Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby 1861-1936

by Lawrence James

‘Bull’ Allenby, a cavalryman with a massive frame and ferocious temper, was the general who liberated Jerusalem in December 1917.

For this he became a public hero – that rare creature, a First World War commander who won battles. He won more in 1918 when, after a dazzling campaign, he conquered Syria and Lebanon. He had succeeded where Richard the Lionheart had failed, but his glory faded and he was superseded in the public imagination by his enigmatic protégé, T.E. Lawrence.

Allenby was an intriguing mass of contradictions. In private he was a gentle husband and father and a keen and well-informed naturalist who loved poetry and intelligent conversation; in public he was the ‘bull’, a short-tempered martinet who browbeat his subordinates and once, when asked to withdraw soldiers because the offensive was futile, barked, ‘What the hell does that matter? There are plenty more men in England!’

This is the first biography for over thirty years of Edmund Hynman Allenby, a Victorian gentleman soldier who made a name for himself hunting down Boer guerrillas. Success in the small wars of empire qualified him for high command on the Western Front, where he foundered trying to come to terms with the new technological warfare. Addicted to suicidal offensives, Allenby was dismissed by Haig when it became clear that he no longer trusted Haig’s judgements. This proved his lucky break, for he was transferred in 1917 to the Middle East where his unused talents were released.

Drawing extensively on unpublished material, this fine biography reassesses a general characterised by George Orwell as ‘the best of a bad lot’ and sheds new light on the high command in the First World War, the history of the Middle East, and on Allenby’s relations with Lawrence of Arabia.


’An excellent biography’ – The Spectator

‘The strength of Imperial Warrior is its author's grasp of history’ - Financial Times

Lawrence James has written on various aspects of nineteenth and twentieth-century imperial history; his works include The Golden The life and legend of Lawrence of Arabia and The Iron a military biography of the Duke of Wellington .

Genres: History

279 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Edwin James Lawrence, most commonly known as Lawrence James, is an English historian and writer.

James graduated with a BA in English & History from the University of York in 1966, and subsequently undertook a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, James became a full-time writer in 1985.

James has written several works of popular history about the British Empire, and has contributed pieces for Daily Mail, The Times and the Literary Review.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, nuanced and well-written biography of Allenby.

The book is written for the general reader. Accounts of battles and battlefield conditions in France and the Middle East are vivid and detailed. James notes that Allenby's success in the Middle East was also owed to superior manpower.

James ably describes Allenby’s military education and career, and his displays of courage, dedication and resourcefulness. He notes Allenby’s stagnating performance on the Western Front, where he adhered to the doctrines of French and Haig and fought a war that his background as a cavalryman had not prepared him for. James does credit him with steady nerves, but notes that Allenby often simply refused to accept realities, that his thinking wasn’t too original, and that his sense of duty always won out. James also ably explains the political complexities of the Palestine command, where Allenby represented a power with its own designs on the region that nevertheless presented itself as the guardian of Arab nationalism. James also notes that Allenby, never a natural diplomat, was content to leave these matters to others.

James also does a good job describing T.E. Lawrence’s contributions to Allenby’s campaign. Regarding the Arab forces’ contributions, James notes that many Arabs wanted no part of Feisal’s “movement,” that their contributions to the campaign were never as decisive as Lawrence claimed, that the Hashemite’s base of power was rickety, and that Lawrence’s Arab allies found themselves at odds with other Arabs, such as Ibn Saud and the Turks’ client Ibn Rashid. Some of them were also motivated by the acquisition of loot and British gold. Some of them operated against the Hejaz railway simply because it deprived them of their revenues from traveling pilgrims and increased the potential for Turkish meddling. Some tribes copied the Hashemites and happily took payments from both the British and the Turks.

James notes that Allenby was a rather private man, and that his lost diaries and cryptic letters pose a challenge to the biographer. Unlike other generals, Allenby mostly refrained from defending his reputation or record, and James mostly relies on the recollections of Allenby’s contemporaries.He also notes Allenby’s personas, showing how intelligent and amiable he could seem in private settings, and how short-tempered and intimidating he was as a commander.

James also describes Allenby’s flexibility, common sense, intelligence and intellectual curiosity, despite growing up in a military educational system that didn’t always seem to value these traits. James also notes his affable nature and how, over time as his career advanced, he became more ill-tempered, abrasive, and overbearing. These changes happened, James notes, as the Army prepared for a continental war and required new standards of efficiency and professionalism. James also notes that Allenby’s background as a cavalryman and his dynamic energy served him better in the Middle East than they did in France.

The book does have a few typos, and James assumes the reader can understand French. Other than that, a well-researched and balanced work.

[Roger Cottrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best works of military hitsory I have ever read.