Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Birdwood

Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, CIE, DSO (13 September 1865 – 17 May 1951) was a First World War British general who is best known as the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915.

Youth and early career

Birdwood was born in Khadki, India and was educated in England at Clifton College, Bristol.

Military career

After attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he began his military career in the infantry with the Royal Scots Fusiliers but quickly transferred to a cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. In India between 1885 and 1899 he served with the 12th Lancers and Bengal Lancers, saw action on the North-West Frontier and was adjutant of the Viceroy's Bodyguard, his regimental base being Dehradun. He was married in 1894 and promoted to captain in 1896.

From 1899 to 1902 during the Boer War Birdwood served as military secretary on the staff of General Lord Kitchener, beginning a close association that continued in India while Kitchener was Commander-in-Chief, India. During the war he was Mentioned in Despatches five times. In 1908, he was given command of the Kohat Brigade on the North West Frontier.

He held the post of Quartermaster-General in India and was promoted to the rank of major-general in 1911. From 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War, Birdwood was the Secretary of the Indian Army Department and a member of the Governor-General's Legislative Council.

Gallipoli

In November 1914, Birdwood was instructed by Kitchener to form an army corps from the Australian and New Zealand troops that were training in Egypt before moving to the Western Front. This Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was diverted to the campaign to capture the Gallipoli peninsula and carried out the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915.

Under Birdwood's leadership, the soldiers of the corps showed great courage and endurance but had been landed on the wrong beach and were too ill-equipped to overcome the obstacles that confronted them. Birdwood was wounded in the forehead on 14 May 1915 and remained on duty. The Anzac front at Gallipoli remained a stalemate for much of the campaign except for a brief period during the Battle of Sari Bair in August.

The one outstanding success of the campaign was the evacuation, starting in December. Although Ottoman troops would not attack enemies while evacuating the front. However, Birdwood was the only corps commander opposed to abandoning Gallipoli. In the campaign's final throes, following the dismissal of the commander-in-chief, General Sir Ian Hamilton, Birdwood briefly took over command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was now responsible for the new front at Salonika as well. (Birdwood had been considered for command of the MEF when it was originally formed but because the commander of the French contingent was his senior in rank, Hamilton was appointed instead.)

Birdwood was promoted to lieutenant-general on 28 October 1915. On 19 November 1915, he took command of the Dardanelles Army, which contained ANZAC plus the British VIII Corps at Helles and British IX Corps at Suvla. While Birdwood managed the Dardanelles Army, the command of ANZAC passed to General Alexander Godley, commander of the New Zealand and Australian Division and head of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

In early 1916 the Australian and New Zealand contingents, back in Egypt, underwent reorganisation to incorporate the new units and reinforcements that had accumulated during 1915. ANZAC was disbanded to be replaced by two corps; I Anzac Corps and II Anzac Corps and Birdwood reverted to the command of II Anzac. Birdwood also assumed command of the AIF (that is, command of all Australian forces), a post originally held by Major-General Sir William Bridges who was killed at Gallipoli.

Western Front

When I Anzac Corps became the first to depart for France, Birdwood, as senior corps commander, took over command, swapping with General Godley who assumed command of II Anzac Corps. In France, where I Anzac joined the fighting in the Battle of the Somme, Birdwood was bypassed by his senior army commander, General Hubert Gough, who directly influenced how the Australian divisions were to be utilised.

Birdwood was promoted to full general on 23 October 1917 but remained a corps commander. Normally a general holds an army command. However, in November the five Australian divisions were combined in a single corps, the Australian Corps, under Birdwood's command. This corps was the largest on the Western Front. Birdwood attained command of the British Fifth Army on 31 May 1918, with command of the Australian Corps passing to Lieutenant-General John Monash. Birdwood remained in command of the Fifth Army until 30 November 1918.

Post war

The next year, he toured Australia to great acclaim, and in February 1920 he laid the foundation stone for the Arch of Victory in Ballarat.

He commanded the Northern Army in India until 1925, when he was promoted to field marshal and made Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, which he remained until 1930.

After leaving active service in 1930, Birdwood made a bid to become Governor-General of Australia. He had the backing of the King and the British government. However, the Australian Prime Minister James Scullin insisted that his Australian nominee Sir Isaac Isaacs be appointed. The King ultimately felt bound to accept the advice of the Prime Minister, but he did not disguise his reluctance and displeasure. The official proclamations of these appointments were usually phrased as "The King has been pleased to appoint ...", but on this occasion George V directed that it say merely "The King has appointed Sir Isaac Isaacs". This incident highlighted that Governors-General no longer primarily (if at all) represented the interests of the British government and confirmed the right of a Commonwealth Prime Minister to nominate the Governor-General of his choice.

He was appointed Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge on 20 April 1931, and resigned from this post in 1938. One of the buildings in the college is now named in his honour.

In 1935 he wrote for the Western Australian distance education magazine Our Rural Magazine alluding to the fact that he had two granddaughters using the system

In 1938 he was raised to the peerage in recognition of his wartime service as Baron Birdwood, of Anzac and of Totnes in the County of Devon (see victory title).

Birdwood died at Hampton Court Palace on 17 May 1951 and was buried at Twickenham Cemetery with full military honours. His field marshal's baton is in the Australian War Memorial.

Honours and awards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Birdwood#Honours_and_awards

Birdwood, William Riddell (Baron Birdwood) (1865–1951)
by A. J. Hill

This article was published:

in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7 , 1979
online in 2006
View Previous Version

William Riddell Birdwood (1865-1951), 1st Baron Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes, field marshal, was born on 13 September 1865 at Kirkee, India, second son of Herbert Mills Birdwood, under-secretary to the government of Bombay, and Edith Marion, daughter of Surgeon Major E. G. H. Impey of the Bombay Horse Artillery. Birdwood was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, England, from which he was commissioned early owing to the Russian war scare of 1885. He was posted to the 12th Lancers in India, transferring in 1887 to the 11th Bengal Lancers. In 1894 he married Jeannette Hope Gonville, daughter of the fourth Baron Bromhead of Lincoln.

By 1914 Birdwood was an experienced and successful officer. He had served in numerous North-West Frontier campaigns and in the South African War, and had held an important frontier command. He had been on Lord Kitchener's staff in South Africa and India, and later recognized Kitchener as 'the greatest influence on my life'. Awarded the D.S.O. and C.I.E. in 1908, he became major general in 1911 and was appointed C.B. He became secretary to the Army Department, government of India, and member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council in 1912, and was already regarded by some as a future commander-in-chief. However, the outbreak of war in Europe turned his career in a wholly unexpected direction.

In November 1914 Kitchener, as minister for war, gave Birdwood command of the forces raised by Australia and New Zealand for service in Europe. He reached Egypt, where they were assembling, on 21 December accompanied by a small, carefully chosen staff. From the beginning, Lieutenant-General Birdwood struck the note which was to characterize his command throughout the war; he left his staff to get on with their work and went among his troops.

Kitchener at first gave Birdwood command of the troops who were to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula in support of the fleet trying to force the passage of the Dardanelles. Birdwood's report, made after reconnoitring the Straits and discussions with the Royal Navy, convinced Kitchener that a greater military effort was needed; he allotted more troops and appointed General Sir Ian Hamilton to command. Hamilton, disregarding Birdwood's plans, ordered him to land north of Gaba Tepe on the Aegean side of the peninsula, simultaneously with other landings around Helles and on the Asian shore. He was to press inland and cut off the Turks in the southern part of the peninsula. Birdwood insisted on a silent attack before dawn to ensure surprise.

The covering force went ashore on 25 April, a mile north of the designated beach. The consequent confusion was aggravated by the abrupt and lofty ridges, narrow gullies, dense scrub and increasing Turkish resistance. By dark the force was disorganized, the men almost exhausted and their objectives still in enemy hands. The divisional commanders W. T. Bridges and A. J. Godley impressed on Birdwood their doubts about withstanding a counter-attack and urged him to make arrangements with the navy for re-embarkation. This he refused to do but agreed to place their views before Hamilton. The latter's firm refusal to withdraw and his injunction to 'dig, dig, dig until you are safe' ended the first crisis of the campaign.

The impression that Birdwood had made on the Anzacs in Egypt deepened during the seven months on the peninsula when the attackers became a besieged garrison. Daily the short, lean figure of their commander was seen in the front trenches, chatting with the soldiers, noting with professional eye what the amateurs had overlooked and giving orders for its amendment, sharing the risks but never the water that was offered because he knew that every drop had been carried up from the beach. He neither smoked nor drank any form of alcohol but refreshed himself by swimming daily off Anzac — the name he gave the landing place — in spite of enemy fire. 'Birdie's' serene courage won the admiration of all. His concern for the soldiers and his fighting spirit became important factors in Anzac morale. Robert Rhodes James states that his popularity 'was something of a newspaper myth' and quotes an unnamed Australian observer: 'He bored the men and they bored him'. Charles Bean, who saw Birdwood at close quarters throughout the war, does not confirm this view; nor does Birdwood's enthusiastic reception by Australians in London on Anzac Day 1916, nor his triumphal progress around Australia and New Zealand in 1920. Whatever the extent of his popularity, there is no doubt of the respect in which he was held for his courage and his example. In Hamilton's memorable phrase, he was 'the soul of Anzac'.

After Bridges died on 18 May 1915 Birdwood temporarily took command of the Australian Imperial Force, but was not formally appointed until 14 September 1916. He had suggested the move and, while admitting his ambition, it must be conceded that, from the standpoint of fairness and military efficiency, this decision was crucial to the future of the A.I.F. which in 1915 had expanded to two divisions and included troops under New Zealand command. Birdwood brought an Australian expert in personnel matters to his headquarters and in September chose Colonel (Sir) Brudenell White from 1st Division Headquarters as chief of staff. Thus began a military partnership which contributed markedly to the development of the A.I.F.

Birdwood's attacks in May and August were costly and mostly unsuccessful — hardly surprising, given the nature of the ground, the lack of depth in the Anzac position and the commanding heights occupied by the Turks. He had held this position against all Turkish efforts. When the question of evacuation was debated in November, Birdwood was the only senior officer opposed to it but it fell to him to command the brilliant operations whereby Suvla, Anzac and Helles were evacuated without loss in December and January. After expanding the A.I.F. to four divisions in Egypt, he sailed for France in command of the 1st Anzac Corps in March 1916.

In France, Birdwood's influence on the A.I.F. was no less important than in Egypt. Successfully resisting General Headquarters' attempt to take charge of Australian administration, he built up the A.I.F. base and training establishments in England and united the five Australian divisions in the Australian Corps. He insisted on retaining command of the A.I.F. in Egypt, but failed either to go himself or to send White to visit the Light Horse and other units.

Birdwood's policy was to appoint Australians to commands and staffs, but pressure from home forced him to accelerate the process. By 31 May 1918, when he handed over the corps to Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash, whom he had recommended as his successor, only one British officer remained in a senior command. Birdwood, who had been promoted general in 1917, went to command the Fifth Army much against his own wishes; he took White as chief of staff and to advise in Australian matters, as he still retained command of the A.I.F. Although most Australian generals supported this arrangement, there was strong opposition from Bean and (Sir) Keith Murdoch, the journalist and confidant of W. M. Hughes; they argued that Monash should command the A.I.F. and White the corps as, in their view, Birdwood could not command a British army and efficiently administer the A.I.F. In August Hughes offered Birdwood the administrative command full time and he accepted, while obtaining Hughes's agreement to his remaining with his army until 30 November.

Birdwood was appointed K.C.M.G. (1914), K C.S.I. (1915), K.C.B. (1917), G.C.M.G. (1919), and was created a baronet and granted £10,000 (1919). He was mentioned in dispatches frequently and awarded many foreign decorations. In the Australian Military Forces he was made a general (1920), field marshal (1925), and honorary colonel of the 3rd Infantry Battalion and the 16th Light Horse; he also received further British honours.

Birdwood toured Australia and New Zealand in 1920 after which he returned to the Indian Army, becoming commander-in-chief in 1925. He retired in 1930. An ambition of which he made no secret was thwarted when Sir Isaac Isaacs was made governor-general of Australia that year. King George V had wished to appoint Birdwood but Prime Minister Scullin insisted on an Australian. However, his election to the mastership of Peterhouse, Cambridge, England, in 1931 was an enjoyable coda to a long and distinguished career. In 1938 he was created Baron Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes.

Birdwood's success as a commander lay in the field of leadership rather than in tactics or organization. Nevertheless he was careful to choose able subordinates and the quality of his staffs was high. His choice of White, widely regarded as the outstanding Australian officer, strengthened his position in dealing with the Australians as well as with higher authority. If he lacked the tactical flair and imagination of General Allenby, he was a very competent professional who set and obtained high standards. In view of the reputation of the Australian Corps when he left it in May 1918, he must be accorded his share of the credit for creating so illustrious a force. Throughout the war he kept up a valuable correspondence not only with the governor-general, the prime minister and the minister for defence but also with bereaved or anxious families in Australia. He also wrote to officers who had been decorated or promoted. When Field Marshal Haig told White that he should command the corps, White's reply was significant: 'God forbid! General Birdwood has a position among Australians which is far too valuable to lose'.

Survived by a son and two daughters, Birdwood died at Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex, on 17 May 1951 and was buried in Twickenham cemetery with full military honours. His autobiography, Khaki and Gown, had been published in 1941 and a short book of reminiscences, In My Time, in 1946. Portraits are in the Australian War Memorial and the Royal Military College, Canberra, as well as the National Gallery of Victoria. A town in South Australia bears his name. His elder daughter married Colin Craig, a Western Australian grazier. The Craig family’s Mundabullangana station in the Pilbara region was the scene in the 1920s of the introduction of a species of grass, cenchrus setiger Vahl, native to north-east Africa and across to the Indian sub-continent, which was re-named after the field marshal. Intended to improve pasture in dry tropical and sub-tropical country, Birdwood grass has also come to be regarded as a weed in much of northern Australia.

Select Bibliography
C. E. W. Bean, The Story of Anzac (Syd, 1921, 1924), and The A.I.F. in France (Syd, 1929, 1933, 1937, 1942)
C. F. Aspinall-Oglander, Military Operations: Gallipoli, vols 1-2 (Lond, 1929, 1932)
R. R. James, Gallipoli (Syd, 1965)
E. Bush, Gallipoli (Lond, 1975)
Who Was Who 1951-1960 (Lond)
Birdwood and Pearce papers (Australian War Memorial)
Chauvel papers (held by Lady Chauvel, Melb)
Novar papers (National Library of Australia)
newsclippings, 1914-51 (Australian War Memorial).
Related Entries in NCB Sites
Hobbs, Joseph John Talbot (subordinate officer)go to ADB entry
Chauvel, Henry George (subordinate officer)go to ADB entry
Monash, John (subordinate officer)go to ADB entrygo to Obituaries Australia entry
Addison, Lancelot Mark (subordinate officer)go to People Australia entry
Pope, Harold (subordinate officer)go to ADB entrygo to Obituaries Australia entry
Elliott, Harold Edward (subordinate officer)go to ADB entrygo to Obituaries Australia entry
Sing, William Edward (subordinate officer)go to ADB entrygo to Obituaries Australia entry
Gower, Hereward Roderick (subordinate officer)go to Obituaries Australia entry
Citation details
A. J. Hill, 'Birdwood, William Riddell (Baron Birdwood) (1865–1951)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/birdwood-william-riddell-baron-bir..., published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 1 April 2023.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, (Melbourne University Press), 1979

View the front pages for Volume 7

William Birdwood, by James Quinn, 1919
William Birdwood, by James Quinn, 1919

Australian War Memorial, ART03338

Life Summary [details]
Alternative Names
Birdwood, first Baron
Birth
13 September, 1865
Khadki, Maharashtra, India

Death
17 May, 1951 (aged 85)
London, Middlesex, England