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Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan

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Field Marshal The Right Honourable

The Earl of Cavan

KP GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DL
Nickname(s)"Fatty"[a]
Born(1865-10-16)16 October 1865
Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England
Died28 August 1946(1946-08-28) (aged 80)
London, England
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1885–1913
1914–1926
RankField Marshal
UnitGrenadier Guards
CommandsChief of the Imperial General Staff
Aldershot Command
XIV Corps
Guards Division
50th (Northumbrian) Division
4th (Guards) Brigade
2nd London Brigade
2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Battles / warsSecond Boer War
First World War :
AwardsKnight of the Order of St Patrick
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Mentioned in Despatches
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)
Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy)
Grand Officer of the Military Order of Savoy (Italy)
War Cross for Military Valor (Italy)
Army Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Order of Wen-Hu (China)
Spouse(s)
Caroline Inez Crawley
​
​
(m. 1893; died 1920)​
Lady Hester Joan Byng
​
​
(m. 1922)​

Field Marshal Frederick Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan, KP, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DL (16 October 1865 – 28 August 1946), known as Viscount Kilcoursie from 1887 until 1900, was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, in the 1920s. After being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1885, he served in the Second Boer War as a company commander, then served during the First World War as a brigade, divisional, corps, and army commander, and later advised the British Government on the implementation of the Geddes report, which advocated a large reduction in defence expenditure; he presided over a major reduction in the size of the British Army.

Early life and military career

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Born into an aristocratic family of Anglo-Irish descent, he was the son of the 9th Earl of Cavan and Mary Sneade Lambart (née Olive). He was educated at Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst;[2] As there were no vacancies at that time for his preferred regiment, the Coldstream Guards,[3] so he was instead commissioned into the Grenadier Guards on 29 August 1885.[4] He gained the courtesy title of Viscount Kilcoursie in 1887 when his father succeeded to the Earldom and was appointed aide-de-camp to Frederick Stanley, the Governor General of Canada, in 1891.[5]

He was promoted to captain on 16 October 1897, after he had been appointed regimental adjutant on 25 August 1897,[6] a position he held until 17 March 1900.[7] By then, the Grenadier Guards were involved in the Second Boer War in South Africa. He saw action as a company commander in the Battle of Biddulphsberg in May 1900,[5] and, having succeeded to his father's titles on 14 July 1900,[8] took part in operations against the Boers in 1901 and for which he was later mentioned in despatches.[9] Following the end of the war in June 1902, which prompted him to write in his diary that it was "not far removed from the happiest day of my life",[8] he left Cape Town on the SS Sicilia and returned to Southampton in late July.[10]

After promotion to major on 28 October 1902,[11] he became second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards in July 1905.[12] He was promoted again to lieutenant colonel[13] and appointed commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards on 14 February 1908.[12] He was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order Fourth Class on 29 June 1910,[14] which was awarded personally to him by George V.[15] He was promoted to colonel on 4 October 1911,[16] and, having "come to the conclusion that his military career had run its course",[17] he retired from the army on 8 November 1913[18] and became Master of Foxhounds for the Hertfordshire Hunt.[12] At that time he lived at Wheathampstead House in Wheathampstead in his native Hertfordshire.[19]

First World War

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Cavan in 1915 as a brigadier general.

He was recalled at the start of the First World War and, after receiving a promotion to the temporary rank of brigadier general on 22 August,[20] took command of the 2nd London Brigade of the 1st London Division, a Territorial Force (TF) unit then stationed in the East End of London.[21]

His stay with the brigade was destined to be short as he was appointed CO of the 4th (Guards) Brigade on 18 September[22] after its commander, Brigadier General Robert Scott-Kerr, was wounded.[23] Cavan, by now in France, went on to lead the brigade, which then formed part of the 2nd Division, at the First Battle of Ypres in October.[12] [24] Included as one of the four battalions under his brigade's command was the 1st Battalion of the Hertfordshire Regiment, in which many of his old neighbours were serving.[12][25] Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 18 February 1915,[26] he also led the brigade at the Battle of Festubert in May 1915.[27][12]

Lieutenant-General Rudolph Lambart (10th Earl of Cavan), the C-in-C of the British Army in Italy, and Major General Jean César Graziani, the C-in-C of the French Army in Italy, chatting before the presentation of decorations to soldiers of both armies after the Battle of the Piave River. Granezza, 12 July 1918.

At the still relatively young age of 49, Cavan was promoted to major general[28] and given command of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division on 29 June 1915; a mere six weeks later he was appointed the first General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Guards Division[29] and, having been appointed Commander of the French Legion of Honour on 10 September 1915,[30] he led his division at the Battle of Loos later that month.[12] He was elected an Irish representative peer on 24 September 1915 and as such was one of the last to be so elected before the creation of the Irish Free State.[31] In his role as GOC of the Guards Division he informed Major Winston Churchill of the latter's attachment to the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadiers, which formed part of his division, in November 1915.[32][33]

The following January 1916, Cavan, "his star in the ascendant",[34] was promoted to temporary lieutenant-general[35][12] and was placed at the head of XIV Corps and took part in the Battle of the Somme that summer.[12] He was made a Grand Officer of the Belgian Order of the Crown on 2 November 1916[36] and appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 18 November 1916.[37]

The Battle of Passchendaele, at which Lambart commanded XIV Corps, during the First World War

Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant general[12] on 1 January 1917,[38] he led his corps at the Battle of Passchendaele in the summer and autumn of 1917,[12] during which "XIV Corps achieved every objective it was given." [39] He was awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour on 25 September 1917[40] and was redeployed with his corps to the Italian front in October 1917, after the Italians had suffered disastrously at the Battle of Caporetto.[12] Advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1918,[41] Cavan was appointed Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Forces in Italy on 10 March 1918, after his predecessor, General Herbert Plumer, had been recalled to the Western Front after the Germans had launched their Spring offensive.[42][12]

After reverses on the Western Front in March and April 1918, Prime Minister Lloyd George and the War Cabinet had been keen to remove Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig as C-in-C of the BEF, but had been unable to think of a suitable successor. In July Cavan was summoned to London, supposedly to discuss the Italian Front but in reality, as Cabinet Secretary Maurice Hankey put it, "to 'vet' him with a view to his replacing Haig" Hankey claimed to have dissuaded the Prime Minister by pointing to Cavan's lack of ideas as to how to defeat the Austro-Hungarians.[43] Haig's victory at Amiens in August secured his position.[44]

On the Italian Front Cavan, who in late June was promoted to the temporary rank of general,[45] led the Tenth Army which struck a decisive blow at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the action that sounded the final death knell of the Austro-Hungarian Army towards the close of the war.[12]

Following the end of the war the King of Italy awarded him the War Cross for Military Valor[46] and made him a Commander,[47] and subsequently a Grand Officer, of the Military Order of Savoy[48] as well as appointing him a Grand Officer of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus.[49] Cavan was also appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George for his contribution to operations in Italy,[50] awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal[51] and appointed to the Chinese Order of Wen-Hu (1st Class).[52]

Postwar

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Lambart c. 1920–1925

His first appointment after the war was when he became lieutenant of the Tower of London on 22 March 1920.[53] Appointed aide-de-camp general to the King on 1 October 1920,[54] he became General Officer Commanding at Aldershot Command on 2 November 1920[55][56] before being promoted to the substantive rank of general on 2 November 1921.[57]

He was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff on 19 February 1922.[58][59] He may have been chosen as a steady man, the antithesis of his predecessor Henry Wilson, whose relations with the government had deteriorated, and who was in Wilson's view more likely to agree to withdraw troops from Egypt and India.[60] CIGS Cavan advised the Government on the implementation of the Geddes report, which advocated a large reduction in defence expenditure, and he officiated over a major reduction in the size of the British Army.[61] Earl Cavan made a famous speech at the 'Royal Academy Banquet' to his equals in government and fellow peers and royalty.[62] Advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the New Year Honours 1926,[63] he retired on 19 February 1926.[64]

He was also colonel of the Irish Guards from 23 May 1925[65] and colonel of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment from 10 December 1928.[66]

In May 1927, he accompanied the Duke and Duchess of York to Australia to open the Provisional Parliament House at Canberra, for which he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire on 8 July 1927.[67] He became Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms on 23 July 1929[68] and was promoted to field marshal on 31 October 1932.[69] He also took part in the procession for the funeral of King George V in January 1936[70] and commanded the troops at the procession for the coronation of King George VI on 12 May 1937.[71]

During the Second World War he served as Commanding Officer of the Hertfordshire Local Defence Volunteers.[61] He died at the London Clinic in Devonshire Place in London on 28 August 1946.[61]

He was buried in the family plot at the churchyard in Ayot St Lawrence, where a seven-foot-tall red granite cross is his headstone. His is the churchyard's only burial registered as Commonwealth war grave.[72][73]

Marriage and family

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He married on 1 August 1893 to Caroline Inez Crawley (1870–1920), daughter of George Baden Crawley and Eliza Inez Hulbert, at Digswell Church in Digswell, Hertfordshire.[74][75] She predeceased her husband; they had no children.

He married, secondly, on 27 November 1922 to Lady Hester Joan Byng,[76] daughter of Reverend Francis Byng, 5th Earl of Strafford and Emily Georgina Kerr, at St. Mark's Church in North Audley Street, Mayfair, London.[74][77] His second wife was the niece of his army colleague Field Marshal Byng, who was a younger half-brother of the 5th Earl of Strafford. Hester, Countess of Cavan, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1927.[67] The couple had two daughters:

As he had no son, the 10th Earl was succeeded by his brother, Horace.[76]

Notes

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  1. ^ "This came about not because Rudolph was particularly fat, but because of his small stature... After joining the Grenadiers, Rudolph was given a uniform that was massively too large and baggy, and in it Rudolph appeared as an exaggerated corpulent figure – hence 'Fatty'."[1]

References

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  1. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 38–39.
  2. ^ Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 161.
  3. ^ Senior 2023, p. 9.
  4. ^ "No. 25506". The London Gazette. 28 August 1885. p. 4082.
  5. ^ a b Heathcote 1999, p. 197.
  6. ^ Hart′s Army list, 1900
  7. ^ "No. 27174". The London Gazette. 16 March 1900. p. 1793.
  8. ^ a b Senior 2023, p. 23.
  9. ^ "No. 27353". The London Gazette. 10 September 1901. p. 5936.
  10. ^ "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home". The Times. No. 36833. London. 30 July 1902. p. 11.
  11. ^ "No. 27505". The London Gazette. 19 December 1902. p. 8758.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Heathcote 1999, p. 198.
  13. ^ "No. 28109". The London Gazette. 14 February 1908. p. 1049.
  14. ^ "No. 28391". The London Gazette. 1 July 1910. p. 4649.
  15. ^ Senior 2023, p. 24.
  16. ^ "No. 28580". The London Gazette. 13 February 1912. p. 1066.
  17. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 24–25.
  18. ^ "No. 28771". The London Gazette. 7 November 1913. p. 7777.
  19. ^ "Wheathampstead Heritage Trail". Wheathampstead Heritage. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  20. ^ "No. 28875". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 August 1914. p. 6581.
  21. ^ Senior 2023, p. 27.
  22. ^ "No. 28980". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 November 1914. p. 9514.
  23. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 27–28.
  24. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 30–50.
  25. ^ Senior 2023, p. 41.
  26. ^ "No. 29074". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 February 1915. p. 1686.
  27. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 60–63.
  28. ^ "No. 29283". The London Gazette. 3 September 1915. p. 8733.
  29. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 64–66.
  30. ^ "No. 29290". The London Gazette. 10 September 1915. p. 8987.
  31. ^ "No. 29310". The London Gazette. 28 September 1915. p. 9547.
  32. ^ Jenkins, Roy (2002). Churchill. Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-48805-1.
  33. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 75–78.
  34. ^ Senior 2023, p. 78.
  35. ^ "No. 29475". The London Gazette. 15 February 1916. p. 1695.
  36. ^ "No. 29943". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 February 1917. p. 1592.
  37. ^ Rayment, Leigh (24 April 2008). "Leigh Rayment: Knights of St.Patrick". Leigh Rayment. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  38. ^ "No. 29886". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1916. p. 15.
  39. ^ Senior 2023, p. 213.
  40. ^ "No. 30306". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 September 1917. p. 9945.
  41. ^ "No. 30450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 August 1885. p. 1.
  42. ^ "No. 30966". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 October 1918. p. 12483.
  43. ^ Senior 2023, pp. 5, 138–139.
  44. ^ French 1995, p. 234.
  45. ^ "No. 30784". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 July 1918. p. 8031.
  46. ^ "No. 31039". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 November 1918. p. 14099.
  47. ^ "No. 31039". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 November 1918. p. 14096.
  48. ^ "No. 31222". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 March 1919. p. 3283.
  49. ^ "No. 31514". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 August 1919. p. 10612.
  50. ^ "No. 31395". The London Gazette. 6 June 1919. p. 7423.
  51. ^ "No. 31451". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 July 1919. p. 8938.
  52. ^ "No. 31783". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 February 1920. p. 1935.
  53. ^ "No. 31833". The London Gazette. 23 March 1920. p. 3533.
  54. ^ "No. 32112". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 November 1920. p. 10732.
  55. ^ "Frederick Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan". Aldershot Military Museum. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  56. ^ "No. 32117". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 November 1920. p. 10834.
  57. ^ "No. 32505". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 November 1921. p. 8690.
  58. ^ "No. 32615". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 February 1922. p. 1489.
  59. ^ "(Frederic) Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan (1865-1946), Army commander". npg.org.uk.
  60. ^ Jeffery 2006, p278
  61. ^ a b c Cox, John G. E. (2004). "Frederick Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34379. Retrieved 21 January 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  62. ^ "Earl of Cavan (speech)". api.parliament.uk.
  63. ^ "No. 33119". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1925. p. 4.
  64. ^ "No. 33134". The London Gazette. 19 February 1926. p. 1243.
  65. ^ "No. 33058". The London Gazette. 19 June 1925. p. 4114.
  66. ^ "No. 33468". The London Gazette. 19 February 1929. p. 1193.
  67. ^ a b "No. 33292". The London Gazette. 8 July 1927. p. 4405.
  68. ^ "No. 33519". The London Gazette. 23 July 1929. p. 4849.
  69. ^ "No. 33886". The London Gazette. 25 November 1932. p. 7504.
  70. ^ "No. 34279". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 April 1936. p. 2768.
  71. ^ "No. 34453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 1937. p. 7081.
  72. ^ CWGC Cemetery Report
  73. ^ CWGC Casualty Report
  74. ^ a b c Mosley, p. 723
  75. ^ Cokayne, p. 121
  76. ^ a b Geoffrey Woollard (April 2006). "The Earl of Cavan". wheathampstead.net.
  77. ^ Hammond, p. 161
  78. ^ Search the Collection - Mark Frederic Kerr Longman (1916-1972), National Portrait Gallery, by Rex Coleman, 8 August 1962.
  79. ^ "Houghton Revisited". Vanity Fair. May 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  80. ^ "The Queen Returns". The Daily Sketch. 13 July 1955. pp. 8–10. Lady Elizabeth's pretty sister, Lady Joanna Lambart was at the Ball escorted by Mr. Derek Ash. The Hon. William Douglas Home and his wife

Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Doughty, Simon (2024). A Study in Leadership: A Study in Leadership: Field Marshal Cavan - the Reluctant Chief, 1865-1946. Helion. ISBN 978-1913336141.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 50th (Northumbrian) Division
June–August 1915 		Succeeded by
New post GOC Guards Division
1915–1916 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC-in-C Aldershot Command
1920–1922 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief of the Imperial General Staff
1922–1926 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Representative peer for Ireland
1915–1946 		Office lapsed
Preceded by Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
1929–1931 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Earl of Cavan
1900–1946 		Succeeded by
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