John Keir

John Lindesay Keir
Nickname(s)	Matador
Born	6 July 1856
Died	3 May 1937 Leamington
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1876–1918
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Royal Artillery
Commands held	1st Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry 6th Division VI Corps
Battles/wars	Boer War First World War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Mentioned in Despatches Médaille militaire Order of the Crown (Belgium)

Lieutenant General Sir John Lindesay Keir, KCB (6 July 1856 – 3 May 1937) was a British Army officer during the Boer War and the First World War. After early service in the Royal Artillery, he commanded the 6th Division in the British Expeditionary Force when it was mobilised in 1914, and was later promoted to lead VI Corps on the Western Front. However, he was relieved of command in 1916 after a personal spat with his commanding officer, and forced to retire.

Early career

After being educated at Wimbledon School, Keir studied at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he joined the Royal Artillery in February 1876. He was posted to a Royal Field Artillery battery in India, and after six years was awarded his "jacket" and transferred to the Royal Horse Artillery. In 1884, promoted to captain, he returned to the RFA. He had become a skilled rider in the artillery, and whilst he was too heavy to compete in traditional horseracing, he participated in point to point racing and similar events. After attending the School of Gunnery he entered the Staff College in 1892, and passed out, newly promoted to major, to command a field battery in England. He later transferred back to the RHA, where he was commanding a battery at the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899.^[1]

His battery was not sent out with the expeditionary force, and he remained at home during the early stages of the war. However, in early 1901 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and offered command of the 1st Battalion of the newly formed Imperial Yeomanry, volunteer mounted infantry being raised for service in South Africa. He commanded the battalion for several months along the Orange River, and in December 1901 was assigned to command the Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles, a similar force drawn from regular artillerymen; he remained with this unit until shortly before the end of the war, and received the brevet rank of colonel in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902.^[2][1] For his services in South Africa, he was mentioned in despatches (dated 8 April 1902^[3]) as well as awarded the Queen's medal with five clasps.^[4] Following the end of the war in June 1902, Keir returned to the United Kingdom in the SS Dunottar Castle, which arrived at Southampton in July 1902.^[5]

He had transferred back to the RHA as a lieutenant-colonel in April 1902,^[6] and was posted to India, where he was formally promoted to colonel and appointed an Assistant Adjutant-General. In 1907, he was given the command of a brigade at Allahabad, promoted to major-general in 1909, and returned home in 1911. In July 1912 he was given command of the South Midland Division, part of the Territorial Force, and remained with them until July 1914, when he was transferred to take command of the 6th Division, a Regular Army formation based in Ireland.^[1]

Senior command

Keir had hardly been in command of his new division for a month when the First World War broke out, and it was mobilised as part of the British Expeditionary Force for service on the Continent. However, the original plan of sending six divisions to France was altered due to fears of German landings in the United Kingdom, and the 6th spent the first month of the war in reserve in East Anglia. It landed in France in September, and immediately saw service at the Battle of the Aisne; later in the year, he commanded it at the Battle of Armentières. In mid-1915, he was appointed to take command of the newly formed VI Corps (United Kingdom),^[7] which saw some action during the Battle of Loos in September. In December, his corps was attacked with phosgene, the first time this form of chemical warfare was used.^[1]

On 8 August 1916, he was relieved of his command; whilst officially described as due to exhaustion or illness, the cause of this was a personal dispute between Keir and Edmund Allenby, his commanding general in Third Army; Allenby was notorious for his overbearing manner, and had gained the nickname "the Bull" for the manner in which he treated his subordinates. Keir had finally complained to Douglas Haig, commander of the Expeditionary Force, and as a result was nicknamed "the Matador" – the man who could handle "the Bull". However, Allenby took his revenge by officially complaining about Keir's front-line preparations; Haig supported Allenby, despite Keir's threats to appeal to higher authority, and Keir was sent home in some disgrace.^[8]

He was never given further command, and spent the remainder of the war fulminating about the role of privileged "cavalry generals", who he argued held a disproportionate amount of senior posts when compared to infantrymen, artillerists or engineers.^[9] He formally retired from the Army in July 1918, and published a book, A Soldier's-Eye View, the following year.^[4] In it, he called for "a true National army", alongside reforms to create a "National church".^[10] His suggested reforms included cutting the size of the peace-time regular forces alongside significant reductions in cavalry forces, and reorganising the home and colonial forces for better efficiency. More unusually, he also anticipated strong government control of labour in all spheres – a "national plan of personal service to the state" – and the creation of an "Army Senate" to oversee the organisation and governance of the National Army.^[11] The Senate would have both peacetime and wartime roles, and could serve as an advisory body akin to the War Cabinet during wartime.^[12]

As well as his knighthood, which he had received with his promotion in 1915, he was awarded the Medaille Militare and appointed a Grand Officer of the Belgian Order of the Crown. In retirement, he served as a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Warwickshire.^[1]

Notes

1. Obituary, The Times
2. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 27448. pp. 4191–4193. 26 June 1902.
3. The London Gazette: no. 27443. pp. 3967–3974. 17 June 1902.
4. Who Was Who
5. "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home". The Times (36814). London. 8 July 1902. p. 11.
6. The London Gazette: no. 27427. p. 2690. 22 April 1902.
7. His obituary gives May 1915, as does Marden (left command on 26 May); Who Was Who gives June. It may be that he left the division in the last week of May and began at VI Corps in early June.
8. MacDonald, p. 506
9. Harvey, pp. 357–358
10. Keir, pp. 1-11
11. Keir, pp. 155-159
12. Keir, pp. 201-204

References

• "KEIR, Lt-Gen. Sir John Lindesay", in Who Was Who (Online ed.). London: A & C Black. 2007.
• Harvey, Arnold D. (1992). Collision of empires: Britain in three world wars, 1793-1945. ISBN 1-85285-078-7.
• Keir, Lieut-Gen. Sir John (1919). A "Soldier's-Eye View" of Our Armies. London: John Murray.
• MacDonald, Allan (2008). A Lack of Offensive Spirit? The 46th (North Midland) Division at Gommecourt, 1st July 1916. ISBN 0-9558119-0-2.
• Marden, Thomas Owen (1920). A Short History of the 6th Division: Aug. 1914-March 1919. London: Hugh Rees.
• Obituary in The Times, 4 May 1937, p. 18.