Hero or Villain? The Much-Maligned Army Officer Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley.
Taking advantage of a recent day out to Highcliffe castle, I went out to explore the local churchyard of St Marks in Highcliffe. I hadn’t gone along deliberately to seek out ‘celebrity’ gravestones but it was here that I saw signs to ‘The Selfridge Family Graves’ and perhaps I’ll write a post about Harry Selfridge on here one day.
Wandering through the graveyard, which has some pretty spectacular statues and memorials, I was struck by one particular one, a semi-circular wall with the wording ‘Pax Eterna’ ‘Eternal Peace’. The memorial was dedicated to one Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley CB, CMG, DSO, MVO, and his story is a fascinating one.
He was a man, not short on bravery, who experienced some of the most significant events in warfare of the late 19th and early 20th century when the British Empire was most powerful, but in his later years suffered at the hands of his superiors, rightly or wrongly, you decide.
Early Years
He was born on 31st July 1857 into a family of some distinction, his grandfather was a Tory politician and 2nd Baron of Wharncliffe, his uncle was a peer and 1st Earl of Wharncliffe.
‘Eddie’ attended Eton College and went on to gain a commissison to The King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1877.
Pre-World War I
Before the first world war, his career was action-packed and took him all over the world. He saw action in the Afghan war in 1878 where he was mentioned in despatches.
He served with the Natal Field Force in the first Boer War (1881), before his association with the Egyptian Army. He was Military Secretary to General Valentine Baker (1882) and then ADC to General Sir Evelyn Wood (1883-4), taking part in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. He served throughout the Nile Expedition (1884-5), and was twice mentioned in despatches.
He was Brigade-Major at Malta (1893-6) and during the Nile Expedition (1897-8) was 2i/c of a Gunboat Flotilla, winning a DSO. During the South African War, he commanded 2nd Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps (1900-1) at the relief of Ladysmith. From July 1901 until July 1904 he was British Military Attaché in Paris. He commanded 10th Infantry Brigade, at Shorncliffe, from April 1908 until April 1912 and in June 1914 took command of the North Midland Division Territorial Force.
Links to Kaiser Wilhelm
After his marriage to Violet Hunter Guthrie in 1891, Eddie was living in Highcliffe Castle and in 1907 Kaiser Wilhelm II rented the property for the summer to recover from a throat infection. In return for his hospitality, Edward was given two stained glass windows for the castle and invited to visit the German Army’s manoeuvres at Alsace the next year. This connection with the Kaiser brought Eddie into royal circles and during WWI, the 46th (North Midland) Division became the first Territorial division to deploy to France as a complete formation and in March 1915, King George V took a particular interest in its fate and asked Montagu-Stuart-Wortley to write to him weekly. Although Montagu-Stuart-Wortley received permission from Sir John French and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien to do this, when the correspondence came to the notice of the GOC XI Corps, Richard Haking, and the GOC First Army, Sir Douglas Haig, during the King’s tour of the front in October 1915, they expressed their ‘severe displeasure’. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley was a marked man.
Hohenzollern Redoubt, the Beginning of the End
During his time as General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 46th North Midland Division, the division saw action in the Battle of Loos when it made a costly attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley had foreseen the difficulties with a frontal attack and proposed a bombing raid. He was overruled by his corps commander General Richard Haking and ordered to undertake a frontal attack. The attack, as he had imagined, led to a catastrophic loss of life with 180 officers and 3583 men killed, wounded, or missing. The attack would go down in military history as ‘a tragic waste of infantry’. Haking, in correspondence with the King, openly blamed Montagu-Stuart-Wortley for the ‘unnecessary losses’ and paved the way for any future encounters.
Gommecourt, a Reputation in Tatters
In planning for the Somme in 1916, the 46th, along with the 56th North London Division, was tasked with creating a diversionary attack at Gommecourt salient at the northern end of the British line.
When the initial attack took place at 7.30 am on the first day of the Somme offensive, they found that the German army had reinforced its’ numbers and the attack was a complete disaster. Despite the heavy losses incurred in the opening attack and Montagu-Stuart-Wortley being able to see clearly that any further attempts would be a futile waste of life, he was ordered to launch a renewed attack at midday. However, the 46th had reached a state of chaos in its’ own lines and was unable to re-engage. After several failed attempts to organize his troops, it became clear to Montagu-Stuart-Wortley that there was no chance of success whatsoever. But at 3.30 that day, he was ordered, again by senior officers, to launch an attack and so, in perhaps what can be considered a humane gesture, he ordered a token attack by two rifle companies, with only one platoon of 20 going ‘over the top’ and of that platoon only 2 men returned unscathed.
That evening, the 56th, who Montagu-Stuart-Wortley’s 46th were meant to support, were forced back after 13 hours of continuous fighting and suffering heavy losses. The 46th, for its’ part, had the rather ignominious record of suffering the fewest losses (2455 killed, wounded, or missing) of any of the 13 British divisions involved that day.
The fallout was swift and brutal. The 46th gained a reputation as a poor quality military formation for leaving its’fellow territorials to fight on in an impossible situation. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley was openly castigated by VII Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Thomas D’Oyly Snow who stated in his report that the;
’46th showed a lack of offensive spirit’ and that ‘Major-General the Hon. E J Montagu-Stuart-Wortley, is not of an age, neither has he the constitution, to allow him to be as much among his men in the front lines as is necessary to imbue all ranks with confidence and spirit .’
Lieutenant-General Thomas D’Oyly Snow
Field Marshall Haig agreed and Montagu-Stuart-Wortley was dismissed from his post with the recommendation that he should never serve as a divisional commander again. He thus became the only officer to be sacked from his post during the war.
Later Life
Upon his return home, he was appointed to the backwater command of the 65th (Second Lowland) Division in Ireland until March 1919. He retired from army service on 31st July 1919 and spent many years protesting fruitlessly on his own behalf to the government for his perceived maltreatment at the hands of Haig and Haking.
His orders on that fateful day at Gommecourt were to ‘occupy the ground won by the artillery‘ and since no ground was won, his dismissal remains the subject of some controversy with many believing that he and the 46th were made scapegoats for the;
‘fatally flawed concept dreamt up by higher authority..the diversionary attack at Gommecourt’
( Alan MacDonald. ‘A Lack of Offensive Spirit?’)
Nevertheless, what didn’t help Montagu-Stuart-Wortley’s case was that despite his early successes in his career, he made himself a target to Haig by corresponding with King George and also disagreeing with Haking over Hohenzollern Redoubt and so, in many ways, his future was already set with two very powerful and influential officers waiting for him to make any sort of error.
The futile sacrifice of the millions of men during World War I is well-documented in the history books as the ‘lions led by donkeys’. What is not always so well-known is the stories of the individuals like Montagu-Stuart-Wortley who, were it not for upsetting some influential people, could well have retired from the Army with a glowing record.