Edmund Allenby(1861-1936)

Edmund Allenby was born in 1861 at Brackenhurst Hall, Nottinghamshire county, England, one of six children and the son of a country gentleman. His military service began when he entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1881 where he was commissioned into the Royal Cavalry and sent to South Africa a year later where, as a 2nd Lieutenant, he participated in Bechuanaland and Zululand military expeditions from 1884 to 1888. Allenby attended Staff College in 1896 and was given command of the Royal 3rd Cavalry Squadron which fought in the Boer War in South Africa from 1899 to 1902. He worked his way up the military ladder to Brigadier-General commanding the BEF calvary at the start of World War I in 1914. In May 1915 Allenby was promoted to full General and took over the 5th Corps, and later the 3rd Army in France. He led the British Cavalry at the Battle of Arras (April 9-May 3, 1917) until he was removed to Egypt to take over the British-Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine in June 1917, which saw the high point of his military career with the Battle of Beersheba (October 31-November 7) where he defeated the Turkish army in Palestine which led to the capture of Jerusalem on December 9. In 1918, Allenby led the Jordan Valley operations and launched the final offensive against the Turks at the Battle of Megiddo (September 19-30) which destroyed the last Turkish armies in Palestine and secured an armistice in October ending World War I in the Middle East. After the end of the war, Allenby was made Special High Commissioner for Egypt in March 1919, was promoted to Field Marshall in July, and created a Viscount in October, positions he held until he retired from the British army in 1925 and lived the rest of his life in London until his death in 1936.