Generals in Defence of their Honour
Aug 2007, Vol. 152, No. 4
By A D Harvey
Sir Edward Hungerford, who in 1643 hoped that Parliament would not ‘suffer their servants in the Countrey to undergoe an ill opinion, who have not deserved the same’, was perhaps the first of what has turned out to be a long line of British military commanders who have demanded public vindication of their honour following dismissal for inefficiency or failure in battle. Major General Sir William Draper, formerly second-in-command at Minorca, complained in 1781 of Lieutenant General the Hon James Murray’s conduct ‘as being destructive to the public service, as well as most injurious and disgraceful to my own character as a general officer’; Brigadier General J. J. Byron protested in 1919, ‘I have been treated in an irregular and unjust manner gravely affecting my military record and reputation’; and Major General Hon Edward Stuart-Wortley pointed out in 1920 that ‘I have served three Sovereigns of my country in many campaigns, for forty-one years. I have held many varied appointments, both military and diplomatic. During the whole of my service I have not had one adverse report…. and yet at the early age of sixty-two, I am placed on the shelf by age limit, suffering from a sense of great injustice, the outcome of personal antipathy.’
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By A D Harvey
Sir Edward Hungerford, who in 1643 hoped that Parliament would not ‘suffer their servants in the Countrey to undergoe an ill opinion, who have not deserved the same’, was perhaps the first of what has turned out to be a long line of British military commanders who have demanded public vindication of their honour following dismissal for inefficiency or failure in battle. Major General Sir William Draper, formerly second-in-command at Minorca, complained in 1781 of Lieutenant General the Hon James Murray’s conduct ‘as being destructive to the public service, as well as most injurious and disgraceful to my own character as a general officer’; Brigadier General J. J. Byron protested in 1919, ‘I have been treated in an irregular and unjust manner gravely affecting my military record and reputation’; and Major General Hon Edward Stuart-Wortley pointed out in 1920 that ‘I have served three Sovereigns of my country in many campaigns, for forty-one years. I have held many varied appointments, both military and diplomatic. During the whole of my service I have not had one adverse report…. and yet at the early age of sixty-two, I am placed on the shelf by age limit, suffering from a sense of great injustice, the outcome of personal antipathy.’
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