Post by Diarist on May 14, 2014 6:48:34 GMT 1
Early life
Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, on 17 November 1887, the fourth child of nine, to an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest, the Reverend Henry Montgomery, and his wife, Maud (née Farrar). Henry Montgomery, Vicar of St Mark's, Kennington, at that time, was the second son of the noted Indian civilian Sir Robert Montgomery, who died a month after his grandson's birth. He was probably a descendant of Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729). Bernard's mother, Maud, was the daughter of the preacher Frederic William Farrar and was eighteen years younger than her husband. After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park at Moville, County Donegal. However, there was still £13,000 to pay on a mortgage, a large debt in the 1880s, and Henry was at the time still only a parish priest. Despite selling off all the farms that were at Ballynally, "there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the blasted summer holiday".
It was a financial relief of some magnitude when, in 1889, Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a British colony, and Bernard spent his formative years here. The bishop considered it his duty to spend as much time as possible in the rural areas of Tasmania and was away for up to six months at a time. While he was away, his wife, still in her mid-twenties, gave her children "constant" beatings, then ignored them most of the time as she performed the public duties of the bishop's wife. Of Bernard's siblings, Sibyl died prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una all emigrated. Maud Montgomery took little active interest in the education of her young children other than to have them taught by tutors brought from England.
The family returned to England once for a Lambeth Conference in 1897, and Bernard and his brother Harold were educated for a term at The King's School, Canterbury. In 1901, Bishop Montgomery became secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the family returned to London. Montgomery attended St Paul's School and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he was almost expelled for rowdiness and violence. On graduation in September 1908 he was commissioned into the 1st Battalion The Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant, and first saw overseas service later that year in India. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910, and in 1912 became adjutant of the 1st Battalion of his regiment at Shorncliffe Army Camp.
The Great War
The Great War began in August 1914 and Montgomery moved to France with his regiment that month. He saw action at the Battle of Le Cateau that month and during the retreat from Mons. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul on 13 October 1914, during an Allied counter-offensive, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper. Montgomery was hit once more though, in the knee. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant leadership: the citation for this award, published in the London Gazette in December 1914 reads:
Conspicuous gallant leading on 13th October, when he turned the enemy out of their trenches with the bayonet. He was severely wounded.
After recovering in early 1915, he was appointed to be brigade major first of 112th Brigade and then with 104th Brigade under training in Lancashire. He returned to the Western Front in early 1916 as a general staff officer in the 33rd Division and took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. He became a general staff officer with IX Corps, part of General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army, in July 1917.
Montgomery served at the Battle of Passchendaele in Autumn 1917 before finishing the war as General Staff Officer 1 and effectively chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. A photograph from October 1918 shows the then unknown Lt.-Col. Montgomery standing in front of Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions) at the parade following the liberation of Lille.
The post-war years
After the Great War Montgomery commanded the 17th Battalion the Royal Fusiliers, a battalion in the British Army of the Rhine, before reverting to his substantive rank of captain (brevet major) in November 1919. He then attended the army's Staff College, Camberley, before being appointed Brigade Major in the 17th Infantry Brigade in January 1921. The brigade was stationed in County Cork carrying out counter-insurgency operations during the final stages of the Irish War of Independence.
Montgomery came to the conclusion that the conflict could not be won without harsh measures, and that self-government was the only feasible solution; in 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State and during the Irish Civil War, Montgomery wrote to Colonel Arthur Percival of the Essex Regiment:
Personally, my whole attention was given to defeating the rebels but it never bothered me a bit how many houses were burnt. I think I regarded all civilians as 'Shinners' and I never had any dealings with any of them. My own view is that to win a war of this sort, you must be ruthless. Oliver Cromwell, or the Germans, would have settled it in a very short time. Nowadays public opinion precludes such methods, the nation would never allow it, and the politicians would lose their jobs if they sanctioned it. That being so, I consider that Lloyd George was right in what he did, if we had gone on we could probably have squashed the rebellion as a temporary measure, but it would have broken out again like an ulcer the moment we removed the troops. I think the rebels would probably [have] refused battles, and hidden their arms etc. until we had gone.
In May 1923, Montgomery was posted to the Territorial 49th Division. He returned to the 1st Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1925 as a company commander. In January 1926, having been promoted to major in July 1925, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the Staff College, Camberley in the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel, a position he held until January 1929 by which time he had been made a (brevet lieutenant-colonel).
In 1927, he met and married Elizabeth Carver, née Hobart, widow of Oswald Carver, Olympic rowing medalist who was killed in the war. Their son, David, was born in August 1928.
He returned to 1st Royal Warwickshire Regiment again, as Commander of Headquarters Company in January 1929 and went to the War Office to help write the Infantry Training Manual in Summer 1929. In 1931 Montgomery was promoted to lieutenant-colonel commanding the 1st Battalion of The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and saw service in Palestine and India. He was promoted to colonel in June 1934 (seniority from January 1932). He attended and was then recommended to become an instructor at the Indian Army Staff College (now the Pakistan Army Staff College) in Quetta, British India.
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery,_1st_Viscount_Montgomery_of_Alamein
Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, on 17 November 1887, the fourth child of nine, to an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest, the Reverend Henry Montgomery, and his wife, Maud (née Farrar). Henry Montgomery, Vicar of St Mark's, Kennington, at that time, was the second son of the noted Indian civilian Sir Robert Montgomery, who died a month after his grandson's birth. He was probably a descendant of Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729). Bernard's mother, Maud, was the daughter of the preacher Frederic William Farrar and was eighteen years younger than her husband. After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park at Moville, County Donegal. However, there was still £13,000 to pay on a mortgage, a large debt in the 1880s, and Henry was at the time still only a parish priest. Despite selling off all the farms that were at Ballynally, "there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the blasted summer holiday".
It was a financial relief of some magnitude when, in 1889, Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a British colony, and Bernard spent his formative years here. The bishop considered it his duty to spend as much time as possible in the rural areas of Tasmania and was away for up to six months at a time. While he was away, his wife, still in her mid-twenties, gave her children "constant" beatings, then ignored them most of the time as she performed the public duties of the bishop's wife. Of Bernard's siblings, Sibyl died prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una all emigrated. Maud Montgomery took little active interest in the education of her young children other than to have them taught by tutors brought from England.
The family returned to England once for a Lambeth Conference in 1897, and Bernard and his brother Harold were educated for a term at The King's School, Canterbury. In 1901, Bishop Montgomery became secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the family returned to London. Montgomery attended St Paul's School and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he was almost expelled for rowdiness and violence. On graduation in September 1908 he was commissioned into the 1st Battalion The Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant, and first saw overseas service later that year in India. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910, and in 1912 became adjutant of the 1st Battalion of his regiment at Shorncliffe Army Camp.
The Great War
The Great War began in August 1914 and Montgomery moved to France with his regiment that month. He saw action at the Battle of Le Cateau that month and during the retreat from Mons. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul on 13 October 1914, during an Allied counter-offensive, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper. Montgomery was hit once more though, in the knee. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant leadership: the citation for this award, published in the London Gazette in December 1914 reads:
Conspicuous gallant leading on 13th October, when he turned the enemy out of their trenches with the bayonet. He was severely wounded.
After recovering in early 1915, he was appointed to be brigade major first of 112th Brigade and then with 104th Brigade under training in Lancashire. He returned to the Western Front in early 1916 as a general staff officer in the 33rd Division and took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. He became a general staff officer with IX Corps, part of General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army, in July 1917.
Montgomery served at the Battle of Passchendaele in Autumn 1917 before finishing the war as General Staff Officer 1 and effectively chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. A photograph from October 1918 shows the then unknown Lt.-Col. Montgomery standing in front of Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions) at the parade following the liberation of Lille.
The post-war years
After the Great War Montgomery commanded the 17th Battalion the Royal Fusiliers, a battalion in the British Army of the Rhine, before reverting to his substantive rank of captain (brevet major) in November 1919. He then attended the army's Staff College, Camberley, before being appointed Brigade Major in the 17th Infantry Brigade in January 1921. The brigade was stationed in County Cork carrying out counter-insurgency operations during the final stages of the Irish War of Independence.
Montgomery came to the conclusion that the conflict could not be won without harsh measures, and that self-government was the only feasible solution; in 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State and during the Irish Civil War, Montgomery wrote to Colonel Arthur Percival of the Essex Regiment:
Personally, my whole attention was given to defeating the rebels but it never bothered me a bit how many houses were burnt. I think I regarded all civilians as 'Shinners' and I never had any dealings with any of them. My own view is that to win a war of this sort, you must be ruthless. Oliver Cromwell, or the Germans, would have settled it in a very short time. Nowadays public opinion precludes such methods, the nation would never allow it, and the politicians would lose their jobs if they sanctioned it. That being so, I consider that Lloyd George was right in what he did, if we had gone on we could probably have squashed the rebellion as a temporary measure, but it would have broken out again like an ulcer the moment we removed the troops. I think the rebels would probably [have] refused battles, and hidden their arms etc. until we had gone.
In May 1923, Montgomery was posted to the Territorial 49th Division. He returned to the 1st Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1925 as a company commander. In January 1926, having been promoted to major in July 1925, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the Staff College, Camberley in the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel, a position he held until January 1929 by which time he had been made a (brevet lieutenant-colonel).
In 1927, he met and married Elizabeth Carver, née Hobart, widow of Oswald Carver, Olympic rowing medalist who was killed in the war. Their son, David, was born in August 1928.
He returned to 1st Royal Warwickshire Regiment again, as Commander of Headquarters Company in January 1929 and went to the War Office to help write the Infantry Training Manual in Summer 1929. In 1931 Montgomery was promoted to lieutenant-colonel commanding the 1st Battalion of The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and saw service in Palestine and India. He was promoted to colonel in June 1934 (seniority from January 1932). He attended and was then recommended to become an instructor at the Indian Army Staff College (now the Pakistan Army Staff College) in Quetta, British India.
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery,_1st_Viscount_Montgomery_of_Alamein