| Henderson | George Francis Robert | | Lieutenant Colonel | He was born in St. Helier, Jersey in June 1854 and was educated at Leeds Grammar School where his clergyman father was Headmaster, and at St John's College, Oxford. He was originally intended for the Church but at the University failed to do justice to early academic promise and, having set his heart on a military career, passed into Sandhurst in 1877, 'an exceptionally well-grown young man'. Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant the next year into the 65th Foot at the advanced age of 24 years, he served briefly in India before being promoted to a Lieutenantcy in the 84th Foot, the linked Battalion, at Dover. In 1882 he took part with his Regiment in the Egyptian Campaign and distinguished himself in the field, leading a half Company in action at El Magfar and Tel-el-Mahouta. He also commanded a Company at Kassassin, and at Tel-el-Kebir a few days later he led it into a redoubt occupied by the enemy, 'it being rather marvellous that he was not killed in the performance of this brave action, for the first man - almost always an Officer - in every other case of the kind was shot dead'. At the end of the Campaign Henderson returned home with a Mention in Despatches and the promise of a Brevet promotion, and entertained hopes of joining the Egyptian Gendarmeri having been recommended by General Graham. This, however, was not to come about, and he married in 1883 Mary Joyce, who was to prove 'a true helpmeet to her husband' in his literary endeavours which eventually brought him world-wide fame. The period 1884-85 was spent in Bermuda on a tour of duty with the 84th, and while there it first occurred to Henderson to study the American Civil War, Americans being frequent visitors to the Island and communication with the mainland being easy: 'A visit to Virginia to study battlefields followed, and this he did to such good purpose that when he later paid them a second visit, his knowledge of the ground and his grasp of the circumstances under which the various battles had been fought, excited the astonishment of the men who had themselves taken part in the stirring events .... Twelve years later his labours resulted in the definitive study of the war of secession and his hero, Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War'. In 1886 Henderson was promoted Major by Brevet and produced The Campaign of Fredricksburg, A Tactical Study for Officers. In 1889, with a growing reputation as a writer and lecturer, he was sent by Lord Wolseley to Sandhurst to become Instructor on Tactics, Military Administration and Law. In 1892 he was transferred to the Staff College as Professor of Military Art and History where he was more readily placed to influence the thinking of those likely to command in future wars. John Terraine, the author of Douglas Haig the Educated Soldier, writes of his subject's time at Camberley: 'Among the instructors was Colonel G.F.R. Henderson, whose biography on Stonewall Jackson remains a standard to this day. Henderson's studies of the American Civil War supplied an enlargement of the mental horizons of British Officers which was not matched on the Continent, where the American example was disregarded, on the broad grounds that it was no more than a vast scuffle of amateurs, without interest to professional soldiers. Nothing could have been more wrong than this view. The pity is that British Officers did not profit more than they did from Henderson's enlightened teachings, but if he was not able to save the Generals from disastrous mistakes at the outbreak of the South African War, such flexibility as the Army later developed in that theatre was probably due to him as much as to any, while his direct influence on the strategy of Roberts, when the veteran Field Marshal took command, is widely acknowledged. A longer distance result of his teachings may be seen in the sympathy with which Haig, almost alone among senior Regular Officers, approached the problems of the Citizen Army. The essence of Civil War studies is the creation of a mass Army from a tiny standing force; this was to become the essence of Britain's problem too, when she was drawn into the conflict of the Continental giants'. Henderson's abilities were not lost on Lord Roberts and in the Winter of 1899-1900 Henderson accompanied him and his Chief of Staff, Major-General Lord Kitchener, to South Africa in the Dunottar Castle, as Director of Military Intelligence. In a posthumous memoir of Henderson, published as the foreword to a collection of Henderson's essays and lectures, The Science of War, Roberts recorded, 'I was convinced that he was well fitted for Staff employ in the field, and that, given the opportunity, he would be able to turn his knowledge to practical account - I therefore applied for his services. My request was granted, with the result that Henderson accompanied me to South Africa, and, on my taking over the command in January 1900, I appointed him Director of Intelligence. He threw himself into his work with his usual energy, and did much to reorganise and extend this most important department'. Reaching Cape Town on 10.1.1900, Henderson was given virtual carte blanche by Roberts, and immediately engineered the transfer from London of one of his brightest former pupils, Captain (later Field Marshal) William R. Robertson. He arranged from such sources as were available, the collection of maps of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, which though by no means perfect, were, as Roberts later acknowledged, of the utmost service when the advance into the Transvaal began. When Robertson reached Roberts' Headquarters on 20.1.1900, Henderson was occupied in creating an elaborate deception plan to keep the Boers in doubt as to the planned route of advance into the Orange Free State. In From Private to Field Marshal Robertson records that, 'Henderson, always an ardent advocate for mystifying and misleading the enemy, was especially active, and revelled in the deceits he practiced. He sent out fictitious telegrams to commanders in clear, and then on one excuse or another countermanded them in cipher; circulated false orders implying a concentration of troops at Colesberg ... gave confidential tips to people eager for news whom he knew would at once divulge them ... On the whole it is probable that no military plan was ever kept better concealed from friend or foe. At the same time Henderson further oversaw the infiltration of Dutch-speaking men into General Piet Cronje's Commandos, with a promise of substantial pecuniary reward if they brought in useful information. Indeed Cronje's intentions were revealed in this manner. In South Africa Henderson's influence extended beyond the realm of intelligence for here his boys of the Staff College came to him at all hours, eager to discuss those actual problems of war which they had so often studied in theory, glad of the chance given them of referring their doubts and difficulties to the instructor the influence of whose teaching they still felt. Unfortunately, in May 1900, as Roberts neared Paardeberg, Henderson health broke down and he was invalided to England, having proved himself in the few months he was in South Africa an outstanding Chief of Intelligence. On his recovery, in August 1901, he was appointed to write the official history of the South African War, and returned to South Africa that autumn. As ever he worked incessantly as Roberts recorded in concluding his memoir, 'For a short time after his arrival Henderson improved in health and applied himself with his wonted zeal to the work in hand. He laboured continually until the end of 1902, when it became only too evident that he had overtaxed his strength, and that he could not, in his weakened state, get through an English Winter. He was, therefore, ordered to Egypt, where he continued to work almost to the last day of his life. Towards the end of February Henderson took a turn for the worse, and the end came at Assouan on March 5, 1903'.
CB (mil, b/b), Egypt (1) Tel-el-Kebir (Lieut., 2/York & Lane. R.), QSA (3) CC OFS Tr (Colonel, CB, Staff), KSA (2) (Lt. Col, CB, Staff); Turkey, Order of the Medjidjie, Fifth Class breast Badge, silver, gold and enamel centre, Khedive's Star 1882. Spink Jul | Staff |
