Claverley All Saints - William Forbes Gatacre memorial

Lieutenant-General Sir William Forbes Gatacre (3 December 1843 – 18 January 1906) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

soldier who served between 1862 and 1904 in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. He commanded the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Division at the

Battle of Omdurman The Battle of Omdurman was fought during the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan between a British–Egyptian expeditionary force commanded by British Commander-in-Chief ( sirdar) major general Horatio Herbert Kitchener and a Sudanese army of the ...

and the 3rd Division during the first months of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, during which time he suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Stormberg.

Early life

William Forbes Gatacre was born at

Herbertshire Castle Herbertshire Castle was a castle built in the Barony of Herbertshire in the early fifteenth century, located near Dunipace, Falkirk, central Scotland. It is said once to have been a royal hunting station.OS name Book, Stirlingshire OS Name Book ...

, near

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

on 3 December 1843. He was the third son of Edward Lloyd Gatacre, of Gatacre in the parish of

Claverley Claverley is a village and civil parish in east Shropshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlets of Beobridge, Hopstone, Upper Aston, Ludstone, Heathton and a number of other small settlements. Claverley village is east of the market to ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, and Jessie Forbes, whose father William Forbes owned Herbertshire Castle. He was educated at the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

, and entered the army as an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

of the

77th Foot The 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot (The Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line regiment of the British Army, raised in 1787. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cam ...

in 1862, posted to

. He purchased the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

on 23 December 1864.

Military career

He reached the rank of captain by purchase on 7 December 1870, before the purchase of commissions was abolished in the early 1870sReid 2006, p51 and passed into

Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For e ...

in 1873. Between 1875 and 1879 he returned to Sandhurst as an instructor of surveying. He then returned to India with his regiment in 1880, being promoted to major on 23 March 1881. On 29 April 1882 he was promoted to

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

and appointed to command a battalion on 28 June 1884 until he was made Deputy Quartermaster General in December 1885. After service in the

Hazara Expedition of 1888 The Hazara Expedition of 1888, also known as the Black Mountain Expedition or the First Hazara Expedition, was a military campaign by the British against the tribes of Kala Dhaka (then known as the Black Mountains of Hazara) in the Hazara region ...

, and command of the Mandalay brigade during the Tonhon expedition in Burma in 1889–90, Gatacre gained the substantive rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

and became Adjutant-General of the Bombay Army with local rank of

major-general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

on 25 November 1890. While serving as a major-general in India in the early 1890s he was bitten by a jackal whilst hunting with the Bombay Jackal Club and, temporarily deranged, had his bungalow windows barred against jackals. He was put in command of a second class district in India in January 1894. In the following year he commanded the Third Brigade of the Chitral Relief Force, and was mentioned in Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Low's dispatch of 1 May 1895. As Chairman of the Bombay Plague Committee he prepared the 3 volume 1896-7 ''Report on the Bubonic Plague of Bombay''. He returned home to command a brigade at Aldershot Command in August 1897. Gatacre was selected to command the

forces during the reconquest of the Sudan, serving under General Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army. In the Sudan, he commanded the British Brigade at the

Battle of Atbara The Battle of Atbara also known as the Battle of the Atbara River took place during the Second Sudan War. Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated 15,000 Sudanese rebels, called Mahdists or Dervishes, on the banks of the River Atbara. The battle proved to ...

in April 1898, and a division of two British brigades at the

. Returning to England, he served as General Officer Commanding Eastern District from December 1898 to October 1899. At the outbreak of the

, Gatacre was placed at the head of the 3rd division, with the rank of lieutenant-general. He was the commanding general of the Imperial forces at the Battle of Stormberg, during "Black Week", in which 135 men were killed and 696 captured in an

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mo ...

. His reputation, high after Omdurman, sank after Stormberg, and he returning to England and to his pre-war posting as General Officer Commanding Eastern District from June 1900 to December 1903. He retired in 1904. In 1906 he embarked on a trading expedition through

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ar, السودان الإنجليزي المصري ') was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt in the Sudans region of northern Africa between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day ...

. He died of fever near

Gambela, Ethiopia Gambela ( am, ጋምቤላ), also spelled Gambella, is a city and separate woreda in Ethiopia and the capital of the Gambela Region. It was known as Paanywaa( Anyuak Country) Located in Anyuak Zone, at the confluence of the Openo River and its ...

, an Anglo-Sudanese enclave leased by Emperor

Menelik II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew ( Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...

, where Britain was in the process of establishing a port and customs station. Gatacre had a reputation of working his men hard, with his energetic style of leadership leading to subordinate officers often resenting him for not letting them get on with their jobs in their own way. The ordinary soldiers called him "General Backacher" but recognised that his activities were generally benevolent and on the whole thought well of him.

Family

His elder brother was Major-General Sir John Gatacre who served in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

. William Gatacre married twice, first in 1876 to Alice Susan Louisa, third daughter of Anthony La Touche Kerwen, Dean of Limerick. After they divorced in 1892, he remarried in 1895 to Beatrix, daughter of

Horace Davey, Baron Davey Horace Davey, Baron Davey, PC, FRS, FBA (30 August 183320 February 1907) was an English judge and Liberal politician. Background and education Davey was the son of Peter Davey, of Horton, Buckinghamshire and Caroline Emma Pace, and was bo ...

. He had three sons by his first marriage. The youngest, Major John Kirwan Gatacre, who had been educated at Rugby and Sandhurst, and posted to the

where he served with 11th King Edward's Own Lancers (Probyn's Horse), was killed in action in France on 13 October 1914 whilst attached to

4th Queen's Own Hussars The 4th Queen's Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. It amalgamated with the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, to f ...

. Gatacre's widow, Lady Beatrix Gatacre wrote his biography in ''General Gatacre: The story of the life and services of Sir William Forbes Gatacre, K.C.B., D.S.O. 1843-1906'' (London, 1910).

Awards

*7 December 1888: awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

. *24 January 1896: made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). *15 November 1898: CB upgraded to

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

. *10 May 1899: awarded the

Order of the Medjidie Order of the Medjidie ( ota, نشانِ مجیدی, August 29, 1852 – 1922) is a military and civilian order of the Ottoman Empire. The Order was instituted in 1851 by Sultan Abdulmejid I. History Instituted in 1851, the Order was awarded in f ...

Second Class. *23 May 1900: awarded the Gold

Kaisar-i-Hind Medal The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for Public Service in India was a medal awarded by the Emperor/Empress of India between 1900 and 1947, to "any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex ... who shall have distinguished himself (o ...

for services as Chairman of the plague committee of Bombay City 1896 & 1897. *His memorial, shown above, confirms he was also a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gatacre, William Forbes 1843 births 1906 deaths Academics of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst British Army lieutenant generals Middlesex Regiment officers 77th Regiment of Foot officers British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British military personnel of the Chitral Expedition Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst People from Falkirk (council area) Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Recipients of the Order of the Medjidie, 2nd class