General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Sir James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane GCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

, KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, DSO

Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 (17 November 1862 - 19 April 1950) was a senior British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 officer with a long and distinguished career.

Military career

Born to physician Daniel Rutherford Haldane

Daniel Rutherford Haldane

Daniel Rutherford Haldane was a prominent Scottish physician, who became president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh...

 and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth née Lowthorpe, James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane came from a family of distinguished Scottish aristocrats based in Gleneagles

Gleneagles, Scotland

Gleneagles is a glen which connects with Glen Devon to form a pass through the Ochil Hills of Perth and Kinross in Scotland...

. In 1882, at the age of 20, Aylmer was commissioned as a British officer of the Gordon Highlanders. On 18 February 1886, he was promoted to Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

.

Between 1894 and 1895, Haldane was part of the Waziristan

Waziristan

Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

 Field Force and participated in the Chitral Expedition

Chitral Expedition

The Chitral Expedition was a military expedition in 1895 sent by the British authorities to relieve the fort at Chitral which was under siege after a local coup.-Background to the conflict:Chitral was at the extreme north west of British India...

. Promoted to Captain on 13 Aug 1896, he was soon dispatched to quell the Afridis rebellion in the Tirah campaign

Tirah Campaign

The Tirah Campaign, often referred to in contemporary British accounts as the Tirah Expedition, was an Indian frontier war in 1897–98. Tirah is a mountainous tract of country.-Rebellion:...

 for the next two years (1897–1898). He became aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to the Commander-in-Chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 East Indies

East Indies

East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...

 in 1898 and then fought in the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. While imprisoned in Pretoria during the Boer War, he planned the escape which made Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 famous. Haldane failed to escape at the same time and later complained of Churchill's lack of regard for those who should have escaped with him. However, Haldane later managed his own escape. He became military attaché

Attaché

Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...

 with the Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 in 1904 and in 1910 become Commander of 10th Infantry Brigade.

He fought in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 initially as General Officer Commanding

General Officer Commanding

General Officer Commanding is the usual title given in the armies of Commonwealth nations to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC II Corps or GOC 7th Armoured Division...

 3rd Division, then part of the British Expeditionary Force. He was given command of 6th Army Corps

VI Corps (United Kingdom)

VI Corps was an army corps of the British Army in World War I. It was first organised in June 1915 and fought throughout on the Western Front.-Prior to World War I:...

 in France in 1916.

After the War he was appointed General Officer Commanding Mesopotamia

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 1920 remaining in that post until 1922; he retired in 1925. Haldane died on 19 April 1950, at his home in London and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery

Brookwood Cemetery

Brookwood Cemetery is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in western Europe.-History:...

.

Quotes

"I regret that on my arrival in Mesopotamia I was too much occupied with military matters, and too ill-informed regarding the political problem."

Movie Trivia

Captain Aylmer Haldane was portrayed in the 1972 movie Young Winston

Young Winston

Young Winston is a 1972 British film based on the early years of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.The film was based on the book My Early Life: A Roving Commission by Winston Churchill. The first part of the film covers Churchill's unhappy schooldays, up to the death of his father...

by British actor Edward Woodward

Edward Woodward

Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...

, OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

.

Selected works

Haldane's published writings encompass 6 works in 8 publications in 1 language and 311 library holdings.

• Haldane, James A. L. (1900) How we escaped from Pretoria. Edinburgh : William Blackwood & Sons.
• Haldane, James A. L. (1920) A brigade of the old army, 1914, relating to operations of 10 Infantry Bde, France, Aug-Nov, 1914. London : Edward Arnold.
• Haldane, Lieutenant General Sir Aylmer (1922) The Insurrection in Mesopotamia. London: William Blackwood & Sons.
• Haldane, James A. L. (1929) The Haldanes of Gleneagles. Edinburgh : William Blackwood & Sons.
• Haldane, James A. L. (1948) A soldier's story: the autobiography of General Sir Aylmer Haldane. Edinburgh : William Blackwood & Sons.

Papers

• LIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES

The papers of Lt Gen Sir Lawrence Worthington Parsons include letter from Haldane relating to 16 Irish Div 1916; the papers of Brig Sir James Edward Edmonds include 12 letters from Haldane 1905-1935 (ref: Edmonds)

• BRITISH LIBRARY, ORIENTAL AND INDIA OFFICE COLLECTIONS, LONDON

Copy of Haldane's official report, Battle of the Sha-Ho, Second Japanese Army, operations from the 5th September to the 19th October, 1904 (ref: 9057.de.2)

• CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

The papers of Maj Gen Sir Edward Louis Spears include correspondence 1934-1938 (ref: SPRS 1/156)

• IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

Diary as 10 Bde Commander, Shorncliffe 1912-1914; The papers of FM Sir Henry Hughes Wilson include correspondence with Haldane 1920-1921 (ref: HHW)

• NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH

Collection of papers 1890-1950 (ref: MSS 20247-59); including letters and diaries; papers relating to his World War I service; papers relating to Mesopotamia 1920-1922

External links

• The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, 1920

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