YEARS OF WAITING
Second in Command--Maintaining the Barrow tradition--The
Persistent Student--Service in India--Retires on
Half-pay--Renewed Activities--Rehearsing for South Africa.
After the success in the Soudan Major French had not long to wait for
promotion. A few days after General Buller's tribute he was appointed
Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment. So that he came back to England as
second in command of the 19th Hussars.
From this time onward he became entirely absorbed in his profession.
It is true that he had always been interested in it; but there is no
question that Barrow was the man who had shown him the fascination of
scientific generalship. While making the reputation of the 19th,
Barrow had unhappily lost his own life. He died as the result of
re-opening an internal wound while tent-pegging in the following year.
French determined to carry on his work, and at Norwich the training
of the 19th Hussars rapidly became famous throughout the Army.
One young officer, now General Bewicke Copley,[6] was attached to the
19th from another regiment in order to study their methods. He tells
how he was greatly struck by the brilliant work which French was
doing. His strict discipline and his terrific ideas of what training
meant, may have struck some of his young subalterns as scarcely
yielding them the ideal existence of the _beau sabreur_. Probably they
were right; but they were being licked into a state of amazing
efficiency.
In 1887 it fell to Sir Evelyn Wood's lot to inspect the regiment.
Pointing to French, he asked his Colonel, "Of what value is that man?"
The reply was, "He is for ever reading military books." And he has
been reading them ever since!
A couple of years later he attained the rank of Colonel, with command
of his regiment. Very soon Sir Evelyn was to discover the answer to
his question. For he was anxious at that time to introduce the
squadron system. French was the one commanding officer who carried it
out. In spite of the very large amount of extra work it entailed, he
was willing to take any number of recruits and train them in the new
method. That method was finally allowed to lapse, although it has been
adopted in another form for infantry regiments. It is typical of
French that he was willing to slave over the unpopular way of doing
things, while other men adhered to the traditional and official
methods.
[Page Heading: THE AUTHORITIES ASTONISHED]
While French was still busy elaborating new theories and testing them
at manoeuvres, his regiment was ordered to India. There he met one of
his future colleagues in South Africa, Sir George White. He was also
fortunate in working with one of the most brilliant of all British
cavalry trainers, Sir George Luck.
The latter considered that the cavalry regiments in India required
drastic reorganisation. French was ready to carry it out. To increase
the efficiency of the cavalry extensive manoeuvres were organised.
French acted as Chief of the Staff to General Luck, and astonished the
authorities by the way in which "he conducted troops dispersed over a
wide area of ground, allotting to each section its appointed work and
bringing the complete movement to a brilliant conclusion."
But the Government's recognition of his brilliant work was by no means
encouraging. In 1893 Colonel French was actually retired on half-pay!
It is an admirable system which allows the middle-aged officer to
make way for youth in the British army; but the spectacle of a French
despatched into civil obscurity at the ripe age of forty-one, has its
tragic as well as its comic side. That it acutely depressed him we
know. For a time he was almost in despair as to his career.
Actually, however, these two years "out of action" were probably
invaluable to him--and to the army. For the first time he had the
opportunity for unrestrained study; and much of that time was spent,
no doubt, in thinking out the theories of cavalry action which were
yet to bring him fame and our arms success.
Much of his most valuable work dates from this period of enforced
retirement. He was present, for instance, during the cavalry
manoeuvres of 1894 in Berkshire. He took part in the manoeuvres as a
brigadier. His chief Staff Officer, by the way, was Major R.S.S. (now
Lieut.-General Sir Robert) Baden-Powell, while the aide-de-camp to the
Director-General of manoeuvres was Captain (now Lieut.-General Sir)
Douglas Haig. Here French formulated what was to be one of the axioms
of his future cavalry tactics. One of those present at headquarters
has recorded his remarks.
[Page Heading: THE FUNCTION OF CAVALRY]
"There is," said French, "no subject upon which more misconception
exists, even among service men, than as regards the real rôle of
cavalry in warfare. My conception of the duties and functions of the
mounted arm is not to cut and to hack and to thrust at your enemy
wherever and however he may be found. The real business of cavalry is
so to manoeuvre your enemy as to bring him within effective range of
the corps artillery of your own side for which a position suitable for
battle would previously have been selected."[7]
It is difficult to conceive a more clear and concise statement of the
function of cavalry. It differs widely from the rather grim utterance
of the late Sir Baker Russell, who stated that the duty of cavalry was
to look pretty during time of peace, and get killed in war.
Happily Colonel French's theorising was not without its effect. The
Berkshire manoeuvres showed a number of flagrant shortcomings in our
cavalry. Several military men, ably seconded by _The Morning Post_,
insisted on the reorganisation of that arm. After the customary
protest, officialdom bowed to the storm.
French's old chief, Sir George Luck, was brought back from India to
institute reforms. The first thing that the new Inspector-General of
Cavalry insisted upon was a revised Cavalry Drill Book. Who was to
write it? The answer was not easy. But eventually Colonel French was
called in from his retirement and installed in the Horse Guards for
that purpose.
The result was a masterpiece of lucid explanation and terse precision.
The book evolved into something much more than a mere manual of drill.
For it is also a treatise on cavalry tactics, a guide to modern
strategy, and a complete code of regulations for the organisation of
mounted troops.
No sooner was the book issued than another problem arose. Who was to
carry out all these drastic alterations? Once again, recourse was had
to the half-pay Colonel in Kent! Who so fit to materialise reforms as
the man who had conceived them? So in 1895 Colonel French was
ensconced in the War Office as Assistant Adjutant-General of Cavalry.
There were great reforms instituted.
British cavalry was placed on a brigade establishment at home
stations. Which means that, for the first time, three regiments were
grouped into a brigade and placed under the command of a staff
colonel, who was entirely responsible for their training. In the
summer months the regiments were massed for combined training.
In spite of the revolution he was accomplishing, it is doubtful
whether French was at all happy at the War Office. He is essentially a
man of action. Unlike Kitchener, he prefers execution to organisation,
and he probably chafed horribly over the interminable disentangling of
knots which is efficient organisation. His one consolation was the
solution every night before he left his desk of a refreshing problem
in tactics.
[Page Heading: FROM STOOL TO SADDLE]
There are endless stories of his pacing up and down that back room in
Pall Mall like a caged lion. Like Mr. Galsworthy's Ferrand he hates to
do "round business on an office stool." His temperament is entirely
dynamic. Everything static and stay-at-home is utter boredom to him.
Probably no soldier ever showed the qualities and the limitations of
the man of action in more vivid contrast.
His trials, however, were not of long duration. So soon as the brigade
system had been fully organised he was given command of one of the
units which he had created--the Second Cavalry Brigade at Canterbury.
Here he was able to achieve one of his most notable successes. It
happened during the 1898 manoeuvres. As commander of a brigade, French
was chosen to lead Buller's force in the mimic campaign. His opponent
was General Talbot, an older officer who worked on the stereo-typed
methods. The antiquity of his antagonist's ideas gave French his
opportunity. He made such a feature of reconnaissance that the experts
declared his tactics to be hopelessly rash. But by the mobility of his
force he continually checked and out-manoeuvred his opponent--appearing
in the most unexpected places in the most unaccountable ways.
[Page Heading: THE CRITICS ROUTED]
At the end of the manoeuvres the fighting centred round Yarmbury
Castle. All day French had been harassing General Talbot's forces. At
last, by a rapid movement, his cavalry surprised several batteries of
the enemy's horse artillery. He commanded them to dismount and made
the whole force his prisoners. When the umpires upheld his claim, the
experts aforesaid were given considerable food for thought.
The general conclusion was that luck had contributed to his success,
and that in actual warfare such recklessness might lead to disaster.
Consequently, French's opponents were justified to some extent in
their insistence that the old methods were best. Indeed, his success
only strengthened prejudice in certain quarters.
Happily, however, the original mind won the day. And in 1899, French
was given command of the first cavalry brigade at Aldershot, with the
rank of Major-General. This is the highest post open to a cavalry
officer in his own sphere during the time of peace. Thus French's
critics were finally routed, and he was free at last to train British
cavalry according to his own brilliant and original ideas.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] To General Bewicke Copley the writer is indebted for much kind
assistance in writing this chapter.
[7] Quoted in _M.A.P._, March 3, 1900.