Nevill Smyth

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox military person Major General Sir Nevill Maskelyne Smyth, Template:Post-nominals (14 August 1868 – 21 July 1941) was a senior officer in the British Army and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Early life

Born the son of Warington Wilkinson Smyth, a noted geologist, his grandfather was Admiral William Henry Smyth.<ref>Template:Acad</ref> His father's sister, Henrietta Grace Powell, was Robert Baden-Powell's mother, making Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement, Smyth's first cousin.<ref name = bp>BP's Cousin: Sir Nevill Maskelyne Smyth, V.C.</ref>

Smyth was educated at Westminster School and graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1888. He was posted to the Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) in India as a second lieutenant on 22 August 1888.<ref name = "adb">Template:Australian Dictionary of Biography</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In 1890 he was attached to the Royal Engineers to assist with a railway survey during the Zhob Valley expedition.<ref name="adb" />

Sudan

In 1895 Smyth was stationed in Cairo with his regiment,<ref name = "adb"/> being promoted lieutenant on 26 April of that year.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> From December 1895 until March 1896 he was attached to Theodore Bent’s explorations in the Northern Sudan, being “kindly attached to our expedition by Colonel Sir F. Wingate…”<ref>Theodore Bent (1896) ‘A Visit to the Northern Sudan’. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 8 (4) (Oct), pp. 335–353; Mabel Bent (1900) Southern Arabia (London, p. 288).</ref> For his services in the initial stages of the Mahdist War he was mentioned in despatches on 3 November 1896,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and awarded the Order of the Medjidieh, Fourth Class in 1897.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:London Gazette</ref>

Smyth was promoted captain on 8 December 1897.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> On 2 September came the Battle of Omdurman.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Near to the end of the battle, a dervish tried to spear two war correspondents; Smyth galloped forward and, though severely speared through the arm, shot the man dead. This action saw him awarded the Victoria Cross.<ref name = bp/><ref name = "adb"/> The citation was gazetted on 15 November 1898, and read:

Smyth was also Mentioned in Despatches.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In November 1899 he was Intelligence officer and aide-de-camp to Colonel Lewis, commanding the Infantry Brigade during the operations leading to the defeat of the Khalifa in the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat. He was Mentioned in Despatches,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was awarded the Order of Osmanieh, Fourth Class in 1900.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

The Mahdi's followers at Omdurman

Smyth rejoined the Queens Bays for active service in South Africa in the Second Boer War. He was awarded a brevet majority on 22 August 1902 for his South African service.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Smyth was promoted to substantive major on 27 October 1903 when he transferred to the Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards),<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> who were then in India, and returned to South Africa in 1908.<ref name = "adb"/> He was promoted lieutenant colonel on 1 May 1909,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and became commanding officer of the Carabiniers.<ref name = "adb"/> The regiment returned to England in 1912.<ref name = "adb"/> According to the London Gazette, he completed the standard four-year period as a regimental commander on 1 May 1909, and was placed on half-pay.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> However, the same issue carried notice of his promotion to colonel, backdated to 4 December 1912.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was seconded to the Egyptian Army, and in 1913–14 he was commandant of the Khartoum district where he was active in combating the slave trade.<ref name = "adb"/>

First World War

Brigadier General Smyth and his brigade major, Major Walter Cass, looking down Allah Gully towards Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli, 1915.

Smyth was dispatched to Gallipoli by Lord Kitchener, arriving there in May 1915. Promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general that same month, he took command of the 1st Australian Infantry Brigade after its previous commander, Brigadier General Henry Normand MacLaurin, had been killed.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He led the brigade during the Gallipoli campaign at the Battle of Lone Pine and was one of the last officers to leave the peninsula during the evacuation from Gallipoli in late 1915. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1916,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and received a further mention in despatches on 28 January 1916.<ref name = "adb"/><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Smyth led the brigade in action on the Western Front later in 1916, and on 28 December was given command of the 2nd Australian Division, for which he was made a temporary major general.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was mentioned in despatches twice more, on 15 May 1917 and 11 December 1917,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was promoted substantive major general on 1 January 1918 as a "reward for distinguished service in the field."<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was transferred back to the British Army in May 1918 and briefly commanded the 58th (2/1st London) Division and then the 59th (2nd North Midland) Division from August 1918, leading the latter during the liberation of Lille in October 1918.<ref name = "adb"/><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He had learned to fly in 1913 and was known for borrowing aircraft to look at the lines for himself.<ref name = bp/> He was yet again mentioned in despatches on 20 December 1918, by which time the war was over due to the Armistice of 11 November 1918.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Smyth was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 Birthday Honours.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> On 30 July 1919 was appointed GOC 47th (1/2nd London) Division (Territorial Force).<ref name = "adb"/><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> During the war he had also been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and the French Legion of Honour in the grade of Officer.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In all, he was Mentioned in Despatches eleven times during his career. He was appointed colonel of the 3rd Dragoon Guards on 1 October 1920.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He relinquished command of his division on 30 July 1923.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Smyth retired from the British Army on 5 July 1924,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and relinquished the colonelcy of the 3rd Dragoon Guards on 16 October 1925.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Smyth served as the Honorary Colonel of the South African Natal Carbineers from 1920 to 1925 and then of the 37/39th Australian Infantry Battalion.

In London in July 1918, Smyth married Evelyn Olwen Williams, daughter of Colonel Sir Osmond Williams, baronet and lord lieutenant of Merionethshire. Their three children were born in Britain before the family migrated to Australia.<ref name = "adb"/>

Australia

Formal group photograph taken at a Victoria Cross Reunion Dinner, sometime in the 1920s. Seated, second on the left, is Sir Nevill Smyth.

After his retirement, Smyth and his family migrated to Australia in 1925 to live on a farm at Balmoral, Victoria. He took to politics in the Nationalist Party of Australia and stood unsuccessfully for a Victorian casual vacancy in the Australian Senate. He died at home in 1941 and was buried in Balmoral Cemetery.<ref name = "adb"/>

One of his sons, Dacre Smyth, followed a military career in the Royal Australian Navy, rising to the rank of commodore.<ref>Commodore Dacre Smyth: Battle of the Coral Sea veteran, The Times, 30 December 2008. Retrieved on 25 February 2009</ref>

External links

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