Berkeley Vincent
Encyclopedia
Brigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent, KBE
CB
CMG (4 December 1871 — 29 January 1963) was a British
army officer and sportsman.
. They divorced in 1925.
On 14 November 1925 he married Ellaline Bramley-Moore. In June 1926 his first wife, Lady Kitty Vincent married Ralph Gerald Ritson
.
He died on 29 January 1963.
Under the orders of the Royal Air Force, in a new experiment in Iraq of Colonial control by air, Sir Berkeley Vincent was the Officer Commanding Military Forces in Iraq.
With the R.A.F. dropping supplies to him as he marched his troops through the mountains to meet an insurgency that threatened difficult negotiations with Turkey at the League of Nations, Colonel Commandant Vincent was able to deal swiftly with the trouble which had long been brewing.
The success of the campaign went a very long way in helping the R.A.F. to be accepted as an independent defence force alongside the Royal Navy and the Army.
The appreciation of the R.A.F. manifested itself in a knighthood for Colonel Commandant Berkeley Vincent, but owing to the operations having had to be covert on account of the diplomatic scenario vis-a-vis Turkey, no song and dance was made in the British Press at the time and subsequent histories of the Royal Air Force have completely ignored his contribution.
After being knighted in July 1924, Colonel Commandant Sir Berkeley Vincent, K.B.E., applied to retire from the British Army. His request was granted and he was given the honorary rank of Brigadier-General, an old rank that had recently been replaced by that of Colonel Commandant, which itself was to be soon replaced by Brigadier, as it is in the British Army to this day.
Secondly, on the 6th of April, 1915, recovered from his debility, he was appointed Chief Staff Officer to a Division in one of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. This was the 37th Division, who were to sail to France at the end of July, 1915. With the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Berkeley Vincent remained with the 37th Division until the 29th of January, 1917, and was awarded a C.M.G. in 1916.
Thirdly and finally, promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the 1st of January, 1917, in the New Year's Honours List, Berkeley Vincent was given an Infantry Brigade to command from the 30th of January, 1917 to the 21st of April, 1919. This was the 35th infantry Brigade.
Lord Kitchener had left India before in September 1909, and his successor was not happy with the appointment on the basis of a poor Staff College report attached to Berkeley Vincent's Service records by Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, C.B. in 1908.
A desperate attempt was made to revoke Vincent's appointment but General Capper defended the appointment and his arguments prevailed since it was Lord Kitchener who had made the decision.
In the Autumn of 1910, Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig, K.C.V.O., as the new Chief of the General Staff, India, under Kitchener's replacement, General Sir O'Moore Creagh, V.C., visited the Indian Staff College and subsequently bribed General Capper that November to sack Vincent referring to him as a 'mediocrity'. This, General Capper would not do, so General Haig wrote up a report addressed to to General Creagh, saying that Colonel Vincent should be removed from his post before the completion of his first year as an Instructor. To back up this recommendation, General Haig wrote a string of lies.
On the 1st of January, 1911, when Colonel Vincent learned from his regiment that he was to leave his job, and was shown General Haig's report on him he availed himself of his right to Appeal to His Majesty the King, under Section 42 of the Army Act, claiming unfair dismissal.
s, including Captain Alexander Bannerman
R.E., Captain James Bruce Jardine
, and Captain Charles Allix Lavington Yate
, each officer representing one of the four arms of the Army, viz. Artillery (Vincent), Cavalry (Jardine), Engineers (Bannerman), and Infantry (Yate). The idea was that successive waves of British army officers representing these four arms would be sent to learn Japanese and then be attached to the Japanese Army, for two years at a time.
War between Russia and Japan was in the offing and once the Russo-Japanese War had started in 1904, there was a scramble among young British officers to be sent to the theatre of war.
From the 1st of March, 1904, Vincent was attached to the 2nd Division of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria; and his reports were forwarded to London.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
CMG (4 December 1871 — 29 January 1963) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
army officer and sportsman.
Biography
He was born on 4 December 1871. In September 1906 he married Lady Kitty Edith Blanche Ogilvy, daughter of David Ogilvy, 11th (de facto 8th) Earl of Airlie and Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of AirlieMabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie
Mabell Frances Elizabeth Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie, GCVO, GBE was a British courtier and author.-Early life:...
. They divorced in 1925.
On 14 November 1925 he married Ellaline Bramley-Moore. In June 1926 his first wife, Lady Kitty Vincent married Ralph Gerald Ritson
Ralph Gerald Ritson
Ralph Gerald Ritson was an English champion polo player.captained the British team in the 1913 International Polo Cup. His name also appears among the winners of the -Biography:...
.
He died on 29 January 1963.
Other
In 1923, as Colonel Commandant Berkeley Vincent, Brigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent, K.B.E., &c., defeated the Turkish regular forces and Kurdish irregular forces in northern Iraq.Under the orders of the Royal Air Force, in a new experiment in Iraq of Colonial control by air, Sir Berkeley Vincent was the Officer Commanding Military Forces in Iraq.
With the R.A.F. dropping supplies to him as he marched his troops through the mountains to meet an insurgency that threatened difficult negotiations with Turkey at the League of Nations, Colonel Commandant Vincent was able to deal swiftly with the trouble which had long been brewing.
The success of the campaign went a very long way in helping the R.A.F. to be accepted as an independent defence force alongside the Royal Navy and the Army.
The appreciation of the R.A.F. manifested itself in a knighthood for Colonel Commandant Berkeley Vincent, but owing to the operations having had to be covert on account of the diplomatic scenario vis-a-vis Turkey, no song and dance was made in the British Press at the time and subsequent histories of the Royal Air Force have completely ignored his contribution.
After being knighted in July 1924, Colonel Commandant Sir Berkeley Vincent, K.B.E., applied to retire from the British Army. His request was granted and he was given the honorary rank of Brigadier-General, an old rank that had recently been replaced by that of Colonel Commandant, which itself was to be soon replaced by Brigadier, as it is in the British Army to this day.
The Great War
During The Great War 1914-19, Berkeley Vincent served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1919, first as a Major on the Head-Quarters Staff of the Indian Army Corps from the 30th of September, 1914 to the 1st of January, 1915, on which day he was invalided to England.Secondly, on the 6th of April, 1915, recovered from his debility, he was appointed Chief Staff Officer to a Division in one of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. This was the 37th Division, who were to sail to France at the end of July, 1915. With the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Berkeley Vincent remained with the 37th Division until the 29th of January, 1917, and was awarded a C.M.G. in 1916.
Thirdly and finally, promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the 1st of January, 1917, in the New Year's Honours List, Berkeley Vincent was given an Infantry Brigade to command from the 30th of January, 1917 to the 21st of April, 1919. This was the 35th infantry Brigade.
Roll of Honour
In August 1918, Brigadier-General Berkeley Vincent was wounded, gassed and evacuated after he had become quite blind. He was absent about one month in England (15 August to 19 September 1918) and was able to return to his Brigade.Aftermath
Towards the end of the Great War, in July 1919, and before going to Iraq in November 1921, Brevet Colonel Berkeley Vincent was made a C.B. and promoted Lieutenant-Colonel commanding his Regiment, the Inniskilling Dragoons, who were first stationed with the Army of occupation on the Rhine and then in York, England in 1921.Prelude
In the years prior to the Great War, 1911 to 1914, Major Vincent had spent two years with his Regiment (including a long period of leave in the first half of 1911) in India and a year-and-a-half as a Staff Officer on the Head-Quarters staff of the Northern Army, India.Controversy
Major Berkeley Vincent was appointed as a Professor (later renamed Instructor) at the Indian Staff College, Quetta in 1909 by Lord Kitchener and took up his post in January 1910, as a Lieutenant-Colonel under the Commandant, Brigadier-General Thompson Capper, C.B., D.S.O., p.s.c.Lord Kitchener had left India before in September 1909, and his successor was not happy with the appointment on the basis of a poor Staff College report attached to Berkeley Vincent's Service records by Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, C.B. in 1908.
A desperate attempt was made to revoke Vincent's appointment but General Capper defended the appointment and his arguments prevailed since it was Lord Kitchener who had made the decision.
In the Autumn of 1910, Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig, K.C.V.O., as the new Chief of the General Staff, India, under Kitchener's replacement, General Sir O'Moore Creagh, V.C., visited the Indian Staff College and subsequently bribed General Capper that November to sack Vincent referring to him as a 'mediocrity'. This, General Capper would not do, so General Haig wrote up a report addressed to to General Creagh, saying that Colonel Vincent should be removed from his post before the completion of his first year as an Instructor. To back up this recommendation, General Haig wrote a string of lies.
On the 1st of January, 1911, when Colonel Vincent learned from his regiment that he was to leave his job, and was shown General Haig's report on him he availed himself of his right to Appeal to His Majesty the King, under Section 42 of the Army Act, claiming unfair dismissal.
Early Military Career
In 1903, Captain Vincent was sent to Tokyo to learn Japanese. England and Japan had become allies through the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902). The Japanese Imperial Navy had been trained by the Royal Navy, so that Japanese naval officers had learned English. The Japanese Army had ignored the small British army as have nothing to teach them. Instead, they had had their army officers trained first by the French, and latterly by the German armies, and consequently the French and German languages were known among Japanese officers. With neither the Japanese Army nor the British Army having officers able to communicate in the other's language, it was essential that this communication gap be bridged in case of the two Powers having to go to war together as per the recently signed treaty. Captain Berkeley Vincent, R.A., was posted to the British legation as one of four military attachéMilitary attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
s, including Captain Alexander Bannerman
Alexander Bannerman
Sir Alexander Bannerman was a British merchant, vintner, politician and colonial governor.-Background:...
R.E., Captain James Bruce Jardine
James Bruce Jardine
Brigadier General James Bruce Jardine CMG DSO DL was a British soldier and diplomat. He earned the rank of Brigadier-General in the service of the 5th Lancers.-Family life:...
, and Captain Charles Allix Lavington Yate
Charles Allix Lavington Yate
Major Charles Allix Lavington Yate VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
, each officer representing one of the four arms of the Army, viz. Artillery (Vincent), Cavalry (Jardine), Engineers (Bannerman), and Infantry (Yate). The idea was that successive waves of British army officers representing these four arms would be sent to learn Japanese and then be attached to the Japanese Army, for two years at a time.
War between Russia and Japan was in the offing and once the Russo-Japanese War had started in 1904, there was a scramble among young British officers to be sent to the theatre of war.
From the 1st of March, 1904, Vincent was attached to the 2nd Division of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria; and his reports were forwarded to London.
Honours
- Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), 1916.
- Companion of the Order of the BathOrder of the BathThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(CBOrder of the BathThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
), 1919. - Knight Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(KBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
), 1924.
See also
- Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese WarMilitary attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese WarMilitary attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War were historians creating first-hand accounts of what was arguably the world's first modern war...
- Brigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent's official web site: www.sirberkeleyvincent.co.uk