General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Sir Cameron Deane Shute, (15 March 1866 – 25 January 1936), was a senior

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 ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

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 fightin ...

Early life and education

Shute was born in Dorking, Surrey, the son of Col. Deane Christian Shute of the British Indian Army, and his wife, Elizabeth Isabella Brownlow. He was educated at Marlborough College and abroad. He was the nephew of General Sir

Charles Cameron Shute General Sir Charles Cameron Shute (3 January 1816 – 30 April 1904) was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician. Early life Charles Cameron Shute was the eldest son of Thomas Deane Shute of Fern Hill, Isle of Wight, and Bram ...

(1816–1904). Francis Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine married his sister Alice Emily Shute.

Military career

Shute was commissioned into the

Welsh Regiment The Welch Regiment (or "The Welch", an archaic spelling of "Welsh") was an infantry regiment of the line of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1969. The regiment was created in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of ...

in 1885.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He transferred to the Rifle Brigade in 1895 and participated in the Nile Expedition and the Siege of Khartoum in 1898. He was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

from 1899 and a General Staff Officer at Scottish Coast Defences from 1905. In 1910 he was appointed Commander of the 2nd Bn the Rifle Brigade and then became a General Staff Officer at Aldershot Training Centre from 1914. He served in the

in France and Belgium, becoming Commander of 59th Brigade in France during the Guillemont actions in 1915. He went on to be General Officer Commanding of the

Royal Naval Division The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division was a United Kingdom infantry division of the First World War. It was originally formed as the Royal Naval Division at the outbreak of the war, from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers, who wer ...

in 1916, of the 32nd Division in 1917 and of the 19th Division at the Battle of Messines in France in 1917. In April 1918 he took command of

V Corps 5th Corps, Fifth Corps, or V Corps may refer to: France * 5th Army Corps (France) * V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * V Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Ar ...

in France. After the War he became GOC of 4th Division. Finally he was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1927; he retired in 1931.

A.P. Herbert poem

As commander of the

, Shute had an intense dislike of its unconventional "nautical" traditions and made numerous unpopular attempts to stamp them out. He was particularly critical of the poor management of the

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground ( pit latrine), or ...

s which could have led to an outbreak of dysentery. Following a particularly critical inspection of the trenches by Shute, an officer of the division, Sub-Lieutenant

A. P. Herbert Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (A. P. Herbert, 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and in 1935–1950 an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University. Born in Ashtead, Su ...

, who later became a famous humorous writer, legal satirist and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

, wrote a popular poem that summed up the feelings of the men of the division:

Martin Gilbert Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...

, ''The Somme'', Henry Holt, 2006, p. 218. Although soldier songs hostile to superior officers were not rare, it is unusual to have a song aimed at a named officer.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Shute, Cameron 1866 births 1936 deaths British Army generals British Army generals of World War I Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Welch Regiment officers Rifle Brigade officers British Army personnel of the Mahdist War People educated at Marlborough College Military personnel from Surrey