57 Facts About Eric Dorman-Smith

Brigadier Eric Edward "Chink" Dorman-Smith, who later changed his name to Eric Edward Dorman O'Gowan, was an Irish officer whose career in the British Army began in the First World War and closed at the end of the Second World War.

Liddell Hart, and many others, Eric Dorman-Smith tried to change the culture of the British Army and held a number of teaching and training roles in various parts of the British Empire.

Eric Dorman-Smith was born to a mixed-religion couple in Bellamont Forest, Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland.

Eric Dorman-Smith was received into the Catholic Church four days after his birth as a result of his Catholic mother's pleading.

Eric Dorman-Smith was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 1st Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers on 25 February 1914, just six months before the outbreak of the First World War.

Eric Dorman-Smith gained his nickname "Chink" on his first night in the officers' mess when his fellow subaltern, Richard Vachell, noted his resemblance to the chinkara antelope mascot that the regiment had had to leave behind when they moved back to England from India.

Eric Dorman-Smith was among the first troops of the British Expeditionary Force to arrive.

The battalion, and Eric Dorman-Smith himself, were involved in the Battle of Mons, where he was wounded in the retreat.

Eric Dorman-Smith was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 2 January 1915.

Eric Dorman-Smith returned to active service in July 1917 and was temporarily promoted to the acting rank of major on 16 October; he was made second-in-command of the 10th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, a Kitchener's Army battalion, then serving on the Western Front as part of the 68th Brigade of the 23rd Division.

In November 1917, Eric Dorman-Smith was posted as a captain to the Italian Piave Front on attachment to the 68th Brigade School, and from 4 April until 6 July 1918 he served as adjutant to the 12th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, another Kitchener's Army unit, serving in the same 68th Brigade of the 23rd Division.

Eric Dorman-Smith was mentioned in dispatches a second time on 30 May 1918 and was again promoted to the temporary rank of major on 7 July 1918.

Eric Dorman-Smith served as 2IC to the battalion and finished the war in Genoa, recovering from an attack of gastroenteritis, with a bar added to his MC.

Eric Dorman-Smith was posted to the Military Landing Staff at Taranto before returning to England as adjutant to the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Eric Dorman-Smith was mentioned in dispatches a third time on 9 January 1919.

Eric Dorman-Smith's battalion was part of the Curragh 5th Division and from its headquarters in Carlow, its role was to patrol the county of Kilkenny.

Eric Dorman-Smith discovered that his childhood nurse had married the local IRA brigadier and on one occasion, helped her bury a cache of hand grenades on the grounds of Bellamont Forest prior to a raid by the Black and Tans but otherwise remained politically neutral.

Eric Dorman-Smith witnessed the breakdown of transport and communications after the French sent troops into the Ruhr basin in January 1923 to enforce war reparations.

In 1927, Eric Dorman-Smith sat the entrance examination for the Staff College, Camberley.

Eric Dorman-Smith then became the first infantryman to hold the post of instructor of tactics at Chatham, the Royal Engineers' equivalent of the Staff College.

Eric Dorman-Smith encouraged Dorman-Smith to ignore the standard manuals and devise new tactical approaches.

Eric Dorman-Smith allied himself with Liddell Hart in a crusade against the use of horses in the army.

Eric Dorman-Smith devised an estimate of British casualties over the first year of a big war into three categories; 25 percent caused by enemy action, 25 percent by indifferent generalship and accidents of war, 50 percent by the Treasury.

Eric Dorman-Smith spent his leisure time devising with Philip Christison, one of his fellow students at the Staff College almost a decade before and then a fellow instructor, more up-to-date theories of supply, staff duties and tactical handling, only to be reprimanded by Major-General Lord Gort, the Commandant of the Staff College.

In Egypt, Eric Dorman-Smith clashed with his new command about his disregard for polo training and he was far from impressed by their military ability.

Eric Dorman-Smith tried, without success, to break down barriers between British and Egyptian companies, probably another campaign that would be held against this unconventional officer.

In India, he soon got to know the Commander-in-Chief's loyal aide, "Bunny" Careless, who developed an antipathy that might have re-surfaced when Eric Dorman-Smith was his brigade commander in Italy in 1944.

The occupant of the office next door to Eric Dorman-Smith was the Deputy Chief, General Staff, Claude Auchinleck.

In October 1940, over a year after the outbreak of the Second World War, Wavell, the C-in-C of Middle East Command, asked Eric Dorman-Smith to look into the feasibility of taking the offensive against the Italian forces who had invaded Egypt from Libya.

Eric Dorman-Smith is credited by historian Correlli Barnett with planning Operation Compass and with the discovery of a gap in the Italian lines south of Sidi Barrani.

Eric Dorman-Smith was then sent back to Haifa while the WDF carried out his daring plan with great success.

Eric Dorman-Smith conveyed several messages to Major-General Bernard Freyberg who was preparing the defence of Crete.

Eric Dorman-Smith's conclusion, following wide consultations, was that Ritchie was an excellent staff officer, but unsuited to his post and should be replaced.

Brooke had spoken to his former protege Ritchie and various other senior officers whom he knew from his days with the horse artillery and came to the conclusion that Eric Dorman-Smith was a poor advisor to Auchinleck,.

Eric Dorman-Smith had a most fertile brain, continually producing new ideas, some of which were good and the rest useless.

Eric Dorman-Smith never held any important military positions after this date.

Eric Dorman-Smith reverted to the rank of brigadier on 11 September 1942 and was appointed to command the 160th Infantry Brigade.

At the Staff College the two men had clashed, Eric Dorman-Smith frequently deriding him while Penney then believed that "Chink" would be a staff officer and one who should not command troops in battle and refused to change his opinion.

When Eric Dorman-Smith arrived in the Anzio beachhead, the fighting was reminiscent of the fighting on the Western Front almost 30 years before, with static warfare replacing the mobility that had existed in the Western Desert.

Eric Dorman-Smith's brigade spearheaded the 1st Division's advance up the western flank of Italy, along the way becoming engaged in numerous small-scale fights while trying to reach the River Tiber.

Eric Dorman-Smith's relief was the result of an allegation that his battalion commanders had complained about his leadership.

James Hackett wrote in 1984 that Eric Dorman-Smith was summoned by the divisional commander to give his opinion of his superior officer, a procedure that annoyed and offended him.

Lavinia Greacen's biography of Eric Dorman-Smith includes a summary of the differences between the three accounts of this episode made by Penney on various occasions.

Eric Dorman-Smith began to study in the library at University College, Dublin, after his application to read for a degree was rejected.

Eric Dorman-Smith did not inherit Bellamont Forest until his father died in March 1948 and his parents had long ceased to reside there, leading to the estate becoming run-down by the time he took it over but he had paid regular visits during the 20s and 30s.

Eric Dorman-Smith later became an IRA advisor to the IRA Executive during the 1950s Border Campaign.

Eric Dorman-Smith grew frustrated at not being made part of the decision-making process of the IRA and, when a raid on Omagh went wrong, he began to realise that the IRA did not meet his ideals of efficiency.

Eric Dorman-Smith was an unorthodox commander and has attracted contrasting opinions.

Eric Dorman-Smith sued Churchill, forcing him to amend The Hinge of Fate, part of his history of the Second World War, so that an implied slur on the fighting mettle of Auchinleck was removed.

Eric Dorman-Smith's next meeting with Hemingway after the latter's departure from Genoa in 1919, was in Paris in 1922, where "Chink" was spending his vacation with his parents.

Hemingway's first book, in our time, was dedicated to Eric Dorman-Smith and includes some anecdotes from "Chink's" memories of the Mons campaign.

Proof of the high esteem in which Hemingway held Eric Dorman-Smith is contained in his 1924 poem, To Chink Whose Trade is Soldiering.

However, after their next meeting in April 1926, when Eric Dorman-Smith was accompanying an army rugby team to Paris, they gradually drifted apart because of the stresses of Eric Dorman-Smith's military career and the changes in Hemingway's life.

Eric Dorman-Smith did not marry young and conducted a series of affairs until on 29 December 1927, he married Estelle Irene- the first wife of Thomas Reedham Berney; their union was childless.

Eric Dorman-Smith had a son and a daughter, Christopher and Rionagh and seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Eric Dorman-Smith's other brother Victor, was a Royal Navy Captain.

Eric Dorman-Smith died from stomach cancer on 11 May 1969 at Lisdarne hospital, Cavan, at the age of 73.