Field Marshal Sir John French
John French commanded the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and was removed within eighteen months. Born in Kent in 1852, he trained as a naval cadet, transferred to the army, and made his reputation as a cavalry commander in the Second Boer War, relieving Kimberley in 1900 with a mass charge across open ground. He became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1912 and resigned in 1914 over the Curragh incident, in which officers indicated they would not enforce Home Rule on Ulster. He was given the BEF in August 1914 — about a hundred thousand men, the whole of Britain's available regular army — with instructions that made his position impossible: he was to cooperate with the French while remaining independent of their command and avoiding undue losses, since the force was irreplaceable. The BEF fought well at Mons and Le Cateau and retreated for two weeks. French then concluded the French army was collapsing and prepared to withdraw the entire force to the coast to refit, which would have opened a gap in the allied line. Kitchener came to Paris in person, in field marshal's uniform, and ordered him to conform to Joffre's plans. He commanded through First Ypres, where the old regular army was largely destroyed, and Neuve Chapelle and Loos in 1915. At Loos he held the reserve divisions too far back to exploit the initial success, and they went in exhausted against intact defences. He then falsified the timings in his despatch, which Douglas Haig exposed. He was replaced by Haig in December 1915, and later commanded home forces and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He died in 1925.
- Lived: 1852 CE – 1925 CE
- Nationality: British
- Roles: field_marshal
