68 Facts About Aylmer Hunter-Weston

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was born at Hunterston, West Kilbride, on 23 September 1864, the son of Lieutenant Colonel John Gould Read Aylmer Hunter-Weston and his second wife, who was the daughter and heir of the 25th Laird of Hunterston.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was on Major General Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener's staff on the Nile Expedition of 1896.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston later took part in the Second Boer War in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 as a staff officer, then as commander of the mounted engineers, then of the Royal Engineer Cavalry Division.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston then became deputy assistant adjutant general, then chief of staff, to Major General Sir John French's Cavalry Division, before going on to command a cavalry column.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston's mounted engineers cut Boer-controlled roads and railways, and cut the railway near Bloemfontein to prevent the Boers from reinforcing it.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was described as having "reckless courage combined with technical skill and great coolness in emergency", was mentioned in dispatches and received the Queen's South Africa Medal.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was a general staff officer with Eastern Command from 1904 to 1908.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was promoted to brevet colonel in November 1906, and to full colonel in June 1908, and served as a general staff officer, grade 1 with Scottish Command from then until 1911.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston held this position until February 1914 when he was promoted to temporary brigadier general and made general officer commanding of the 11th Infantry Brigade at Colchester, taking over from Major General Henry Heath.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston "often appeared in the most surprising places" and his handling of the brigade was "skilful".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston's was the first British unit to cross the Aisne, on a damaged bridge.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was one of the senior officers commanded to write regularly to the King to keep His Majesty informed of military developments.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston suggested that given the loss of surprise it might be better to call off the expedition.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston, supported by Admiral de Robeck, preferred a daylight landing at Helles.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston concentrated on V, W and X Beaches at the tip on the peninsula, less on S and Y beaches, which were intended merely to threaten the Turkish retreat.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston diverted the Essex Regiment from V to W Beach at 0830 hrs.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston did not reply to Hamilton's first offer to make more trawlers available to land more troops at Y Beach, where they had surprise and lack of opposition.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was still awaiting reports from V Beach at the time.

At 6:00 pm Marshall, the commander at X Beach, asked permission to advance to assist Y Beach, but after a delay of two hours Aylmer Hunter-Weston ordered him to stay put and advance the following day.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston did not mention Y Beach in his diary, and later concealed the evidence about it from Hamilton until July 1915.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston lent the French, the morale of whose African troops was in difficulties, the Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division and some Worcesters.

Milward, a British officer, wrote that Aylmer Hunter-Weston was cheerful and firm with the French.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston planned a three-pronged assault: 125th Brigade, part of the newly-arriving 42nd Division, on the left, a composite 88th Brigade in the centre, and the French on the right.

Hamilton would have preferred an attack just before dawn, but Aylmer Hunter-Weston, citing the loss of company officers, did not, and it is unclear that he was wrong.

Colonel Wolley Dod, a staff officer of 29th Division, later called Krithia "a mad adventure without the necessary artillery support" and "had some difference of opinion with Aylmer Hunter-Weston" about using the 125th Brigade again after their initial defeat.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston informed his wife that Hamilton thought him a great commander, worth a brigade of troops, which he explained to her was 4,000 men.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston wrote to the King's adviser Clive Wigram about how detachment was a necessary quality in a commander.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston proposed to break the stalemate by landing six New Army divisions at Enos on the west coast of Thrace.

Aubrey Herbert wrote in his private diary that Aylmer Hunter-Weston was "more hated than most of the generals".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston thought the sinking of the battleship HMS Majestic "a marvellous sight" and later thought the sinking of a French transport "a wonderful sight".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston's dugout, dug in June 1915 as protection from Turkish guns firing from near Troy was called "Baronial Hall".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston aimed to use the relatively fresh 52nd Division as his main offensive force, as the other three divisions of IX Corps were too worn out for much more than line-holding operations.

Maj-Gen Egerton, GOC 52nd division, later wrote that Aylmer Hunter-Weston "simply enunciated" his "positively wicked" plan, but that there was little discussion.

Hamilton later wrote to Aspinall of the Dardanelles Commission that Lady Aylmer Hunter-Weston had been told that her husband was being "sent home", normally a euphemism for sacking.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston wrote to Hamilton urging that he appoint commanders who would "push unrelentingly, push without ceasing, push without mercy", without regard to the "yelping" of subordinate commanders.

At a meeting at Dover, Aylmer Hunter-Weston was asked to lend his experience to discussions with Admiral Bacon, commander of the Dover Patrol, about Operation Hush a planned amphibious assault on the Belgian Coast.

In March 1916 Aylmer Hunter-Weston was again promoted to acting lieutenant-general and again placed in command of VIII Corps, which was re-established in France; he commanded it in the early months of the Somme Offensive.

Rees spent three days condensing this to a summary of eight pages and five maps, before having "a severe argument" with Aylmer Hunter-Weston to have the plan amended to allow his brigade an extra ten minutes to take an orchard just east of Serre.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston wished to detonate the mine four hours early, but this was vetoed by the Inspector of Mines at BEF GHQ, who pointed out that the British had a poor record of seizing craters before the Germans got there.

On 1 July 1916 it was Aylmer Hunter-Weston's divisions, attacking in the northern sector between the Ancre and the Serre, that suffered the worst casualties and failed to capture any of their objectives.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston's corps suffered 14,581 casualties on the first day.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston protested that he had not been "Stellenbosched".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston, who was the first Member of Parliament to simultaneously command an army corps on the field, continued to command VIII Corps but was not involved in another offensive.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston had the permission of General Sir Herbert Plumer, commander of the Second Army, to attend the Irish Home Rule debate in March 1917.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston handed over his sector to Maxse, GOC XVIII Corps, Cavan, GOC XIV Corps, Watts, GOC XIX Corps, and Jacob, GOC II Corps, in May 1917.

VIII Corps returned to the Ypres Salient after the main offensive ended and took part in a local operation on the night of Aylmer Hunter-Weston was deeply concerned at the problem of defending the ground which had been gained and wrote claiming that he would resign for the good of the Empire if Haig attempted to renew the offensive.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston spoke to subordinate generals "as if he was teaching a class of NCOs".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston warned Haig that some of his men had asked some visiting MPs if they were "Labour MPs" and had complained to them about the horrors of war and asked what they were fighting for.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston held a horseshow in August 1918, whilst the Battle of Amiens was in progress.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston played an active role leading his corps in the Hundred Days Offensive, revisiting the battlefield of Le Cateau and recollecting his successful handling of his brigade there.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was a regular inspector of trenches and machine gun positions.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston reconnoitred positions personally and on one occasion climbed into a fort on a rope ladder.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston thought him "a mountebank" and self-important, with the brain of an inexperienced boy and with a penchant for heroics.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was notorious for his interest in inspecting latrines.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston seems to have been regarded by his superiors as a "safe pair of hands" for receiving visiting dignitaries.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston frequently visited Belgian divisional and corps HQ, as well as, on occasion, Belgian GCQ, the Belgian Prime Minister, and once took the King of the Belgians on a tour of the British lines.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston received the Apostolic Delegate and Doyen of Ypres to dinner.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston laid on a lavish lunch for the Portuguese President Machado in October 1917, taking his party on a tour of the Messines battlefield, where the ground had been carefully seeded with interesting souvenirs for them to "find".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston had French President Poincare to lunch twice and in late 1918 accompanied him on a visit to recently liberated towns and villages.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston used to take visiting British politicians to a vantage point on Hill 63 to see the Ypres Battlefield.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston married Grace Strang Steel on 5 December 1905 at Selkirk; they had no children.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston continued in politics after the war, being elected again for Bute and Northern Ayrshire in 1918.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston was promoted to permanent lieutenant-general in January 1919.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston retired from parliament in 1935 and died, aged seventy-five, on 18 March 1940 following a fall from a turret at his ancestral home in Hunterston; he was survived by his wife.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston's diaries, typed up and accompanied by letters and newspaper cuttings, were deposited in the British Museum after his death.

Aylmer Hunter-Weston acquired a reputation as an eccentric man, prone to laughter.

Travers comments that VIII Corps staff work was poor, Aylmer Hunter-Weston had too much freedom at Krithia and attacks became "ritualistic".

Aylmer Hunter-Weston comments on his time as a Western Front commander that he was "an officer of intelligence, but lacking mental balance, given to extravagant and flamboyant gestures, and far too interested in irrelevant detail".