He died of a cerebral hemorrhage and his body was burned in Westminster Abbey.. Sir Edmund Allenby, the British general who ended the Ottoman presence in Palestine

Edmund Allenby;

A veteran British general and a senior military officer, who captured Jerusalem from the Ottomans after 4 centuries of their control over it, while taking command of the Egyptian Reconnaissance Force of the Imperial Army during the Sinai and Palestine campaign in World War I.

He held high positions in the British Army, and also held the position of Special High Commissioner in Egypt and Sudan. He graduated from the Royal Military College Sandhurst, and because of his severity and size, his soldiers and colleagues nicknamed him the Bull.

He was born in 1861 in Nottinghamshire, central England, and died after a cerebral hemorrhage in 1936 in London.

Birth and upbringing

Sir Edmund Allenby was born on April 23, 1861, in Nottinghamshire, on the border with the county of South Yorkshire, to parents from a well-off family, and was educated at Haileybury Public School, north of London.

Although he did not want to be a soldier at the start of his youth, he graduated as a lieutenant at the Royal Military College Sandhurst two years after joining it in 1880.

Edmund Allenby was quick to anger at the slightest dislike, and besides his ferocious temper and quick revolt against his soldiers and subordinates, he was large and tall, and these physical and moral qualities qualified him to be described by his peers as "the bull".

However, as some of those who accompanied him describe him, he frequently asked members of his battalion and those around him whether they had effective ideas for gain and victory, which indicates a clear desire to benefit from the potential surrounding him as much as possible, and he was reading a lot in various fields such as the botanist Poetry and literature.

Despite his rapid eruption, which he was known for, he had a turbulent affection for his loved ones, and he often asked about his son, who joined the army when he was young and was killed under the age of 20 in Belgium during the Great War, and he collapsed when he received the news of his death in a telegram sent by his wife to him while he was busy Severe in his preparation for the battle with the Ottomans in Palestine.

Edmund Allenby in Jerusalem in December 1917 (Reuters)

Study and scientific training

Allenby was assigned to work in the Sixth Cavalry Regiment at the rank of lieutenant after graduating, and was sent on a mission to South Africa, to which he frequented between 1882 and 1889.

In the meantime, he had obtained the rank of captain in 1888 AD.

In 1891, Allenby passed the Staff College exam in Camberley, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of major in 1897, performing his service this time in Ireland.

military experience

Allenby participated in the South African war between 1899 and 1902, known as the Second Boer War, between the British Empire at the time and the Boer and Orange Free Republics, and it ended with the victory of the British occupier, and Allenby was then inspector general of the cavalry.

This battle earned him experience that later qualified him to take over the cavalry division at the French front during the outbreak of the First World War, and from there to the leadership of the Third Army in 1915 AD.

Marshal Herbert Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army (d. 1916), described him as a "brigadier general of the cavalry" and "popular and capable".

Allenby actively participated in the battles of World War I, most notably the French Battle of Arras, which was one of the crushing confrontations waged by the Allies against the German army, which cost the two sides more than 300,000 dead, and was not in the military balance a victory for either side, despite the control of The British held important positions there, but the campaign leader had already threatened to blame Edmund Allenby if the Allied forces did not achieve a decisive victory in this battle.

General Edmund Allenby leading British forces as they enter Jerusalem in 1917 (Reuters)

The Holy March towards Jerusalem

However, the distinguishing mark in the history of the general was the choice of Prime Minister Lloyd George (d. 1945) as commander of the Egyptian infantry forces in the middle of 1917 AD, and Allenby saw this appointment as a downgrading of his military status, and as a punishment for him for the outcome of the army in the Battle of Arras.

However, the general immediately began to reconsider the organization of these forces, raise their efficiency and improve their performance after the slackness that hit them at the hands of his predecessor, General Archibald Murray (d.: 1945), who suffered two major defeats against the Ottoman forces in Gaza in March and April of the same year. .

As part of his preparations for the war against the Ottomans in Palestine, Allenby moved his command from Cairo to Khan Yunis to be close to the battle, and brought a number of experienced officers from the burning fronts in Europe, and also secured a large increase in manpower and advanced firearms, especially artillery, to support his attack which he studied carefully.

He redoubled his efforts to lay pipes and draw the Nile waters into the Sinai desert, and to extend the railways that reached Deir al-Balah in Gaza, and took the city of Qantara in Port Said as a center for supplying his army instead of Alexandria.

The general took advantage of the chaos in the ranks of the Turkish army resulting from internal disputes and successive strikes by the allies to launch a coordinated and surprising attack on the Ottoman forces in Palestine. He occupied the city of Beersheba on October 31, 1917 AD, after deluding the Ottomans that he would attack Gaza, then pushed the army The confused Ottoman man moved to the north until he was able to occupy Gaza on November 17 of the same year.

He continued to chase with his forces - which gained more confidence - the Ottoman army, and occupied Jaffa, Ramleh and Lydda, which solidified the general's conviction that it was easy to crawl towards Jerusalem, to lift himself up with this victory from the shame of defeat in France.

The Turkish administrator in Jerusalem knew that the city would inevitably fall into the hands of the British, so he agreed with its dignitaries to surrender in order to preserve the holy places there, on condition that the British respect them, which the British accepted.

On December 11, 1917, General Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot, after the withdrawal of the Ottomans, who had controlled this city for 400 full years (1517-1917).

British Prime Minister Lloyd George was overwhelmed with happiness after news of his army's control of Jerusalem, so he rushed to present the victory as a "Christmas gift to the British nation", then wrote, "He was able to liberate the holiest city in the world, and with this victory the Christian world was able to recover its sanctities there." ".

It was the culmination of the events that raised Allenby to the top of glory in colonial history, etched his name deep in the British memory, present and future, and erased the shame that stuck to him after his failed tours on the Western Front a few years ago;

The Battle of Nablus Plain, also known as the Battle of Megiddo, which he fought against the Ottoman Empire's army.

Statue of British General Edmund Allenby (Shutterstock)

On September 19, 1918, the Egyptian reconnaissance forces, led by General Allenby, launched a coordinated attack on the Ottomans in the plains around the city of Haifa using cavalry, infantry, artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft. Then, reconnaissance units surrounded the Ottoman soldiers, preventing them from escaping and capturing thousands of them.

This decisive victory broke the last episode in the Ottoman presence in the Levant, and ended the Allied campaign in Sinai and Palestine with great success, so the British forces continued their pursuit of the Ottoman forces, occupying all the major cities in Syria until they reached Aleppo on October 26.

The leadership in Istanbul was forced to sign the humiliating Armistice of Mudros, according to which the Turks handed over their remaining positions outside Anatolia, agreed to the Allied control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, put the ports and strategic sites in the Ottoman Empire under the domination of the victorious forces, dismantled the Ottoman army and demobilized all its soldiers.

Allenby's campaign in Palestine was not without failures. Two attempts to attack Amman for the purpose of cutting the Hejaz railway ended in failure in April and May 1918. However, his victories that ended the Ottoman presence and outweighed the allies in the Great War over their opponents overshadowed his failures. .

High Commissioner in Egypt

After spending nearly 20 years traveling in the fields of war, the political leadership rewarded General Allenby with his promotion and appointment as High Commissioner in Egypt and Sudan, starting in 1919.

His political mission was not easier than his military mission. In Egypt, he faced the 1919 revolution, which erupted in protest against British colonial policies, such as abolishing the constitution, imposing protection, advancing foreign interests, and declaring martial law.

He was very valiant in repressing the Egyptians, whose maneuvers with the general resulted in the abolition of the protection imposed on them since 1914 AD, and the 1923 constitution was issued following the issuance of the February 28, 1922 declaration that recognized Egypt as an independent and sovereign state.

In June 1925, Allenby left Egypt, leaving behind a colonial legacy full of deep political and social scars, but he was also characterized by political shrewdness. During these six years, the general's main contribution to political history was.

his death

Lord Edmund Allenby died at his home after a sudden cerebral hemorrhage on May 14, 1936 AD, at the age of 75, and his ashes were buried after being cremated in Westminster Abbey in London.