, as General Headquarters (GHQ) had no idea of the seriousness of the situation facing II Corps (this being at a time when I and II Corps were retreating on opposite sides of the Forest of Mormal, and the British Expeditionary Force's Chief of Staff, Archibald Murray, was about to collapse from strain and overwork).^[8] Snow was in time to take part in the Battle of Le Cateau. The 4th Division covered the left flank of II Corps and he was one of those who urged Smith-Dorrien to stand and fight.^[1] The diary of Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien, the GOC of II Corps, recorded:

I learned in the course of the morning that the 4th Division (General Snow, now Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow) had reached

3rd Division

.

Snow's division retired after the battle but GHQ and the French were left with an exaggerated impression of the losses suffered at Le Cateau. Henry Wilson, BEF Sub Chief of Staff, issued the infamous "sauve qui peut" order (27 August), (addressed from "Henry to Snowball") ordering Snow to dump unnecessary ammunition and officers' kits so that tired and wounded soldiers could be carried. Smith-Dorrien was later rebuked by Field Marshal French for countermanding the order.^[9] Snow later wrote "the retreat of 1914 was not, as is now imagined, a great military achievement, but rather a badly bungled affair only prevented from being a disaster of the first magnitude by the grit displayed by the officers and the men".^[10]

Brigadier-General Aylmer Haldane, who commanded the 10th Brigade under Snow in 1914, was highly critical of him, although he also thought many other officers of the division not up to the standards of competence required in war. By September 1914 three out of four battalion COs had been "sent home" and Snow was lucky to retain his command.^[11] Snow later revisited some places from the Great Retreat from Mons with Haldane, who recorded in his diary on 10 November 1917: "Though he is an old friend of mine I have never felt the same towards him since that time ... when he showed what a poor spirited man he was when troublous times were upon us".^[12]

In September, during the First Battle of the Marne, Snow was hospitalised, badly injured with a cracked pelvis, after his horse fell and rolled on him. In November, after partially recovering (he required further treatment for the rest of the war), he took command of the 27th Division,^[3] then being raised at Winchester for deployment to the front at the end of the year.^[13] The division consisted of regulars returning from overseas.^[1]

1915

The 27th Division was initially trenched at St. Eloi

VII Corps delivered an attack upon the German-held trench fortress of the Gommecourt salient on 1 July 1916, as a part of the opening of the Battle of the Somme offensive. The object was to pinch off the salient and beat off counter-attacks, whilst also serving as a diversion from the main offensive further south.^[1] Snow did not think Gommecourt a good place for a feint and protested to the Third Army HQ but GHQ insisted the attack go ahead.^[16][17] Edmonds later wrote that Snow was more scared of Haig and of Allenby, his army commander, than he was of the enemy.^[1][18]

A senior officer of the

In 1917 Snow took part in the offensives at the Battle of Arras in the Spring (his corps fought on right (southern) flank of Third Army) and the Battle of Cambrai in November.^[1] At Cambrai VII Corps were on the right flank and at one point it was suggested that they might be placed under French command if the French joined in the offensive. This did not happen.^[19]

Despite being in pain from his injured pelvis, Snow surveyed his positions from Ronssoy-Epehy Ridge each day and warned his superiors that a German counter-attack was brewing for 29 or 30 November. They were still preoccupied with the attack at Bourlon Wood on the left and did not believe – wrongly – that the Germans had sufficient reserves left after Third Ypres to mount a big attack.^[20] At 7:00 p.m. on 28 November his chief of staff, Brigadier-General Jock Burnett-Stuart, telephoned Byng's chief of staff, Major-General Louis Vaughan, to request reinforcements and was told that the Guards Division could soon be sent. When the counter-attack came, the Guards Division had already been committed to III Corps.^[21]

Bryn Hammond describes Snow at Cambrai as a "safe pair of hands" on account of his experience but also "tired and relatively old" at the age of 59.

Snow retired from the army in September 1919.[1]^[25] He was also Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment from 1918 to 1919 and Colonel of the Somerset Light Infantry from 1919 to 1929.^[26] Snow became largely confined to a bath chair and moved from Blandford to Kensington. He devoted much of his time to charitable work and became chairman of the Crippled Boys' Home for Training.^[1] Snow died at his home in Kensington Gate, London, on 30 August 1940, aged 82.^[1] His wealth was £15,531.95 (over £750,000 at 2016 prices).^[1][27]

Personal life and descendants

Snow was 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) in height.