India. Army; World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- India
To prove how little was known about us at G.H.Q.; during an important
action Anderson was placed under the orders of a junior General of a
British Division, and informed that the officer concerned had been given
the temporary rank of Lieut.-General. But Anderson was already a
Lieut.-General, which Headquarters had evidently been quite unaware of,
for the order directed that “Major-General Anderson, etc., etc.” As four
of the Army Corps were at this time commanded by Generals all junior to
him, it was going a bit strong to reduce him still further. I think I am
correct in saying that Anderson was the only Corps Commander of those
days who was not given any French or foreign decoration, nor did he ever
get one.
Anderson’s Chief Staff-Officer was Colonel C. W. Jacob of the Indian
Army. A very thorough officer, who later commanded the Dehra Dun Brigade
and the Meerut Division, and on the departure of the Indians from France
was given a British Army Corps with the rank of Lieut.-General.
Brigadier-General H. D’U. Keary of the Indian Army led the Garhwal
Brigade. A bold horseman and good sportsman who had often first passed
the post, ridden down the wiry black buck, landed record fish in the
upper waters of the Irriwaddy, and shot every kind of game, Keary
impressed one by his quiet manner. He assumed command of the Lahore
Division in January 1915, and at the second battle of Ypres gained the
unstinted praise of General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, then in command of
the Second Army. Keary took his Division to Mesopotamia, earned his
K.C.B. and K.C.I.E., and characteristically refused command of a
Division in India, preferring to serve on in the field with the men he
had led in action. Later he was given the Meerut Division in India and
transferred to the Burmah command.
Brigadier-General C. E. Johnson, Indian Army, was in command of the
Dehra Dun Brigade, and later commanded a Brigade in India; and the last
of the Indian Brigades, the Bareilly, had for its Chief, Major-General
Forbes Macbean, formerly of the Gordon Highlanders, who had served in
Kabul, Tirah (where he was severely wounded), and South Africa.
The Artillery of the Division was in the competent hands of
Brigadier-General A. B. Scott. He had served in South Africa, and later
received his promotion to Major-General and command of a Division.
Lieut.-Colonels P. Twining and C. Coffin were the heads of the
engineering branches of the two Divisions, and those who knew them felt
safe in their hands.
The Field Brigades of Artillery were commanded by Colonels L. G. F.
Gordon, Ouseley, and Maxwell in the Lahore, and L. A. Gordon, Potts, and
Tyler in the Meerut Division.
Lieut.-General Sir Locke-Elliott, who had retired from the Indian Army
after holding the appointment of Inspector-General of Cavalry, was at
first attached to the Army Corps as Technical Adviser, and later on for
all Indian troops in France. Locke-Elliott’s name as a horseman was a
household word in India.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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