Sir Nevil Macready | |
|---|---|
 Lt-Gen Sir Nevil Macready,c. 1915 | |
| Birth name | Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready |
| Nickname | Make-Ready |
| Born | (1862-05-07)7 May 1862 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire |
| Died | 9 January 1946(1946-01-09) (aged 83) Knightsbridge, London |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1881–1923 |
| Rank | General |
| Unit | Gordon Highlanders |
| Commands | 2nd Infantry Brigade Belfast District Commander-in-Chief, Ireland |
| Battles / wars | Second Boer War First World War Anglo-Irish War |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Mentioned in Despatches (6) |
| Education | Marlborough College |
| Alma mater | Royal Military College, Sandhurst |
| Father | William Macready |
| Relatives | William Macready the Elder (paternal grandfather) Sir William Beechey (great-grandfather) |
GeneralSir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, 1st Baronet,GCMG, KCB, PC (Ire) (7 May 1862 – 9 January 1946), known affectionately asMake-Ready (close to the correct pronunciation of his name), was aBritish Army officer. He served in senior staff appointments in theFirst World War and was the last British military commander in Ireland, and also served for two years asCommissioner of Police of the Metropolis in London.
Macready was the son of the prominent actorWilliam Charles Macready. His father was 69 years old at Nevil'sbirth.[1] His paternal grandfather wasWilliam Macready the Elder (1755–1829), a famousIrish actor fromDublin. He was born inCheltenham in May 1862 and was brought up in the bohemian circles frequented by his parents (his mother, Cecile, was the granddaughter of the painter,Sir William Beechey), and was educated atMarlborough College (for two years, before falling ill) andCheltenham College. He later claimed that he was far too lazy to pursue an artistic career himself, and although he expressed an interest in a stage career, his father, who loathed his own profession, expressly forbade it (although he continued to be involved inamateur dramatics all his life and was also a talented singer). He therefore joined theBritish Army, passing out from theRoyal Military College at Sandhurst, and beingcommissioned as alieutenant into theGordon Highlanders in October 1881.[1][2]
He joined the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders atMalta, and in 1882 went with them to Egypt, fighting at theBattle of Tel el-Kebir, the last battle in which the British Army fought inred coats.[1] He stayed in Egypt, and in 1884 was appointedgarrisonadjutant and stafflieutenant ofmilitary police atAlexandria.[1] In 1886, he married Sophia Geraldine Atkin (died 1931), an Irishwoman; they had two daughters and a son.[1] Macready remained in Alexandria until early 1889, when he returned to England to rejoin hisregiment, and then served inCeylon andIndia.[1] Having been promoted to lieutenant in October 1889,[3] he was promoted tocaptain in 1891.[1][4] He was transferred toDublin in 1892, and in 1894 became adjutant of the regiment's 2nd Volunteer Battalion inAberdeenshire.[1][5] In December 1899, he was promotedmajor[6] and returned to India to join the 2nd Battalion, which was sent to South Africa in September.[1]
Macready saw active service in theSecond Boer War, serving in the besieged garrison atLadysmith from October 1899 to February 1900.[1] As a captain, returning from bringing in wounded, he first metMajor-General John French on the battlefield ofElandslaagte, giving him a cup of coffee which he had looted from the Boers.[7] He wasmentioned in dispatches twice and promoted to thebrevet rank oflieutenant-colonel in 1900, and in June 1901 headed a commission investigating cattle-raiding inZululand.[1] He stayed in South Africa in a series of staff posts, including assistantprovost marshal atPort Elizabeth (1901),deputy assistant adjutant-general (DAAG) of the district west ofJohannesburg (December 1901–1902), assistant adjutant general (AAG) and chief staff officer ofCape Colony (1902–1905), andassistant quartermaster-general (AQMG) of Cape Colony (1905–1906). He was promoted tocolonel in November 1903.[1][8] He was appointedCompanion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the1906 Birthday Honours[9] and returned to Britain in October of that year. He was then placed on a period ofhalf-pay.[10]
In March 1907, Macready was appointed an assistant adjutant-general in the directorate of personal services at theWar Office in London, taking over from ColonelColin Mackenzie,[11] and helped to form theTerritorial Force (TF).[1] He was then promoted to temporary brigadier general in August 1909 and succeededHenry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson in command of the2nd Infantry Brigade atAldershot.[12] In June 1910 he returned to the War Office as director of personal services,[13] responsible for a variety of personnel matters.[1] Also having responsibility for military aid to the civil power, he played a large part in a series of labour disputes and in deploying troops to Ireland in anticipation of disturbances there.[1] Unusually for an army officer of the time, he had marked liberal tendencies, believed in the right tostrike, and supportedIrish home rule. He was contemptuous of politics,socialism,communism,pacifism andcapitalism (unless the employers treated their employees very well).
He was promotedmajor-general in October,[14] and in November he took direct command of troops deployed to deal with a possible miners' strike, in theRhondda Valley inSouth Wales,[15] insisting that his troops remained subordinate both to the police and to theHome Office and not answerable to the panicking localmagistrates. This policy probably helped to avert serious unrest in 1910 and again in a similar situation in 1912. A civil CB was added to his military CB in 1911 and, in June 1912 he was appointedKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).[16] After theCurragh incident in Ireland in March 1914, Macready was madegeneral officer commanding (GOC)Belfast District and was nominated as military governor-designate of Belfast in the event ofcivil war breaking out, something averted by the outbreak of theFirst World War in August 1914.[1]
On the outbreak of war in August 1914, Macready was immediately sent to France as Adjutant-General of theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF).[1] He was promoted to temporary lieutenant-general on 13 September.[17] In 1915, he was appointedKnight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). In February 1916, having carried out this job efficiently, he was recalled to London asAdjutant-General to the Forces, one of the most senior staff appointments in the British Army.[1]
In December 1915, Macready was warned by Special Branch of the impending violence and Irish nationalist volunteer recruitment in Ireland, and from March 1916 was receiving warnings from daily police reports. At the War Office, civil servants as late as 10 April 1916, still believed there was no cause for concern in Ireland:
"I do not believe leaders mean insurrection," wrote Sir Matthew Nathan, "or that the Volunteers have sufficient arms to make it formidable if the leaders do mean it."
Macready failed to understand the intentions of the nationalist leaders.[18]
Macready advised General Maxwell (whosecourts-martial sentenced several of theEaster Rising's leaders to be executed) not to delay, and not to be afraid of overstepping authority.[19] He was promotedlieutenant-general in June 1916[20] (although he was already temporarily in that rank).
Macready was an enthusiastic proponent of the employment of female labour to free men to go to the front. He also abolished the compulsory maintenance of moustaches by the Army's officers and other ranks, and immediately shaved off his own, which he had hated.[21]
On 8th October, 1916, the order allowing all ranks to grow or not to grow moustaches according to their fancy was signed... I dropped into a barber's shop and set the example that evening, as I was only too glad to be rid of the unsightly bristles to which I had for many years been condemned by obedience to regulations.
During the final stages of theBattle of Passchendaele, Macready warned (4 October 1917) that the BEF could be kept up to strength if it suffered no more than a further 50,000 casualties before the end of the year, but the total exceeded this. The BEF suffered an alarming rise in drunkenness, desertions and psychological disorders; reports were gathered of soldiers returning from the front grumbling about "the waste of life" at Ypres.[22]
In September 1918 Macready was promoted full general[23] and appointedKnight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). He had been mentioned in despatches four times during the war, been made a Grand Officier of theLégion d'honneur of France (1915), and a member of theOrder of the Crown of Belgium, theOrder of the Crown of Italy, and theOrder of the Sacred Treasures of Japan.[24]
In August 1918, Macready somewhat reluctantly took the post of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the LondonMetropolitan Police,[1] to whichPrime MinisterAsquith had intended to appoint him before war broke out in 1914. Morale was low, and many men were currently on strike over pay andtrade union recognition.[25] Macready got them back to work by granting a pay rise and promising the introduction of machinery forcollective bargaining. He was popular among theconstables andsergeants, whom he got to know far more than his predecessors had done. He abolished the system of punishment by deducting fines from men's pay over a period of months or even years. He also abolished theshilling a day deduction made from the pay of men on sick leave. He had an intense dislike of trade unions, and never took the short-livedNational Union of Police and Prison Officers seriously, which partly led to thestrike of 1919. Only a small percentage of the men went out on strike, and they were all dismissed, although Macready wrote a good reference for every one who asked.
Macready disliked Ireland and the Irish. He had already written toIan Macpherson on the latter's appointment as Chief Secretary for Ireland in January 1919: "I cannot say I envy you for I loathe the country you are going to and its people with a depth deeper than the sea and more violent than that which I feel against theBoche".[26]
In April 1920, Macready was sent to succeed Lieutenant-GeneralSir Frederick Shaw in command of the troops in Ireland asGeneral Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) British forces[27] operating in the counter-insurgency role against theIrish Republican Army in theIrish War of Independence (alongsideHamar Greenwood as the newChief Secretary).[1] He later stated in his memoirs that only loyalty to his "old Chief"Lord French (still lord lieutenant of Ireland at the time, although largely stripped of executive power in the spring of 1920) made him accept.[26]
Macready and Greenwood insisted on restoring proper authority, which was lax and enfeebled. Macready was experienced at crisis management.[28] He demanded a higher pension than his predecessor and an increase in "table money" (entertainment expenses) from £500 to £1,400 as well as £5,000 "disturbance allowance". He was unimpressed by the administrative chaos in Dublin and the "crass stupidity which is so often found among police officers who have not been carefully selected".[26] Nevertheless, he was a good and dynamic commander, increasing morale, improving policy and securing additional troops and equipment. He refused to also take command of theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC), however, which reduced coordination between the police and Army.Major-General Hugh Tudor, a distinguished artilleryman, was appointed Police Advisor in May 1920, then Chief of Police in November 1920.[29]
A month after taking up official duties, Macready came to London to demand eight extra battalions of infantry and 234 motor vehicles.Sir Henry Wilson only learned of the request the evening before the Cabinet meeting and thought Macready "a vain ass" for not seeking his advice first. The cabinet agreed on 11 May 1920 to supply the vehicles and as far as possible the extra technical personnel requested, but on Wilson's advice agreed only to hold the extra battalions "in readiness".[30] In July an argument with Catholic Archbishop Gilmartin, led him to exclaim that men could not be tried inTuam, because nobody was willing to come forward for Jury service, "the people at least indifferent".[31]
With the army stretched very thinly by the deployment of two extra divisions toIraq, and the threatened coal strike in September 1920, Macready warned that the planned withdrawal of ten battalions would make peacekeeping in Ireland impossible (unless the Army was given a free hand to conduct purely military operations, which the politicians did not want) and large portions of the RIC would probably change sides.[32]
Macready opposed the formation of theUlster Special Constabulary, announced by London on 20 October. The Specials were subsumed totally by Protestants clubs, such as the Cromwell Clubs. Dublin Castle wrote toBonar Law, the Conservative Party leader, urging that the coalition government ban any recruitment from theUlster Volunteer Force, an unreliable gang of paramilitaries.[33] A military committee of review appointed by the Cabinet, which Macready chaired, opposed the recruitment of theBlack and Tans andAuxiliary Division, and he continued to be a strident critic of these bodies.[34] The government pressed ahead with recruiting auxiliaries, whose numbers would eventually peak at 1,500 in July 1921.[35] Macready had been initially impressed by Tudor and thought he was getting rid of "incompetent idiots" from senior police positions. According to Tudor'sWeekly SummaryJoseph Byrne and Macready were concerned about frequently drunk on duty policemen.[36]
Macready and Wilson became increasingly concerned that Tudor, with the connivance ofLloyd George, who loved to drop hints to that effect, was operating an unofficial policy of killing IRA men in reprisal for the deaths of pro-Crown forces. However, Macready also told Wilson that the Army was arranging "accidents" for suspected IRA men, but did not tell the politicians as he did not want them "talked and joked about after dinner by Cabinet Ministers".[37] Commenting on official reprisals, Macready stated that such actions "must have a deterrent effect on those who may be detailed for future outrages."[38] In December 1920 Macready informed the British Cabinet that the Military Governors of the martial law areas had been authorized to conduct reprisals. From December 1920 until June 1921 approximately 150 "official" reprisals were carried out.[39]
The new "Auxies" were following the bad example set by the local Irish police, the RIC, who had begun a process of reprisal killings for IRA attacks, which gave Macready considerable cause for concern.[40]"the RIC are not out of hand but are systematically left to reprise their officers."[41] In Macready's view, shooting of suspects and dumping of bodies in the Liffey represented unavoidable "reprisals" for the death of a policeman.[42] By 28 August, Macready knew that civil war was inevitable; as a consequence he would not tell the victims of the Lismore bombings not to resist.[43] He was worried that release of political prisoners would anger the police; hanging became a matter of credibility. He rejected calls to spare the life of a young medical student,Kevin Barry, caught red-handed in the murders of several soldiers as young or younger than Barry was, in Dublin.[44] Macready recruited MajorOrmonde Winter, an intelligence expert, as head of police detectives, to train sergeants to build networks; but it was probably too slow a decision, and too little too late to win the war.[45] The Barry case was thoroughly investigated at Macroom Station by Lt Crake of C company, of whom Macready thought well.[46]
Macready came to support martial law as he was worried that army and police discipline might otherwise collapse. "They are hopelessly out of date", he warned "We are sitting on a volcano.If they were turned into an unarmed police force they would fulfill their functions in time of peace a good deal better than at present", he toldSir John Anderson.[47]He advised thatad hoc reprisals by the Black and Tans were not stopping the "murders".[48] After the killing of sixteen Black and Tans in anambush at Macroom,County Cork, martial law was declared on 10 December 1920 in the fourMunster counties ofCork,Tipperary,Kerry andLimerick. Three days later Auxiliary Cadet Peter Harte opened fire while on patrol at a young man and an old priest, killing them both. Lloyd George was furious, calling for courts-martial and death by firing squad. But Macready stalled for time, and delayed justice, so that Harte eventually received a proper trial and was foundguilty but insane. Mark Sturgis was angry because in the west, Sinn Féin was still very strong, so that the policy of shoot-to-kill was not working.[49]
On 23 December 1920,Irish Home Rule became law. Macready attended a special conference on 29 December along with Wilson, Tudor andSir John Anderson, head of the Civil Service in Dublin, at which they all advised that no truce should be allowed for elections to the planned Dublin Parliament, and that at least four months of martial law would be required to "break the Terror".[50] The date for theelections was therefore set for May 1921. In accordance with Wilson and Macready's wishes, martial law was extended over the rest of Munster (CountiesWaterford andClare) and part ofLeinster (CountiesKilkenny andWexford).[51] Macready felt under a great deal of pressure. The officer class were not prepared and contemptuous of the enemy's intelligence network; they did not take the need to adapt to gathering seriously.[52]
By 1921, Macready had lost confidence in Tudor and thought the RIC had become unreliable. Macready was adamant that military jurisdiction in the Martial Law Area (MLA) trumped the civil courts. In a number of civil rights cases King's Bench writs were issued to reclaim bodies and damages. But Macready dismissed the conflict in actions, as an "anomaly". As the violence escalated he had suspended civilian jurisdictions by Proclamation in April.[53]
The Irish War of Independence reached a climax in the first half of 1921, with deaths of pro-Crown forces running at approximately double the rate of those in the second half of 1920 but with the IRA running desperately short of funds and ammunition and later described by one of its leaders Michael Collins as "dead beat" and within "six weeks of defeat".[54] Macready backed a policy of "deterrent effects" against the IRA; houses were ordered to be destroyed, tenants evicted to remove those who shot at patrols. The British were slowly getting the upper hand.[55]
In April 1921, the cabinet decided to withdraw four of Macready's 51 battalions to meet the possibleTriple Alliance strike. Macready believed Ireland could be suppressed in the summer of 1921 with the elections out of the way, not least as troops would otherwise need to be replaced after the strain of guerrilla war. In May 1921, Lloyd George announced a surge of manpower; but Macready was concerned about low morale, and lack of specific training. An extra seventeen battalions were sent in June and July, bringing British strength up to 60,000, but the politicians drew back from the brink and opened secret talks withJames Craig andÉamon de Valera (who had been born inNew York of Spanish descent and whom Macready called Wilson's "Cuban Jew compatriot").[56] The policy of Official Reprisals proved counter-productive and was abandoned on 3 June 1921. Macready had no answer to the attacks on soft Unionist targets.[57]
Macready was instrumental in negotiating thetruce in July 1921, although he suggested, perhaps in jest, that the entire Irish Dáil could be arrested whilst in session.[58] He suffered the irritation of being found incontempt of court for refusing to obey an order ofhabeas corpus in theJoseph Egan case;[59] but the Truce rendered the matter academic. Following theAnglo-Irish Treaty and creation of theIrish Free State in 1922, he withdrew the troops without great incident before the onset of theIrish Civil War.[60]
It has been suggested that Collins had a hand in the assassination ofSir Henry Wilson. This has never been confirmed. Wilson was shot dead at the doorstep of his London home by two Irishmen, former British Army soldiers who had served in the Great War. The two were quickly captured and hanged.[61] The murder precipitated a policy of "Official Reprisals", sparked byRory O'Connor's anti-Treaty IRA occupation of the Four Courts, home of the Provisional Government's ministry. From 22 June 1922 there were six Cabinet meetings in 72 hours.[62]
They concluded that the Four Courts was a centre of "seditious activity". On 24 June the Cabinet ordered an assault for 25 June, to be carried out by the Army. Macready, commander-in-chief, was in disagreement; Macready argued that escalation of violence would only unite the two factions of IRA and alienate the moderates.[63] London pressed Dublin to use theFree State Army to end the occupation of the Four Courts, giving an ultimatum for the rebels to leave on 28 June.[64] In the event it was agreed withRichard Mulcahy that they should receive two18-pounder field guns.[65] These were used to pound the Four Courts garrison into surrender but they missed; the officers were so inexperienced thatEmmet Dalton, the Chief of Staff required artillery training from Macready's men.[66] Macready retired on 1 March 1923 and was created abaronet. He had been sworn of thePrivy Council of Ireland in 1920.[citation needed]
In 1924, he published his two-volume memoirs,of an Active Life.[1] Macready destroyed his own diaries and private papers after completing his memoirs, but 400 letters betweenWilson and Macready survive, only ten of which predate his Irish appointment.[30]
He briefly returned to police service during the 1926General Strike, when he served as a staff officer to the Chief Commandant of theMetropolitan Special Constabulary.
He died at his home inKnightsbridge, London, in 1946, aged 83. His son,Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Macready (1891–1956), was also a distinguished soldier and inherited the baronetcy on his father's death.
His character appears very briefly in the filmMichael Collins (1996); he is played byAlan Stanford.
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| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director of Personal Services, War Office 1910–1914 | Succeeded by ? |
| Preceded by | Adjutant-General to the Forces 1916–1918 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Ireland 1920–1922 | Office abolished |
| Police appointments | ||
| Preceded by | Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1918–1920 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baronet (of Cheltenham) 1923–1946 | Succeeded by |
