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 ...

Sir John Humphrey Davidson, (24 July 1876 – 11 December 1954), nicknamed "Tavish", 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 Gurk ...

officer 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 ...

Early life

Davidson was born in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

to George Walter Davidson, a merchant, and his wife Johanna, and some time before 1890 they moved back to England. From 1890 Davidson was educated at Harrow School, then 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 ...

, after he left Harrow in 1893.

Early military career

Davidson graduated in 1896 and joined the 1st Battalion the King's Royal Rifle Corps as a second lieutenant on 28 March 1896. He was promoted to

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 15 October 1898, and a year later the Corps had been transferred to

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, where they were directly involved in 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 ...

. With his Regiment he took part in the Battle of Talana Hill and the

Battle of Ladysmith The Battle of Ladysmith was one of the early engagements of the Second Boer War. A large British force which had concentrated at the garrison town of Ladysmith launched a sortie on 30 October 1899, against Boer armies which were slowly surround ...

before he was attached to the Army Service Corps. He was promoted to captain on 25 October 1901, and in late December that year he was seconded for service as Adjutant of the Damant's Horse, a local cavalry unit, with the objective of disrupting Boer commando units. He was mentioned in despatches and appointed a

Companion of 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 ...

(DSO) for his war service. After the end of the Boer War he returned to a regular posting with his regiment in August 1902, and was appointed regimental Adjutant of the 1st Battalion on 3 September 1902. He left South Africa with other men of his battalion on the SS ''Sardinia'' in September 1902. Arriving at Malta the following month, he was engaged in Imperial garrison service there and at Crete before being accepted into the Staff College, Camberley in 1905. After graduation he served in a variety of positions as a staff officer, including as director of training at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

from 1908 to 1910, followed by two years as a staff major with the 5th Infantry Brigade. In 1912 he was transferred back to the Staff College, this time as an instructor.

First World War

After the outbreak of 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 ...

, Davidson joined the III Corps as a staff officer and participated in the

First Battle of the Marne The First Battle of the Marne was a battle of the First World War fought from 5 to 12 September 1914. It was fought in a collection of skirmishes around the Marne River Valley. It resulted in an Entente victory against the German armies in the ...

First Battle of the Aisne The First Battle of the Aisne (french: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) and the Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated a ...

and the

First Battle of Ypres The First Battle of Ypres (french: Première Bataille des Flandres; german: Erste Flandernschlacht – was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. The battle was part of the Firs ...

. After the formation of the First Army in 1915 he became the operations officer for

Douglas Haig Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until ...

, the Army commander. As operations officer Davidson was the principal organiser of the

Battle of Neuve Chapelle The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March 1915) took place in the First World War in the Artois region of France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to the Aubers Ridge a ...

Battle of Loos The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...

and the

Second Battle of Artois The Second Battle of Artois (french: Deuxième bataille de l'Artois, german: Lorettoschlacht) from 9 May to 18 June 1915, took place on the Western Front during the First World War. A German-held salient from Reims to Amiens had been formed in ...

. After Haig became Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front Davidson's star was in the ascendant as a part of Haig's inner circle and he was appointed to the post of Director of Military Operations at General Headquarters, one of the key posts controlling activities on the Western Front during the war. In 1916 he was made a

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

and in 1917 he was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

. During the planning of the initial attack at Third Ypres, he urged more limited advances with regard to tactical objectives so as to increase the concentration of British artillery fire and leave the British attacking forces less vulnerable to German counter-attack, but his advice was not followed. Ahead of the German Michael Offensive Davidson advised

Hubert Gough General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough ( ; 12 August 1870 – 18 March 1963) was a senior officer in the British Army in the First World War. A favourite of the British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, he experienced a meteori ...

, GOC Fifth Army, that he could overcome his lack of men by "skillful handling of rearguards". Gough was irritated by this. On 6 April 1918, with the German Georgette Offensive imminent, he was sent on a mission to Beauvais to attempt to persuade

Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Ar ...

to take over the British line as far north as the Somme, to send French reserves behind British line at Vimy Ridge, or to conduct a major French offensive. Foch, concerned at the risk of a German attack in the French sector, refused, although he offered to participate in a joint Anglo-French offensive near Amiens. In the spring of 1918 Davidson, now a major-general, was promoted to control both Intelligence (formerly the empire of Haig's alleged ''eminence grise''

John Charteris Brigadier General John Charteris (1877–1946) was a British Army officer. During World War I he was the Chief of Intelligence at the British Expeditionary Force General Headquarters from 1915 to 1918. In later life he was a Unionist Party Memb ...

and now under Brigadier General Edgar Cox), and Operations ("Oa", now under the future CIGS Brigadier General

John Dill Sir John Greer Dill, (25 December 1881 – 4 November 1944) was a senior British Army officer with service in both the First World War and the Second World War. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS ...

). Ahead of the Bluecher Offensive, Haig later claimed that he and Davidson had repeatedly warned of the dangers of a German attack along the Chemin des Dames, but that their warnings were brushed aside by Foch,

Maxime Weygand Maxime Weygand (; 21 January 1867 – 28 January 1965) was a French military commander in World War I and World War II. Born in Belgium, Weygand was raised in France and educated at the Saint-Cyr military academy in Paris. After graduating in 1 ...

and de Barescut. No evidence had been found to substantiate this claim. In 1919 Davidson was appointed and knighted a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Later life

He left the army in 1922, and immediately stood for Parliament as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

. He was returned for Fareham, and took an active role in the House of Commons' Army Committee. He stood down from the Commons in 1931 to concentrate on his business interests, including a seat on the

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

board and a position as Chairman of the Bank of Australia between 1937 and 1945. In the early 1950s he published the book 'Haig: Master of the Field, comprising a defence of the British Army General Headquarters' conduct of the Western Front campaign in 1917–1918.'Haig: Master of the Field', by John Davidson (Pub. Peter Nevill, 1953).

Death

He died at the age of 78 at Daviot in Aberdeenshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, on 11 December 1954.

Publications

* Haig, Master of the Field (1953).

References

Books

* Harris, J. P. ''Douglas Haig and the First World War''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, John Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Bath UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 1876 births 1954 deaths Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Companions of the Distinguished Service Order King's Royal Rifle Corps officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army generals of World War I People educated at Harrow School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley British Army major generals Academics of the Staff College, Camberley