66 Facts About Edmund Allenby

Edmund Allenby fought in the Second Boer War and in the First World War, in which he led the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the conquest of Palestine.

Edmund Allenby's forces occupied the Jordan Valley during the summer of 1918, then went on to capture northern Palestine and defeat the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group's Eighth Army at the Battle of Megiddo, forcing the Fourth and Seventh Army to retreat towards Damascus.

Edmund Allenby continued to serve in the region as High Commissioner in Egypt from 1919 until 1925, a position that meant he effectively ruled Egypt during this period.

Edmund Allenby had no great desire to be a soldier, and tried to enter the Indian Civil Service but failed the entry exam.

Edmund Allenby sat the exam for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1880 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 6th Dragoons on 10 May 1882.

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Edmund Allenby was more popular with fellow officers, even being made Master of the Draghounds in preference to Haig who was the better rider; Edmund Allenby had already developed a passion for polo.

Edmund Allenby was promoted to major on 19 May 1897 and was posted to the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, then serving in Ireland, as the Brigade-Major in March 1898.

Edmund Allenby took part in the actions at Colesberg on 11 January 1900, Klip Drift on 15 February 1900 and Dronfield Ridge on 16 February 1900, and was mentioned in despatches by the commander-in-chief, Lord Roberts on 31 March 1900.

Edmund Allenby participated in the actions at Zand River on 10 May 1900, Kalkheuval Pass on 3 June 1900, Barberton on 12 September 1900 and Tevreden on 16 October 1900 when the Boer General Jan Smuts was defeated.

Edmund Allenby was promoted to local lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1901, and to local colonel on 29 April 1901.

Edmund Allenby returned to Britain in 1902 and became commanding officer of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers in Colchester with the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 2 August 1902, and the brevet rank of colonel from 22 August 1902.

Edmund Allenby was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel and to the temporary rank of brigadier general on 19 October 1905.

Edmund Allenby assumed command of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in 1906.

Edmund Allenby was promoted again to the rank of major-general on 10 September 1909 and was appointed Inspector-General of Cavalry in 1910 due to his extensive cavalry experience.

Edmund Allenby was nicknamed "The Bull" due to an increasing tendency for sudden bellowing outbursts of explosive rage directed at his subordinates, combined with his powerful physical frame.

Edmund Allenby stood 6'2 with a barrel chest and his very bad temper made "The Bull" a figure who inspired much consternation among those who had to work under him.

One of Edmund Allenby's subordinates claimed at the time: "He cannot explain verbally, with any lucidity at all, what his plans are".

Edmund Allenby was promoted to temporary lieutenant general on 10 October 1914.

On 6 May 1915, Edmund Allenby voluntarily left the Cavalry Arm to take up command of V Corps which was engaged at that moment in severe fighting at the Second Battle of Ypres.

In October 1915, Edmund Allenby was promoted to lead the British Third Army, being made lieutenant-general on 1 January 1916.

Edmund Allenby harboured doubts about the leadership of the commander of the BEF, General Sir Douglas Haig, but refused to allow any of his officers to say anything critical about Haig.

Edmund Allenby had wider interests than many other British generals, reading books on every conceivable subject from botany to poetry and was noted for his critical intellect.

Edmund Allenby cannot suffer fools gladly and demands an unequivocal affirmative or negative to every query he makes.

Edmund Allenby has a habit of asking questions on the most abstruse subjects, and an unpleasant knack of catching out anyone who gives an evasive answer for the sake of politeness.

Many of Edmund Allenby's officers believed that he was incapable of any emotion except rage, but he was a loving father and husband who was intensely concerned about his only child, Michael, who was serving at the front.

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In early 1917, Edmund Allenby was ordered by Haig to start preparations for a major offensive around the city of Arras.

Edmund Allenby rejected the normal week-long bombardment of the German trenches before making an assault, instead planning on a 48-hour bombardment before the assault went ahead.

In March 1917, the Germans pulled back to the Hindenburg Line, which led Edmund Allenby to argue that the planned offensive in the Arras sector in April should be changed, a request Haig refused.

Edmund Allenby was promoted to full General on 3 June 1917, but he was replaced at the head of 3rd Army on 9 June 1917 and returned to England.

Edmund Allenby believed his new assignment to be a joke, because he still believed that the war would be decided on the Western Front.

On 31 July 1917, he received a telegram from his wife saying that Michael Edmund Allenby had been killed in action, leading to Edmund Allenby's breaking down in tears in public while he recited a poem by Rupert Brooke.

Edmund Allenby assessed the Turkish Army's fighting force that he was facing to be 46,000 rifles and 2,800 sabres, and estimated that he could take Jerusalem with 7 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions.

Edmund Allenby did not feel that there was a sufficient military case to do so, and felt that he would need reinforcements to advance further.

Edmund Allenby understood the problems posed by logistics in the desert and spent much time working to ensure his soldiers would be well supplied at all times, especially with water.

Edmund Allenby saw the importance of good medical treatment and insisted that proper medical facilities be created to treat all of the diseases common to the Middle East like ophthalmia and enteric fever.

Edmund Allenby was eventually ordered to attack the Turks in southern Palestine, but the extent of his advance was not yet to be decided, advice which Robertson repeated in "secret and personal" notes.

Edmund Allenby quickly won the respect of his troops by making frequent visits to the EEF's front-line units, in a marked change from the leadership style of his predecessor Murray, who had commanded primarily from Cairo.

Edmund Allenby moved the EEF's GHQ from the Egyptian capital city to Rafah, nearer to the front lines at Gaza, and re-organized the disparate forces of the EEF into a three primary corps order of battle: XX, XXI, and the Desert Mounted Corps.

Edmund Allenby approved the utilisation of Arabic irregular forces which were operating at that time to the Turkish Army's open left flank in the Arabian interior, under the direction of a young British Army Intelligence officer named T E Lawrence.

Edmund Allenby sanctioned £200,000 a month for Lawrence to facilitate his work amongst the tribes involved.

Edmund Allenby's estimate was that he would need 13 extra divisions and that he might face 18 Turkish and 2 German divisions.

Edmund Allenby received Christian, Jewish and Muslim community leaders in Jerusalem and worked with them to ensure that religious sites of all three faiths were respected.

Edmund Allenby sent his Indian Muslim soldiers to guard Islamic religious sites, feeling that this was the best way of reaching out to the Muslim population of Jerusalem.

Edmund Allenby dismounted and entered the city on foot through the Jaffa Gate, together with his officers, in deliberate contrast to the perceived arrogance of the Kaiser's entry into Jerusalem on horseback in 1898, which had not been well received by the local citizens.

Edmund Allenby did this out of respect for the status of Jerusalem as the Holy City important to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

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Edmund Allenby stated that "The importance of Jerusalem lay in its strategic importance, there was no religious impulse in this campaign".

In May 1918, Edmund Allenby publicly met with Chaim Weizmann and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in Jerusalem.

Edmund Allenby shaking hands with Weizmann after the delivery of the speeches.

Edmund Allenby told Smuts of Robertson's private instructions that there was no merit in any further advance.

German spring offensive on the Western Front meant that Edmund Allenby was without reinforcements after his forces failed to capture Amman in March and April 1918.

Edmund Allenby halted the offensive in the spring of 1918 and had to send 60,000 men to the Western Front, although the Dominion Prime Ministers in the Imperial War Cabinet continued to demand a strong commitment to the Middle East in case Germany could not be beaten.

Edmund Allenby was made a field marshal on 31 July 1919, and created Viscount Edmund Allenby, of Megiddo and of Felixstowe in the County of Suffolk, on 7 October.

Edmund Allenby persuaded the Colonial Office to allow Zaghlul and his delegation, from the Wafd, to travel to France.

The following year Edmund Allenby travelled to London with proposals which he insisted be implemented.

Edmund Allenby's response was draconian and included a humiliating £500,000 fine to be paid by the Egyptian Government.

Edmund Allenby was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers on 12 September 1925 and made Captain of Deal Castle.

Murray and Edmund Allenby were invited to give lectures at Aldershot in 1931 about the Palestine Campaign.

Edmund Allenby avoided that question, but commented that in 1917 and into the spring of 1918 it had been far from clear that the Allies were going to win the war.

Edmund Allenby's views mirrored those of the War Cabinet at the time.

Edmund Allenby went to Patagonia for a last fishing trip, aged 74, to see if the salmon really were as big as those in the Tay.

Edmund Allenby died suddenly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm on 14 May 1936 at his house in Kensington, London, at the age of 75 years.

Edmund Allenby's body was cremated, and his ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey.

On Edmund Allenby's death, leaving no direct issue, his title passed to his nephew Lt-Col.

Edmund Allenby enjoyed a period of celebrity in the United States, as well.

Epic film Lawrence of Arabia depicts the Arab Revolt during World War I Allenby is given a major part in it and is portrayed by Jack Hawkins in one of his best-known roles.

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British journalist Mark Urban has argued that Edmund Allenby is one of the most important British generals who ever lived, writing that Edmund Allenby's use of air power, mechanised forces and irregulars led by Lawrence marked one of the first attempts at a new type of war while at the same time he had to act as a politician holding together a force comprising men from many nations, making him "the first of the modern supreme commanders".