Ramsay Weston Phipps | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 April 1838 Oaklands,Clonmel,County Tipperary, Ireland |
| Died | 24 June 1923(1923-06-24) (aged 84) Carlyle Square,Chelsea, London, England[1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Royal Military Academy at Woolwich |
| Occupation(s) | Army officer, military historian |
| Known for | The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I (1926–1939) |
| Title | Colonel |
| Spouse | Anne Bampfylde |
| Children | Edmund Ramsay July–August, 1867[2] Mary 9 February 1869[2] |
| Parent(s) | Pownoll Phipps Ann Charlotte Smith |
| Relatives | Earl of Mulgrave |
Ramsay Weston Phipps (10 April 1838 – 24 June 1923) was an Irish-born military historian and officer in QueenVictoria'sRoyal Artillery. The son of Pownoll Phipps, an officer of theBritish East India Company's army, he was descended from the early settlers of theWest Indies; many generations had served in the British, and the English military. Phipps served in theCrimean War, had a stint of duty atMalta, and helped to repress theFenian uprising in Canada in 1866.
Phipps is known for his study ofThe Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I, a five-volume set published posthumously from 1926–1939 byOxford University Press. He also editedL.A. Fauvelet de Bourrienne'sMemoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, a three-volume work published in 1885 andMadame Campan'sThe private life of Marie Antoinette, queen of France and Navarre; with sketches and anecdotes of the courts of Louis XVI, published in 1889.
Ramsay Weston Phipps descended from generations of military and political men. Colonel William Phipps, aYeoman of Lincolnshire, raised a regiment of horse forCharles I. Another of his ancestors was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign ofQueen Anne.[5] Captain James Phipps settled theIsland of St. Christopher, in theWest Indies in 1676.[6] The family was rewarded for its loyalty with titles and lands in Ireland. Ramsay Phipps was also a cousin of theEarls of Mulgrave.[7]
In 1791, Phipps' grandfather, Constantine (1746–1797), rented the Hotel d'Harcourt inCaen, France, from the Duke of Harcourt; in 1793, he returned briefly to England in 1793 for the wedding of one of his daughters, leaving eight of his children in France. WhenWar of the First Coalition broke out in 1793, the children were separated from their parents. Ramsay Phipps' father, Pownoll Phipps (1780–1858) and his siblings grew up in the French city during the French revolution, and lived under the threat of anti-English violence.[8] Only after theTreaty of Campo Formio could the children return to England, arriving on 2 October 1798, all of them fluent in French; Pownoll Phipps reportedly spoke with French-accented English for the rest of his life. By the end of October, Pownoll had a commission as a lieutenant and joined theBengal Army of theEast India Company.[9] The following June, he embarked for India on theBombay-built shipBritannica.[10]
Upon arrival in India, Pownoll Phipps joined the force under command of ColonelArthur Wellesley. He participated in SirDavid Baird's expedition from India to Egypt in 1801,[6] for which participation he eventually became aKnight of the Crescent. Phipps married Henrietta Beaunpaire; orphaned by the French Revolution, she had taken refuge with him and his siblings at the Hotel d'Harcourt, on 10 August 1802, inCalcutta.[11] Pownoll Phipps' second wife, Sophia Matilda Arnold, wasBenedict Arnold's daughter.[12] Phipps retired from the East India Company service on 1 July 1825, with the rank ofcolonel.[13] Living for a time in London, he was a popular regular atExeter Hall events. A well-versed, informed and articulate speaker and storyteller, Phipps was a gallant gentleman, readily at ease in all society, and very friendly: "a tall, stout, officer-like person, about 60-years of age, with white hair, short, sharp features, and a pleasant cast of countenance."[14] He also had a strict sense of honor. In 1857, a year before his death, he wrote a letter to the Editor ofThe Times, in which he asserted his belief in the good character and quality of theSepoys, despite the popular outrage against them during theIndian Mutiny.[15] Pownoll Phipps developed bronchitis after presiding over the closing of an art exhibit in Clonmel, Ireland; he died in November 1858. His funeral was attended by Protestant and Catholics, and the procession was over a mile long.[16]
Ramsay Weston Phipps was the second son of Pownoll Phipps and his third wife, the Irish-born Anna Charlotte Smith. Born at the family estate, Oaklands, inCounty Tipperary, Ireland, he was named Ramsay in honor of an uncle who pioneered slave emancipation in the West Indies, and Weston after another uncle, a scientific clergyman.[17] By 1841, his father had returned to England, to reside inKent, where the family lived inYalding. They lodged at the "Parsonage" with a local farmer, Ramsey Warde; Ramsey Warde was also a relative of Phipps' mother. The family of four included three-year-old Ramsay, his older brother, Pownoll (age five),[18][Note 1] his mother (age 30) and his father.[19] Eventually, two more children joined the family: Henrietta Sophia and Robert Constantine, twins born 23 September 1841. The boy died 9 October, but Henrietta lived into adulthood, marrying Lieutenant-Colonel William Smith.[20] After suffering a bout ofmeasles in spring 1847, Ramsay Phipps attended Mr. Barron's School at Stanmore with his older brother, Pownoll, with the intent to following his brother in a year or two toRugby inWarwickshire.[21]
Before he could enter Rugby, Phipps was offered instead a cadetship and entered the government preparatory school at Carshalton inSurrey. In 1849, at the age of 11, he put on a uniform, and he wore it, or a variation of it, until his retirement in 1887. Phipps later attended theRoyal Military Academy at Woolwich. After his graduation, he expected a commission in theRoyal Artillery, and while awaiting it, he lived for a few months with his uncle atCarragh, Ireland;[22] hislieutenant's commission arrived, dated 1 August 1855,[23] and with it instructions him to join his Royal Artillery unit atWoolwich, for service in theCrimean War. He reached the Crimea in November 1855, and participated in thesiege of Sevastopol. Assigned to the Matthew Dixon's 5th Company, 9th Battalion, he was part of the right siege train, and his chief occupation was blowing up the Sevastapol docks. He was still small for his age, and looked very young, which drew teasing from his company. The siege work was difficult and the living conditions were brutal; he recounted to his brother that the soldiers were plagued not only by the Russian fire, but by dysentery, bad food, and wintering in tents. He returned to England the following year on theImperatrice, arriving in March 1856. Although he was given a medal to wear when Queen Victoria reviewed the troops, it was later collected from him; the decision was made at higher commands that only those who had landed in the Crimea prior to September 1855 would be awarded theCrimea Medal.[22]
After his return to England, Ramsay Phipps was quartered at theTower of London.[24] After this assignment, he was sent to Plymouth, serving at the Prince of Wales Redoubt.[25] In 1861, Phipps was stationed in South Shoebury, Essex.[26] He was promoted to the Royal Artillery's unique rank of second captain on 7 April 1864,[27] and appointed brigadeadjutant on 14 October 1868.[28] The brigade adjutant functioned as the staff officer for the brigade commander: he supervised all brigade books and records, monitored the execution of orders, supervised the education and training ofsubalterns, prosecuted in all courts-martial proceedings, and accepted and transmitted all orders.[29]
Promotions
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Ramsay Phipps married Anne Bampfylde, the daughter of aBath physician, in September 1864.[30] With a few exceptions, most of Phipps' posts included garrison duty in southern England in the vicinity of the Royal Artillery barracks at Woolwich. Phipps traveled to the United States, arriving in Boston on 30 April 1866;[31] he went to Canada to participate in operations against theFenian uprising.[32] In 1869, his brother and a friend sought to climb theZermatt and theSchreckhorn, during which climb the friend fell over 1,000 feet (300 m) to bottom of theLauteraar glacier. In the emergency, Ramsay Phipps joined his brother inGrindelwald while guides recovered the body.[33]
In 1881, Phipps was stationed in Ireland;[34] his wife remained in Bath, living in the prestigiousRoyal Crescent (No. 19), with her three children, a female cousin, and several servants.[35] Phipps was promoted tomajor on 12 April 1873,[36] tobrevetlieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1881,[37] and substantive lieutenant-colonel on 26 April 1882.[38]
Phipps had little tolerance for foolishness and retained a professional soldier's dislike of civilian interference in military affairs, and ineffective administration, whether from civilians or government. In 1887, shortly after his retirement, he wrote a letter to the editor ofThe Times addressing some of the highly publicized problems of desertions from the ranks. "War Office civilians", he wrote, "like the plan of indiscriminate enlist, as it swells their list of recruits. Then, when the list of deserters grows, they put on long faces, and say, 'it must be those wicked officers.' The officers would stop this plan in a day if they were allowed."[39] The problem with recruiters, Phipps maintained, lay in the need for quantity, not quality. "What fools you civilians are to pay for these blackguards", he wrote. "If you would let the officers select their men, for the first year or so, you would have fewer men on paper, fewer men in prison, and just as many men for service....I will then give you another hint for saving money...why not do away with the Inspector-General of Recruiting, and spend his pay in horse artillery, who would be very ornamental and very serviceable? What use is the Inspector General?"[39] He had retired from active service in 1883, and Phipps fully retired in 1887, after attaining the rank ofcolonel.[40]
Phipps and his wife had seven children, five of whom survived into adulthood. The first son, Edmund, born 1867, died less than two months later while the family was stationed atPlymouth. During a short stint onMalta in 1869, a daughter Mary was born and died immediately. Edmund Bampfylde was born in 1869, and followed a career in education; he attendedNew College, Oxford, and became a Deputy Secretary on theBoard of Education.[41] In 1906, he married Margaret Percy Phipps, who was Mayor of Chelsea for two terms. In 1916, he was appointedCompanion of the Order of the Bath, followed by a knighthood in 1917; he served in the Ministry of Munitions during the latter part of World War I.[42] Charles Fossett, born in 1872, and Henry, the youngest son, pursued military careers. Charles and Henry were awarded theDistinguished Service Order for their roles in theBritish Expeditionary Force in 1914.[43] Charles attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in theRoyal Garrison Artillery during World War I, assigned to theVI Corps Heavy Artillery, and in 1918 moved to Parkgate, in Dublin.[44] Henry married Lorna Campbell in 1906, and they had three children. Henry eventually attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Artillery, and died on 24 August 1949.[43] The youngest, Gertrude Annie, was born on 13 December 1876.[20] She married in 1907 to Lieutenant Colonel E.C. Sandars, CMG, also a Royal Artillery officer; the couple had a daughter, Elizabeth.[45]
Phipps' wife died in October 1885. In 1888, Phipps settled with his three youngest children atChalfont St Giles.[46] The 1891 Buckingham census shows Phipps on the Royal Artillery retired list and living at a country manor house,The Stone, with his sons, 21-year-old Edmund, a student at theUniversity of Oxford, and 16-year-old Henry, a student at Wellington, and 14-year-old Gertrude. Four servants supported this small family, including a cook, a lady's maid for Gertrude, a housemaid, and a scullery maid.[47] In 1901, Henry had left the family household, but Edmund and Gertrude still lived with their father in St. Giles.[48] Phipps remained atThe Stone until 1920.[45]
Chalfont St Giles lies 25 miles (40 km) from London, and about the same distance toOxford,[49] maintained a foot in the social world of London and the academic world of Oxford. Phipps was chairman of the magistrates for the Burnham division, sitting atBeaconsfield, and was a member of the County Standing Joint Committee and the County Licensing Committee. He also attended annual Diocesan Conferences at Oxford.[45]
Phipps pursued his life-long interest in theNapoleonic Wars. In 1885, he edited a revised edition of what was then the standard authority on Napoleon,Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne'sMemoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte. He also wrote the revision's chapters XXIV and XXVI.[50] Subsequently, he edited a new edition of the surgeonBarry Edward O'Meara'sNapoleon at Saint Helena, another Napoleonic Wars classic, to which he wrote a new introduction: O'Meara had been Napoleon's doctor on Helena.[51] Historians praised Phipps' introduction as a convincing exposition against the treatment of Napoleon on Helena. In 1889, he edited a revised edition ofJeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan'sThe private life of Marie Antoinette, queen of France and Navarre; with sketches and anecdotes of the courts of Louis XVI, which was also well received.[52]
Initially interested in the ministers of the Empire, Phipps was diverted to a deeper interest in Napoleon's marshals, primarily by the difficulty of obtaining facts about them. He capitalized on the growing interest of both Britons and the French in the Napoleonic period by purchasing, as they came out, the many personal memoirs published by the descendants of the participants.[53] Indeed, by 1920, he had acquired over 2,000 volumes, plus sundry maps and letters. That year, in failing health, he moved to the house of his son, Charles, in Carlyle Square (21), Chelsea, London. There was no room for the books at his son's house, so Phipps gave them toAll Souls College, Oxford;[45] the majority of them were placed in theCodrington Library.[52] He selected All Souls for its established reputation in military history, and for the Codrington's collection left to it by Sir Foster Cunliffe, who had been killed in action in 1916. The collection, called the Phipps Collection, numbered more than 2,000 volumes, and includes Napoleon's published correspondence, that of the marshals, and has been kept up to date with modern works issued by the Historical Department of the French General Staff.[45]
By the 1920s, there was still little published in English about the French marshals. Phipps's work was complicated by the regular appearance of new material. The French field armies of the Revolutionary Wars (1793–1800) formed the military education of the future marshals, but little had been published in either French or English about their early military experience.[54] Phipps called these revolutionary armies the Schools for Marshals.[53] Furthermore, he postulated, "the Consulate and the Empire cannot be judged until the Revolutionary period has been studied in detail."[55]
Published works were inconsistent, and French sources frequently misinterpreted the English sources, and vice versa.[56] Phipps wrote both an introduction to his work and a summary of the histories of the armies of theRepublic and theConsulate, from 1791 to 1804, and at certain points in his narrative, he paused to review the positions of the various future marshals and other well-known generals. He reflected on the development of their experience, the characteristics of their leadership, and the relationships to one another and to Napoleon.[57] Critically, he posited that generals rarely improved with practice.[58]
A massive typescript remained unfinished on Phipps's death in June 1923. It included an introduction, a summary of the armies, a detailed history of the armies and thecoup d'état in Paris, a complete history of the French armies in Spain 1808–1814, accounts of Napoleon's 1814 campaign and of the marshals during the First and Second Restorations. It also included biographical material on the marshals and notes on the ministers of the Empire.[57] Phipps hoped that his children might be able to prepare it all for publication, and he made some provision for that. After Phipps's death, with the support ofCharles Oman, his son Charles F. Phipps supervised the publication of the first three volumes.[59] Charles died in June 1932 before proofing the final galleys of volume three. Volumes four and five were left in the hands of Phipps's "very capable granddaughter" and literary executor, Elizabeth Sandars.[60]
Phipps' effort, and that of his literary executors, was well received as both interesting and informative. "The narrative is that of a gallant gentleman whose life was spent as a 'soldier of the Queen' and in contributing to the greatness of the British Empire, who narrates to his listeners the facts which he has gathered, after his retirement from the army, in the pursuit of his favorite hobby."[61] The narrative itself is informal and charming, not only full of analysis, but also relaying interesting stories and anecdotes about the marshals themselves.[61] Other reviewers found the narrative clear, but undistinguished and "fatigued."[60]
In the first volume, Phipps' analysis covers a categorization of the marshals, although the narrative itself is largely confined to theArmée du Nord. In the beginning, he points out, the French army was well disciplined and the class of non-commissioned officers was "especially good."[62] As the integration of the so-called volunteers—the revolutionary conscripts—into the units of regular troops undermined morale, discipline, and conditions, the army's cohesion fell apart.[62] Phipps highlighted in particular the problems of armies moving without magazines or supplies.[63] His analysis of the classes of marshals—citizen, soldier, officer—offers a noteworthy and solid refutation of the marshals as a class of leadership rising from the rough soldiery;[63] his criticism of the French Revolutionary army system resulting from the two amalgamations is acute, targeted and well-documented.[60] However, by limiting his sources to only those in English or French, in which he also was fluent, Phipps necessarily restricted his details, ignoring the actions of the Austrians and the Russians. The evidence, though, is always well assembled,[60] even though, by volume three, it becomes much more sparse.[64]
Of the five volumes, the second may be the most interesting: it dealt with more interesting times, and more consistent military operations. The army of the north was a "bad army", and the story of its command is one of "honest and brave men hurried in turn to the guillotine, or of less honest men going over to the enemy."[65] Some of Phipps' own eccentricities also appear in volume two; he frequently lapses into sarcasm, revealing his disdain for civilian administration of military affairs, and there are points at which he fails to follow through fully on his criticism; for example, he holds back on his critique ofJean Victor Moreau despite his assertion that he wanted to demolish once and for all the myth that Moreau was as great a soldier as Napoleon. Phipps adeptly describes the game of cat and mouse that Moreau,Jean Baptiste Jourdan, and theArchduke Charles played with one another in the summer of 1796 as their armies criss-crossed south-western Germany; neither general came to grips with the other until October, and even then, after theBattle of Schliengen, Charles was content to chase Moreau and Jourdan over the Rhine, not to demolish the French army. They were lacking, Phipps postulated, the instinct and nerves of Napoleon.[65]
The problems associated with Phipps' lack of professional training as an historian become clear by the third volume. Despite his reading of newly published works, Phipps' idea of what constituted new material included the publications of memoirs and journals of the participants, not the extensive secondary literature and array of historiographical material in the periodic literature written by professional historians seeking to understand the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.[Note 2] Consequently, Phipps' perceptions of the French revolution remained rooted in the outdated theories ofArchibald Alison,Adolphe Thiers, and others, while ignoring some of the new theories ofAlbert Sorel,François Victor Alphonse Aulard andAlbert Mathiez. His military background emerged clearly in his hostility to the meddling of the French government in the affairs of soldiers.[64]
Despite his amateur standing, Phipps plowed through an alarmingly confusing mass of material, especially that covering the 1796–1797 campaigns in Ireland and the Pyrenees. He hacked through a tangle of French material to provide a path for the English language reader. This feat in itself made volume three a useful tool; furthermore, Phipps offered an even-handed treatment of the suppression ofLyon andToulon, two French cities whose revolts alarmed the Revolutionary government. Despite his lack of professional training, Phipps provided a valuable assessment to these widely studied revolts.[64]
Reviewers also gave credit to Elizabeth Sanders, Phipps' granddaughter and literary executor, for her skillful handling of the last two volumes. The purpose of the work becomes even more apparent and direct under her management and editing of the material. The role of the future marshals becomes more clear in the campaigns of 1797, and especially in the Italian campaign; her handling of the material kept it fully focused on the future marshalsMassena,Augereau,Berthier, andBrune.[66]
By the time of the publication of the final volume, Phipps' work had established for itself a place in the pantheon of Napoleonic literature. It "will always be regarded as a valuable source", well-known to students of the Napoleonic era, and the last volume, critics maintained, was "as interesting as its predecessors."[60] Not only did Phipps achieve his goal of creating a record of the development of the marshals, but his volumes have become a useful history of the progress of the wars themselves, from 1792 to 1799.[60] The true value of the first volume, and indeed the subsequent four, lies in its repeated use as a reference work.[65]
Three photograph albums and a photographic print by Ramsay Weston Phipps are held in theBritish Empire and Commonwealth Collection atBristol Archives. The albums include photos from 1874–1927, from Phipps' time in India (including parts of the North East frontier which is now Pakistan),Egypt,Aden,Burma,South Africa, andCeylon. There are also images fromShoeburyness,Plymouth,Chalfont St Giles,Charterhouse andCanterbury Cathedral, as well as family photographs from England and abroad. (Ref. 2005/047) (online catalogue).
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