John Norton-Griffiths
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Norton-Griffiths, 1st Baronet KCB
DSO
(13 July 1871 – 27 September 1930) was an engineer, soldier during the Second Boer War
and World War I
, and later a British
Member of Parliament.
on 13 July 1871. The son of John Griffiths, a clerk of works at St Audries Manor Estate, West Quantoxhead
. He had an unsettled youth and left home at the age of 17. After a generally wasted education he spend a year, in 1887-1888, as a trooper with the Life Guards.
in 1896 he immediately enlisted in the in British South Africa Police
and, presumably on the strength of his year with the Life Guards, he was given the rank of sergeant and command of a troop of scouts. He served in the Second Boer War, rising to Captain Adjutant to Lord Roberts'
bodyguard.
between 1903 and 1908. He was elected to Parliament in 1910 and was until 1918 the Conservative Party
's MP for Wednesbury
, Staffordshire
. From 1918 until 1924 he was the Conservative MP for the Wandsworth Central constituency, London
.
he raised the 2nd King Edward's Horse at his own expense and was commissioned Major
in the regiment. Using the experience from a successful engineering career, Norton-Griffiths built many fortifications for the Entente
on the Western Front
. An enigmatic figure, Norton-Griffiths took to touring the trenches in a battered Rolls-Royce
loaded with crates of fine wine
s.
Early mine warfare, started in 1915 by the blowing or 'lifting' of two tunnels under British trenches, causing psychological turmoil and burying surprised tommies under then weak trenchwork. Norton-Griffiths immediately recruited all 'clay kickers' from mines in the north of England, using his carte-blanche to cull such skilled men from regular infantry. Forming the first units of the Royal Engineer tunnelling companies
resulted in a method to dig tunnels at a rate of 8m per day compared to the Germans' 2m. This led to a massive campaign in the Ypres salient culminating in the June 7, 1917 3:10 am detonation of more than ten tonnes of Ammonal under the German high ground at Hill 60
. The effect resulted in an earthquake that split the ground under the entire hill with white flames shooting into the sky, while the concrete pillboxes and occupying soldiers came down for hundreds of yards in all directions. The explosion resulted in a 70 ft deep crater, with surrounded trenches sandwiched shut so fast soldiers were crushed still in the standing positions. The resulting terror caused the Germans to retreat and the castigation of Tunnelmaster Otto von Fusslein. Following this 'Empire Jack' was sent elsewhere.
Perhaps his most-important contribution came when he was sent to sabotage the Romania
n oil field
s ahead of a German
advance early in the war. Colonel Norton-Griffiths used such techniques as dumping cement down the wells, filling tanks with nails, and emptying storage wells and then setting them on fire. He was able, almost single-handedly, to destroy seventy refineries and 8,000 tons of crude oil. General Ludendorff of the German army was later quoted as saying, We must attribute our shortages to him. German efforts later got some of the Romanian fields back online for the war effort, but they were never able to recover fully. This difficulty led to the priority of securing Romania as an ally of Adolf Hitler
in World War II
. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1918 (although he had temporarily also held the rank in 1916). He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
in 1916 and made a baronet in 1922.
Sir John was a keen supporter of Liverpool football club and was a director of Arsenal Football Club between 1928 and 1930.
, at which point his good fortune deserted him and funds ran out.
On 27 September 1930, Sir John donned his bathing costume as he did every morning, and took a rowboat from the beach of the Casino Hotel near Alexandria
, Egypt. Sometime later, the boat was found empty, and a search party was launched. They soon retrieved Sir John's body, floating in the water, with a bullet wound through the temple. No weapon was found, but the coroner's court gave a verdict of suicide, although suggestions of murder (possibly by Romanians) also circulated. His body was brought back to England and he was buried at Mickleham
Church, Surrey, on 18 October 1930. He was just over 59 years of age.
His widow survived him until her death, aged 101, in 1974.
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...
(13 July 1871 – 27 September 1930) was an engineer, soldier during 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...
and 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...
, and later a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Member of Parliament.
Early life
John Norton-Griffiths was born in SomersetSomerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
on 13 July 1871. The son of John Griffiths, a clerk of works at St Audries Manor Estate, West Quantoxhead
West Quantoxhead
West Quantoxhead is a small village and civil parish in the West Somerset district of Somerset, England. It lies on the route of the Coleridge Way and on the A39 road at the foot of the Quantock Hills, from East Quantoxhead, from Williton and equidistant from Bridgwater and Taunton...
. He had an unsettled youth and left home at the age of 17. After a generally wasted education he spend a year, in 1887-1888, as a trooper with the Life Guards.
Military career in Africa
On the outbreak of the Second Matabele WarSecond Matabele War
The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion and in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought in 1896–97 between the British troops and the Ndebele people....
in 1896 he immediately enlisted in the in British South Africa Police
British South Africa Police
The British South Africa Police was the police force of the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes which became the national police force of Southern Rhodesia and its successor after 1965, Rhodesia...
and, presumably on the strength of his year with the Life Guards, he was given the rank of sergeant and command of a troop of scouts. He served in the Second Boer War, rising to Captain Adjutant to Lord Roberts'
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts
Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, Bt, VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, KStJ, PC was a distinguished Indian born British soldier who regarded himself as Anglo-Irish and one of the most successful British commanders of the 19th century.-Early life:Born at Cawnpore, India, on...
bodyguard.
Engineer and MP
After the war, Norton-Griffiths was awarded contracts to carry out major engineering projects in Africa and South America. These included work on the first 197 km of the Benguela Railway in AngolaAngola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
between 1903 and 1908. He was elected to Parliament in 1910 and was until 1918 the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
's MP for Wednesbury
Wednesbury
Wednesbury is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Similarly to the word Wednesday, it is pronounced .-Pre-Medieval and Medieval times:...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. From 1918 until 1924 he was the Conservative MP for the Wandsworth Central constituency, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
World War I
In 1914 at the start of World War IWorld 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...
he raised the 2nd King Edward's Horse at his own expense and was commissioned Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the regiment. Using the experience from a successful engineering career, Norton-Griffiths built many fortifications for the Entente
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. An enigmatic figure, Norton-Griffiths took to touring the trenches in a battered Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
loaded with crates of fine wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
s.
Early mine warfare, started in 1915 by the blowing or 'lifting' of two tunnels under British trenches, causing psychological turmoil and burying surprised tommies under then weak trenchwork. Norton-Griffiths immediately recruited all 'clay kickers' from mines in the north of England, using his carte-blanche to cull such skilled men from regular infantry. Forming the first units of the Royal Engineer tunnelling companies
Royal Engineer tunnelling companies
Royal Engineer tunnelling companies were specialist units of the Corps of Royal Engineers within the British Army, formed to dig attacking tunnels under enemy lines during the First World War....
resulted in a method to dig tunnels at a rate of 8m per day compared to the Germans' 2m. This led to a massive campaign in the Ypres salient culminating in the June 7, 1917 3:10 am detonation of more than ten tonnes of Ammonal under the German high ground at Hill 60
Battle of Hill 60 (Western Front)
The Battle of Hill 60 was an Australian assault that was subsidiary to the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.-1914-15:Hill 60 was a low rise on the southern flank of the Ypres Salient and was named for the 60 metre contour which marked its bounds. Hill 60 was not a natural highpoint, but was created as a...
. The effect resulted in an earthquake that split the ground under the entire hill with white flames shooting into the sky, while the concrete pillboxes and occupying soldiers came down for hundreds of yards in all directions. The explosion resulted in a 70 ft deep crater, with surrounded trenches sandwiched shut so fast soldiers were crushed still in the standing positions. The resulting terror caused the Germans to retreat and the castigation of Tunnelmaster Otto von Fusslein. Following this 'Empire Jack' was sent elsewhere.
Perhaps his most-important contribution came when he was sent to sabotage the Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
s ahead of a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
advance early in the war. Colonel Norton-Griffiths used such techniques as dumping cement down the wells, filling tanks with nails, and emptying storage wells and then setting them on fire. He was able, almost single-handedly, to destroy seventy refineries and 8,000 tons of crude oil. General Ludendorff of the German army was later quoted as saying, We must attribute our shortages to him. German efforts later got some of the Romanian fields back online for the war effort, but they were never able to recover fully. This difficulty led to the priority of securing Romania as an ally of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1918 (although he had temporarily also held the rank in 1916). He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
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...
in 1916 and made a baronet in 1922.
Sir John was a keen supporter of Liverpool football club and was a director of Arsenal Football Club between 1928 and 1930.
Last years in Egypt
In Egypt in 1928 he became involved in the scheme to heighten the Aswan DamAswan Dam
The Aswan Dam is an embankment dam situated across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. Since the 1950s, the name commonly refers to the High Dam, which is larger and newer than the Aswan Low Dam, which was first completed in 1902...
, at which point his good fortune deserted him and funds ran out.
On 27 September 1930, Sir John donned his bathing costume as he did every morning, and took a rowboat from the beach of the Casino Hotel near Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, Egypt. Sometime later, the boat was found empty, and a search party was launched. They soon retrieved Sir John's body, floating in the water, with a bullet wound through the temple. No weapon was found, but the coroner's court gave a verdict of suicide, although suggestions of murder (possibly by Romanians) also circulated. His body was brought back to England and he was buried at Mickleham
Mickleham
Mickleham may refer to:* Mickleham, Victoria, Australia* Mickleham, Surrey, England...
Church, Surrey, on 18 October 1930. He was just over 59 years of age.
His widow survived him until her death, aged 101, in 1974.