neverforget Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 Not Rommel but arguably just as well known. I think I might be back with another guess on your man shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Bach y Sowldiwr Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 #3224 UG, is it someone on high in the ASC, Boyce, Bridge or somebody like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 I was going to suggest Sir James Wolfe Murray? I wondered if the other bloke might even be Wilson? My Uhlan didn't survive the war by the way, and he didn't die as a Uhlan either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 NF, would your Ulhan meet his end in a field on the Morlancourt ridge in 1918, leaving history to debate who exactly brought him down? If it is the man I am thinking of he was buried three times, once at Bertangles, then at Fricourt and finally in the family vault. Could be talking complete rot of course as they would have said at the time. Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 No correct guesses so far. Another clue: he was General X in the celebrated divorce case Dennistoun v Dennistoun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 NF, would your Ulhan meet his end in a field on the Morlancourt ridge in 1918, leaving history to debate who exactly brought him down? If it is the man I am thinking of he was buried three times, once at Bertangles, then at Fricourt and finally in the family vault. Could be talking complete rot of course as they would have said at the time. Pete. Well solved, Pete. "Le Diable Rouge" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen I didn`t know he started as a cavalry man, or that he so nearly didn`t figure at all in WW1 past August 1914. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 I didn`t know he started as a cavalry man, or that he so nearly didn`t figure at all in WW1 past August 1914. Just to illustrate where he met his end, this is the Morlancourt ridge taken from the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Richtofen would have been pursuing May along the ridge line at low level coming from the direction of Thiepval. Strictly speaking it wasn't a crash site as he brought the red triplane down to a rough but safe landing before dying. Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 Just to illustrate where he met his end, this is the Morlancourt ridge taken from the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Richtofen would have been pursuing May along the ridge line at low level coming from the direction of Thiepval. Strictly speaking it wasn't a crash site as he brought the red triplane down to a rough but safe landing before dying. Pete. Crash Site.JPG Thanks for posting the picture Pete. It`s a great shot on the plain. (O.k. I`ll get me coat.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 No takers for my General X? Here's more from Ll.G: "He discharged his duties throughout the four and a half years of the War in such a way as to give complete satisfaction to everybody concerned, soldiers and civilians. Whatever doubts and grumbles there were about the deficiencies and shortcomings of other war leaders, there never was a murmur from any quarter as to the efficiency with which [he] did his work. That is more than can be said about any other prominent figure in the War, military or civil." High praise. If no-one gets it I'll reveal the giveaway quote from Asquith, which is equally complimentary. Or indeed, more so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Bach y Sowldiwr Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Dear. Knew I was supposed to do something earlier when on my desktop. Now I'm on my phone I can't access Ll-G's memoirs. I did find the quote. He was talking about the Quatermaster General. I can't remember his name...... Do I get half a point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Bach y Sowldiwr Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Sir John Cowans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Sir John Cowans Yes indeed. The Quartermaster-General to the Forces. According to Asquith, "the best Quartermaster since Moses". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 No correct guesses so far. Another clue: he was General X in the celebrated divorce case Dennistoun v Dennistoun. I had Sir John Cowans in mind but Dai Bach beat me to it! He was the only member of the Army Council (apart from the Secretary, who technically wasn't an actual member) who remained in office throughout the war, I also recall having seen him describded somewhere as being "very popular with the ladies". Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 ... described somewhere as being "very popular with the ladies". Ron "Cowans was 'General X' in the lurid legal case of Dennistoun v Dennistoun. He was cited by Dororthy Dennistoun, the defendant in that case, as having given preferment to her husband, Lt Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun during his career in the British Army. Dorothy also claimed she became Cowans' mistress in exchange for the General advancing Ian Dennistoun's army career." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Lurid, scandalous behaviour? Of those who ought to know better? Who is this ? ? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Frances Stevenson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Frances Stevenson? It's not Frances, no. But I love her memory of her first meeting with Ll.G: "I left Downing Street under the impression that I was a free and independent person: in truth I was enslaved for life." No. This lady had a similar, decades long relationship with a senior politician. Their affair started in 1916; she was present when he died in 1945. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Lucy Page Mercer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Lucy Page Mercer? Yes! Well done. I suppose '1945' was a heavy clue. "Alice Roosevelt Longworth - daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, and a cousin of Eleanor's - encouraged the affair, inviting Mercer and Franklin to dinner together several times. She later commented, 'He deserved a good time ... He was married to Eleanor.' " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 1945 was indeed very generous of you uncle along with your other clues. I found a Lord Kitchener's mistress too, but the gentleman turned out to be a reggae star. I'm glad I double checked as it was very nearly my first guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 I found a Lord Kitchener's mistress too, but the gentleman turned out to be a reggae star. I'm glad I double checked as it was very nearly my first guess. I've been looking for an image of Oswald Fitzgerald. Happily, I've not found one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 1945 was indeed very generous of you uncle along with your other clues. I found a Lord Kitchener's mistress too, but the gentleman turned out to be a reggae star. I'm glad I double checked as it was very nearly my first guess. Warning: reggae anorak alert. To be strictly accurate Kitch (Lord Kitchener) was a calypso star and predated bluebeat, ska and rock steady. I've just looked him up and according to Tony Cozier he was responsible for "Cricket, Lovely Cricket", The things you pick up hanging around in this thread........ Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Ah yes, his amusingly titled "aide de camp". It's probably a good thing that the enemy didn't manage to get their hands on that particular snippet of intelligence at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Warning: reggae anorak alert. To be strictly accurate Kitch (Lord Kitchener) was a calypso star and predated bluebeat, ska and rock steady. I've just looked him up and according to Tony Cozier he was responsible for "Cricket, Lovely Cricket", The things you pick up hanging around in this thread........PeteOne reggae anorak to another mate. I still have some of my old Trojan 45s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 31 October , 2015 Share Posted 31 October , 2015 Cheer up mate. It might never `appen. Had shedloads of titles, and resigned from post after post. Referred to his first four children as a "rum lot". His fifth was educated at Eton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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