Hubert Gough

Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO ( born August 12, 1870 in Gurteen, County Waterford, Ireland, † March 18, 1963 in London) was a British general and army commander in the First World War.

Life

Gough was born as the eldest son of General Sir Charles John Stanley Gough VC, GCB and educated at Eton and Sandhurst. In 1889 he joined as a lieutenant in the 16th Lancers. He took part in the Tirah campaign there in British India 1897-98. He then attended the Camberley Staff College, but was prematurely recalled to South Africa when there broke out in 1899, the Second Boer War. Gough was in it for the first time widely known as the leader of a cavalry advance guard of the column, the terrified during the Siege of Ladysmith trapped British occupation under George Stuart White. In the Battle of Blood River Poort he suffered a defeat against superior Boer forces and was captured briefly what his reputation but not seriously damaged. From 1904 to 1906 he was instructor at the Staff College and was then in command of the 16th Lancers. In 1911 he was a brigadier general after the Curragh, Ireland, added, where he commanded the 3rd Cavalry Brigade. Here he was involved in the March 1914 on the so-called " Curragh Incident ".

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he commanded the 3rd Cavalry Brigade continued, but was soon promoted to Major General and took over during the First Battle of Ypres, the 2nd Cavalry Division. From April to July 1915, he was temporarily commander of the 7th Infantry Division and was subsequently appointed as Lieutenant-General in command of the First Corps, with whom he fought in the Battle of Loos. In May 1916 he was given command of the newly formed reserve army, which took over a portion of the front during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. In October 1916, the reserve army in the 5th Army was renamed. With this he took part in the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, after its failure he was criticized. In March 1918, his army was so badly drawn during the German " Michael" offensive in damaged that she had to be resolved, and Gough was relieved from command. Douglas Haig later admitted that he had made the scapegoat for the Gough achieved by means overwhelming German slump.

1919 Gough was the head of the allied military mission in the Baltics. This was his last use in an active role, and in 1922 he became a General out of the military service. Gough was an avowed opponent of the Treaty of Versailles and became an active member of the pacifist Union of Democratic Control. From 1936 to 1943 he was Honorary Colonel of The Queen's Royal Lancers 16th/5th. In 1939, he was temporarily reactivated as a colonel and head of a field command of the Home Guard and ended his service in 1942 for a second time.

Works (selection)

• The Fifth Army was in the European (1931 )
• The March retreat: On the operations of the Fifth Army in the spring of 1918 (1934)
• Soldiering on: Being the Memoirs of General Sir Hubert Gough (1954 )