Major-General Arthur Edmund Sandbach (30 July 1859 – 25 June 1928) was a

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 Gur ...

general officer who served in the Royal Engineers and on the General Staff, eventually rising to command the 68th (2nd Welsh) and 59th (2nd North Midland) Divisions during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

Early career

Arthur Edmund Sandbach was born on 30 July 1859, the third son of Henry Robertson Sandbach of Hafodunos Hall in

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnew ...

, a wealthy Anglo-Welsh landowner. Sandbach was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Si ...

, following which he was commissioned in the Royal Engineers as a Lieutenant on 6 April 1879. He served in the

Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. ...

of 1882, seeing action at the

Battle of Tel-el-Kebir The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British ...

, the 1885

Sudan Campaign The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...

, the 1886–87 Burmese Expedition, and the Sikkim Expedition of 1888. He was promoted to Captain on 1 April 1889, and in 1891 served as the aide-de-camp to Major-General

Elles Elles is a surname, and may refer to: * Bertram Walter Elles (1877–1963), British colonial civil servant * Diana Elles, Baroness Elles (1921–2009), British lawyer and peer *Sir Edmond Elles (1848–1934), British Army lieutenant general * Ger ...

, commanding the Hazara Expedition of 1891. He was promoted to Major in November 1897, and during the

Nile Expedition The Nile Expedition, sometimes called the Gordon Relief Expedition (1884–85), was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. Gordon had been sent to the Sudan to help Egyptians evacuate from Sudan a ...

of 1898 he held the post of assistant adjutant-general in the Egyptian army, where he was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

and appointed a brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. On returning from Egypt at the start of 1899, Sandbach was appointed as the Military Secretary to the Viceroy of India, a post he held until November, when the outbreak 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 ...

meant that he was sent to South Africa. He worked on the staff in South Africa as an assistant adjutant-general, for which he was 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, typi ...

as well as a second mention in despatches. Returning from South Africa in 1902, he married the Hon. Ida Douglas-Pennant, a daughter of

George Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn (30 September 1836 – 10 March 1907), was a landowner who played a prominent part in the Welsh slate industry as the owner of the Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales. Life He was born at Linton ...

, with whom he would have one daughter. In 1904, he returned again to India where he was appointed to command the 1st Sappers and Miners, the senior Indian engineer regiment. Accordingly, he was promoted to the brevet rank of Colonel in February 1904, and the substantive rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1905. In 1907 he relinquished command of the 1st Sappers, and returned to England, where he was appointed Officer Commanding Royal Engineers at Aldershot and took the (partly honorary) position as chair of a

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

county association. In 1910, he transferred to Irish Command as the Chief Engineer. In this post, he was given a substantive promotion to Colonel and a temporary rank of Brigadier-General.

First World War

Sandbach was still holding his post at Irish Command on the outbreak of the

in August 1914. While he officially remained Chief Engineer in Ireland until 5 October, he was in fact appointed to accompany the British Expeditionary Force to France, as the Commander Royal Engineers in II Corps. He was promoted to Major-General in October 1914, and with the expansion of the Expeditionary Force in early 1915, he was appointed as Chief Engineer of Second Army, but was recalled in April 1915 to act as the temporary Inspector of Royal Engineers. In November 1915, Sandbach was appointed to command the

68th (2nd Welsh) Division The 2nd Welsh Division was a 2nd Line Territorial Force division of the British Army in the First World War. The division was formed as a duplicate of the 53rd (Welsh) Division in January 1915. As the name suggests, the division recruited in Wa ...

, a second-line Territorial unit on home defence duties in England. He handed over command in February 1916 on his transfer to the

59th (2nd North Midland) Division The 59th (2nd North Midland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army during World War I. It was formed in late 1914/early 1915 as a 2nd Line Territorial Force formation raised as a duplicate of the 46th (North Midland) Division. Af ...

, another reserve unit. The 59th was the "mobile division" in the Home Army, held in readiness to combat a landing along the East Coast; when the Easter Rising broke out in Dublin on 24 April 1916, it was ordered into immediate readiness and despatched to Ireland. Here, units of the division – many with only a few weeks' training – were hastily thrown into combat, some taking heavy casualties; the 2/7th and 2/8th Sherwood Foresters lost over two hundred men killed or wounded at Mount Street on 26 April and at the South Dublin Union on 27 April. After the end of fighting in Dublin, the 59th moved to the

Curragh The Curragh ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the ...

for further training, and was returned to England at the end of the year. In February 1917, the 59th Division was ordered to the Western Front, despite concerns that its training schedule had been disrupted by service in Ireland. It was deployed during the

Advance to the Hindenburg Line The Hindenburg Line (German: , Siegfried Position) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916–1917 on the Western Front during the First World War. The line ran from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne. In 191 ...

in March–April 1917, where it took unexpectedly high losses. Sandbach was relieved of command on 10 April, felt by his superiors to be too old for command of a front-line division.Robbins, Simon (2005). ''British Generalship on the Western Front 1914–18: Defeat into Victory''. Routledge. He was not given a further service appointment. Following the War, Sandbach was appointed as a Justice of the Peace in

Montgomeryshire , HQ= Montgomery , Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin= , Status= , Start= , End= ...

, where he lived, and in 1919 served as the county's High Sheriff. He died on 25 June 1928 at 57 Manchester Street, Marylebone.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandbach, Arthur 1859 births 1928 deaths British Army major generals Military personnel from Denbighshire Welsh justices of the peace People educated at Eton College Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich British Army generals of World War I Royal Engineers officers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Bath People from Montgomeryshire British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British military personnel of the Sikkim expedition