At
the War Book Club meeting on September 4th, after Dwight Mercer’s review of
Bill Stewart’s 2015 book on Sir Richard Turner VC, question arose from the
members regarding what other Canadian Great War generals have not been properly
researched and biographed?
Dwight
agreed to send the following question to a number of acquaintances who are
Canadian Great War scholars.
QUESTION: Who are the top 5 Canadian
Great War generals who have not been properly researched and written
about?
Can each of you rank them in importance of
receiving attention?
He
received replies from Bill Stewart, Tim Cook and Andrew Godefroy:
Bill Stewart:
An
interesting question but one that is fraught with definitional challenges. Does
Canadian include generals regardless of nationality who served in the corps or
is strictly restricted to native Canadians? Is it restricted to officers who
have no studies done on them. For
instance, Loomis, Watson, and Macdonell have articles published on them but do
not dive deep into their careers. A further challenge is that almost all the
remaining officers have little to no archival information available or at least
are known today. There may be more lurking out there but it would be hard to
assemble a decent book on Watson or Burstall giving the paucity of information
on them.
My
list would be if we ignore the nationality of those who served in the Canadian
military and those for who we have not even an article, but who were important
to the development of the CEF. In no particular rank order:
-MG Willoughby Gwatkin who was the Chief of the General Staff of the
Canadian Militia through the entire war period. Gwatkin was English. Almost
nothing is known of what happened in Canada outside of Hughes’ antics
-MG Louis Lipsett 3rd CID- arguably one of the best of the division
commanders that although English served with the corps almost to the end of the
war. His relationship with Currie would be a fascinating topic to explore. My
research on Second Arras shows him as an outstanding commander.
-MG Burstall 2 CID and GOCRA - Burstall commanded the 2nd CID for almost
18 months and prior to that the corps artillery but little is known of him. He
was an important figure.
-MG EWB Morrison - GOCRA - an important figure at the formation of the
artillery of the CEF which contributed to its excellence. Although often
derided as not too bright it is clear from my research that the Canadian
artillery improved significantly under Morrison far more than Burstall.
-BG Percy de B Radcliffe - BGGS of the Canadian Corps through the period
of its greatest developments. The extent to which the learning organization
that was the corps was due to him is unclear, but it was obviously highly
regarded by the Canadians and the British as he moved to the position of DMO at
the War Office in the spring of 1918. We know very little about him and his
role in mentoring and developing Currie.
If
Brits are excluded the list would contain:
-
Burstall
-
Morrison
-MG Fred Loomis - who ended up commanding the 3rd Division. Apparently
not a particularly likeable person he was ambitious and Currie saw something in
him that others might not have seen. He as a diary but it is not reflective and
often quite dull.
-MG David Watson - a better political operative than a general. His
division seemed dropped in the soup more
than other formations. His tight conservative connections and loans to Currie
meant he was untouchable. He was arguably the weakest of the long-term division
commanders but a full biography on him would expose the underside of the CEF
and the role of politics especially in its first two years of the war. He
has a diary but it would thin gruel to base a book on.
-Batty Mac Macdonell - GOC 1st CID - the most colourful of Canadian
generals. He seems at times almost unhinged but how much of that was a role he
was playing and how much was it real is unclear to me. Still he created the
strongest of the Canadian divisions and transitioned himself and the division
to open warfare with aplomb.
Tim
Cook:
Great question and I think I
would agree with all of Bill's suggestions. I think Watson
remains a mystery to me as to how he kept his job, but Currie was loyal to his
generals, rarely firing them, and Watson had lent him some money to cover his
debts. I believe there is someone working on Brutinel right now, so that
might come out in a few years.
Andrew
Godefroy:
Many
thanks for your note….From my perspective too, many of the CEF general officers
still wait for a full and proper appreciation of their service in the Great
War. It would be difficult to list just five, or choose an order of priority as
any such list would carry the biases of the person assembling it.
Certainly,
Turner was long overdue for a fair trial and I think Bill finally gave
him that in his book ‘The Embattled General’. I know others would likely place
the usual ramble of divisional and brigade commanders in their wish lists, but
this I believe is due to the fact that the main interest and focus of most students
of the CEF is on the fighting on the western front. Still, I’m not sure if I’d
look to this sub-list first, as there are some interesting characters who held
posts outside the Canadian Corps who would be worthy of study while advancing
our general knowledge of the command and control of the CEF.
What
has always concerned me is that very ‘definitive’ statements have been made
about the command and control of the CEF and the Canadian Corps despite the
fact that we in fact still know very little about the group of senior officers
that led it. I think that until this situation is rectified, we will continue
to publish factually erroneous history that might read well but in fact has
little truth about it. Such is life.
Bill
Stewart’s book on Sir Richard Turner is available thru RPL as an eBook:
Tim
Cook’s latest book is “The Secret History of Soldiers: how Canadians survived
the Great War”:
Andrew
Godefroy’s 2010 book, “Great War Commands: historical perspectives on Canadian
Army Leadership, 1914-1918,” is also available:
The
Battle of Arnhem: the deadliest airborne operation of World War II/Antony
Beevor:
Morrison:
the long-lost memoir of Canada’s artillery commander in the Great War/E.W.B.
(Edward Whipple Bancroft) Morrison:
Operation
Sea Lion: the failed Nazi invasion that turned the tide of war/Leo McKinstry:
The
Oxford illustrated history of the Third Reich/Robert Gellately:
The
War Hitler Won: the fall of Poland, September 1939/Nicholas Bethell:
Next
meeting: Tuesday, November 6th at 7:00 pm.
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