Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd

Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd
Field Marshal Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd
Nickname	Archie
Born	(1871-12-06)6 December 1871
Died	13 October 1947(1947-10-13) (aged 75)
Place of birth	Fivemiletown, County Tyrone
Place of death	Spilsby, Lincolnshire
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1891 - 1936
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands held	53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division 1st Infantry Division Southern Command Chief of the Imperial General Staff
Battles/wars	Second Boer War World War I
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Mention in Despatches

Field Marshal Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery-Massingberd GCB, GCVO, KCMG, DL (6 December 1871 – 13 October 1947) was Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He served in the Second Boer War and in World War I and later was the driving force behind the formation of a permanent "Mobile Division", the fore-runner of the Armoured Division.

Military career

Born the son of Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, a landowner and Ulster Unionist politician, and Mary Sophia Juliana May Montgomery (née Maude) and educated at Charterhouse School and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Archibald Armar Montgomery was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Field artillery on 4 November 1891. He was posted to a field battery in India in 1892 and became a lieutenant on 4 November 1894. He served with the Royal Field Artillery during the Second Boer War and took part in the Battle of Magersfontein and the Battle of Paardeberg. Having been promoted to captain on 8 March 1900, he was mentioned in despatches on 4 September 1901.

After the War Montgomery served as a battery captain at Bulford Camp before attending Staff College, Camberley from 1905 to 1906. He became a staff captain at the Inspectorate of Horse and Field Artillery in 1907 and a staff officer at Aldershot Command in 1908. Promoted to major on 5 June 1909, he was appointed a general staff officer at the Indian Army Staff College at Quetta in India on 9 February 1912.

At the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 Montgomery was appointed a general staff officer to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. He was appointed Chief of Staff at IV Corps in France in October 1914. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 16 May 1915, he became Chief of Staff of Fourth Army of the BEF in February 1916, a role which, according to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, from the planning for the Battle of the Somme in Summer 1916 he carried out with "great ability and success". Promoted to the substantive rank of major-general on 1 January 1917, he was appointed CB for his services in the field on 1 January 1918. He was effectively Deputy Commander of the Fourth Army (deputising for General Sir Henry Rawlinson) in the final months of the War and played an important role in the success of the Battle of Amiens. He was appointed KCMG for his services in connection with military operations in France and Flanders on 1 January 1919 and was also awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal by the President of the United States on 12 July 1919.

Montgomery was appointed Chief of Staff of the British Army of the Rhine following the War and then Deputy Chief of the General Staff in India on 27 March 1920 before becoming General Officer Commanding 53rd (Welsh) Division on 3 March 1922. He became General Officer Commanding 1st Infantry Division at Aldershot on 4 June 1923 and, having been advanced to KCB in the New Year Honours 1925, he was promoted to lieutenant-general on 16 March 1926. Following a two year break on half-pay, he became General Officer Commanding Southern Command on 17 June 1928. Promoted to full general on 1 October 1930, he was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces on 1 March 1931 and made ADC to the King on 3 March 1931.

He was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff in February 1933. Among his main achievements at this time was the mechanising of the Cavalry: indeed he was the driving force behind the formation of a permanent "Mobile Division". Despite this, according to Williamson and Millett, he was a great obstacle to innovation of mechanized forces and suppressed the analysis of the British army's performance in World War I initiated by his predecessor, Lord Milne. Advanced to GCB in the King's Birthday Honours 1934, he was made a field marshal on 7 June 1935. Following the death of King George V he took part in the funeral procession in January 1936 and then retired in March 1936.

He was also from Colonel Commandant of the Royal Regiment of Artillery from 19 November 1927, Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Corps from 7 December 1934, Colonel Commandant of the 20th Burma Rifles from 5 April 1935, Honorary Colonel of the 46th (Lincolnshire Reserve) Anti-Aircraft Battalion from 17 March 1937 and Colonel Commandant of the Royal Malta Artillery from 11 May 1937.

In retirement he became Deputy Lieutenant and then Vice-Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln. During World War II the Air Ministry attempted to build an airfield at Great Steeping in Lincolnshire that would have extended into Sir Archibald's wife's traditional family estate, necessitating the demolition of the magnificent mansion of Gunby Hall. He personally appealed to King George VI and the Air Ministry relented, redrawing the plans that resulted in the resiting of the new RAF Spilsby two miles further south. During World War II he also took charge of organizing and recruiting the Home Guard in Lincolnshire for nine months. His major passion in life was horsemanship. He died at his home, Gunby Hall, on 13 October 1947.

Family

He married Diana Langton Massingberd in 1896, and, in October 1926, changed his name by Royal Licence in order to take her surname hyphenated to his own, when she inherited family estates (meaning references to "Montgomery-Massingberd" during World War I are anachronistic); they had no children. The journalist and genealogist Hugh Massingberd was great-nephew both to the Field Marshal and, independently, to the Field Marshal's wife.

Further reading

• Heathcote, Tony (1999). The British Field Marshals 1736–1997. Barnsley (UK): Pen & Sword. ISBN 0-85052-696-5. 
• Montgomery-Massingberd, Archibald (1919). The Story of the Fourth Army in the Hundred Days. Hodder & Stoughton. ASIN B000TXVIJ0. 
• Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (1997). Archie - A Biographical sketch of Field Marshal Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd. National Trust. 
• Murray, Williamson; Millett, Allen R. (1996). Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63760-2.