Charles Blackader

Charles Guinand Blackader
Born	20 September 1869(1869-09-20)
Died	2 April 1921(1921-04-02) (aged 51)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Major-General
Unit	Leicestershire Regiment
Commands held	2nd Leicestershire Regiment Garhwal Brigade 177th Brigade 38th (Welsh) Division
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Commander of the Order of Leopold

Major-General Charles Guinand Blackader CB, DSO (20 September 1869 – 2 April 1921) was a British Army officer of the First World War. He commanded an Indian brigade on the Western Front in 1915, and a Territorial brigade in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916, before being appointed to command the 38th (Welsh) Division on the Western Front, a position he held until retiring due to ill-health in May 1918.

Originally joining the Army in 1888 as a junior officer in the Leicestershire Regiment, Blackader's first active posting was in the late 1890s, when he served on attachment to the West African Frontier Force, closely followed by service during the Boer War, where he was decorated for his part in the defence of Ladysmith. He remained on regimental duties for the next ten years, eventually rising to take command of the 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, in 1912. On the outbreak of the First World War, he commanded his battalion on the Western Front as part of an Indian Army formation; when his superior officer was promoted in early 1915, Blackader succeeded him as commander of the brigade, and led it through the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Loos.

After the Indian Army was withdrawn from France, Blackader was posted to a second-line Territorial Force brigade training in the United Kingdom. In 1916, it was sent to Dublin during the Easter Rising; following the Rising, Blackader presided over a number of the resulting courts-martial, including those of several of the signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Later that year, he was ordered to France to take over command of the 38th (Welsh) Division, a New Army formation which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme. He remained with the division for almost two years, helping retrain and reorganise it as an efficient fighting unit. The division would see significant successes in the Hundred Days Offensive of late 1918, but by this point Blackader was no longer in command; he had been invalided home earlier in the year. He died shortly after the war, in 1921, aged 51.

Early career

Born on 20 September 1869, Charles Guinand Blackader joined the Leicestershire Regiment in 1888, as a second lieutenant.^[1] Unusually for a junior officer, he married later the same year, to Marian Ethel Melbourne.^[2] He was promoted to lieutenant in 1890,^[3] and to captain in 1895.^[4] In 1897 and 1898, Blackader saw active service with the West African Frontier Force,^[5] where he was Mentioned in Despatches, and during the Boer War, he was again twice mentioned in despatches,^[1] and awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his part in the defence of Ladysmith.^[6]

Following the war, Blackader was attached to the 1st Volunteer Battalion as its adjutant in 1902^[7] and was promoted to major in 1904,^[1] before returning to regular service in 1905.^[8] He applied (unsuccessfully) for the post of Chief Constable of Leicester in 1907,^[9] and, by 1909, was serving with the 1st Battalion, as the senior major.^[10] He was given command of a battalion and promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1912.^[11]

First World War

In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, Blackader was in India, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the Leicesters,^[12] which was mobilised for service as part of the Garhwal Brigade of the 7th (Meerut) Division.^[13] The division was sent to France as part of Indian Expeditionary Force A, seeing its first action in the trenches on 29 October.^[14] On 19 December a force under Blackader's command staged a successful attack on the German trenches,^[15] though the attack was overshadowed by the beginning of the German attack on Givenchy the following day, through which the Leicesters remained in reserve.^[16]

Garhwal Brigade

Brigadier Keary, commanding the Garhwals, was promoted to command the Lahore Division in January 1915,^[17] and on 8 January Blackader was given the temporary rank of Brigadier-General, assuming command of the Garhwal Brigade in his stead.^[18] The Garhwals led the first wave of the Indian Corps' attack at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle on 10 March,^[19] Three of the attacking battalions reached their objectives, but one was delayed by strong resistance; after clearing the last German trenches, the brigade halted to let the second wave pass through.^[20] In the attack, two men were awarded the Victoria Cross, and nine the Indian Order of Merit, and Blackader was commended by his corps commander, General Willcocks, who wrote that "I had learned to respect him and to trust in his judgement. The manner in which he handled his brigade at Neuve Chapelle was good to see, and his report ... is written as brave and modest men write".^[21] His force had taken heavy losses, however; the trailing battalion on the flank, the 2/39th Garhwal Rifles, lost over half its men and all its officers.^[22]

The brigade repulsed a heavy attack on the morning of 12 March, but settled into a relatively static position thereafter.^[23] On 9 May, the Garhwal Brigade was used as a second wave in the first attacks of the Battle of Aubers Ridge, without success;^[24] they saw action again on the night of 15 May, where the leading battalions met heavy resistance and Blackader was forced to call off the attack.^[25]

After Aubers Ridge, the corps was then rested in a quiet sector until September, when it deployed for the Battle of Loos.^[26] The initial attack was to be made by three divisions, with the Meerut Division leading the attack on the Indian front; Blackader's brigade, with two Gurkha battalions and the 2nd Leicesters, was on its right flank.^[27] Whilst the attack successfully crossed no-man's land under cover of the barrage, the right flank of the brigade was caught up in defensive wire, and only one battalion successfully made their way into the German trenches; the brigade lost momentum and dug in.^[28]

The Indian Corps was withdrawn after Loos, and as a result this was Blackader's last major action in command of Indian troops; by the end of November, the Meerut Division had left France.^[29]

Ireland

He was transferred to command 177th Brigade of 59th (2nd North Midland) Division in January 1916.^[30] The 59th was a second-line Territorial Force division, formed from those Territorials and new volunteers who had not volunteered for overseas service. As a result, it was generally undermanned and underequipped, with priority given to equipping its first-line counterpart, and tasked mostly with home defence duties. The 177th Brigade had been formed as the duplicate of the Lincoln and Leicester Brigade, with two second-line battalions of the Lincolnshire Regiment and two of the Leicestershire Regiment.^[31]

The 59th Division was rushed to Ireland in response to the Easter Rising of April 1916, where Blackader's new brigade saw its first active service.^[31] Following the Rising, many of those believed by the British authorities to be responsible were tried by military courts; ninety were sentenced to death, of whom fifteen were eventually executed.^[32] Blackader, as a senior officer, chaired a number of courts-martial, including those of Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Patrick Pearse, and Joseph Plunkett, five of the nine signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.^[33] It appears that Blackader found this task difficult; after Pearse's trial, he is reported to have commented that "I have just done one of the hardest tasks I have ever had to do. I have had to condemn to death one of the finest characters I have ever come across. There must be something very wrong in the state of things that makes a man like that a rebel. I don't wonder that his pupils adored him."^[34]

38th (Welsh) Division

On 21 June, Blackader was ordered to leave the brigade and go to France; he described the news of the unexpected posting as "like a bombshell".^[35] On 9 July, when the "ignorant"^[36] Ivor Philipps was removed from command of 38th (Welsh) Division, which had failed in an attack in the early stages of the Battle of the Somme, Blackader was named as the preferred replacement by Henry Horne, the corps commander. He was overruled, however, with the command temporarily given to Herbert Watts, an experienced divisional commander.^[37] Under Watts, the division successfully took its objective, Mametz Wood, though with severe losses;^[38] within a week, Watts was back in command of 7th Division^[39] and Blackader had taken permanent command.^[36]

The division had been raised in the New Armies in 1914 with a strong sense of Liberal patronage, and many of its officers had been personally appointed by Lloyd George; as a result, political convenience had often taken priority over military competence when selecting officers. Under Blackader, a new officer from outside the Welsh Liberal milieu and able to sack his subordinates as he saw fit, the division's standard improved significantly.^[40] It saw service at Pilckem Ridge in the early stages of the Third Battle of Ypres, but from September 1917 onwards it was kept on relatively quiet defensive sectors. The division trained through this period, and in April 1918 was able to mount a limited brigade-size attack, which whilst it involved heavy losses was a clear success in a way that would not have been possible two years earlier.^[41]

In late May 1918,^[42] Blackader was relieved of command and replaced by Thomas Cubitt, a younger officer. This was not apparently due to incompetence or age – Douglas Haig had described Blackader's achievements with 38th Division as "excellent"^[43] – but due to illness; according to Gary Sheffield, he had fallen ill after "being licked by a rabid dog".^[44] Under Cubitt's command, the 38th Division would build on its past training and fight through the Hundred Days Offensive with great success.^[44] In November 1918, Blackader was appointed to command the Southern District in Ireland.^[45]

For his service in the war, he was appointed an aide-de-camp to the King in 1916, and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1917.^[1] He was also made a Commander of the Belgian Order of Leopold,^[46] and awarded both the Belgian^[47] and French^[48] Croix de Guerre.

Blackader died on 2 April 1921, at Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank,^[6] survived by his wife and two daughters,^[1] and leaving a small estate of just under £450.^[49] There is a memorial to him in the regimental chapel in Leicester Cathedral.^[50]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Who Was Who
2. ^ Who Was Who; per French, the average age at marriage for officers at this point was in their mid-thirties
3. ^ London Gazette: no. 26072. p. 4045. 22 July 1890.
4. ^ London Gazette: no. 26717. p. 1270. 3 March 1896.
5. ^ French
6. ^ ^{a b} Times death notice
7. ^ London Gazette: no. 27469. p. 5607. 29 August 1902.
8. ^ London Gazette: no. 27817. p. 4904. 14 July 1905.
9. ^ Archive documents DE5891/1-3. No record is given of the result of the application, but Who Was Who records that John Hall-Dalwood was appointed as Chief Constable of Leicester in 1908. See "HALL-DALWOOD, Lt-Col John". (2007). In Who Was Who. Online edition
10. ^ French; Archive document DE 6007/56
11. ^ London Gazette: no. 28643. p. 6700. 10 September 1912.
12. ^ Archive document DE 6007/157
13. ^ Willcocks, p. 19
14. ^ Willcocks, p. 73
15. ^ Willcocks, pp. 150–152
16. ^ Willcocks, pp. 166–167
17. ^ Willcocks, p. 53
18. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29051. p. 878. 26 January 1915.
19. ^ Willcocks, p. 209
20. ^ Willcocks, pp. 210–219
21. ^ Willcocks, pp. 210–215; quote from p. 209
22. ^ Willcocks, p. 215
23. ^ Willcocks, pp. 224–225
24. ^ Willcocks, pp. 273–277
25. ^ Willcocks, pp. 281–283
26. ^ Willcocks, p. 304
27. ^ Willcocks, pp. 327–328
28. ^ Willcocks, pp. 330–335
29. ^ Willcocks, pp. 341
30. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29437. p. 550. 11 January 1916. The brigade number is taken from archive document DE 6007/266
31. ^ ^{a b} Baker, Chris (2009). "History of the 59th (2nd North Midland) Division, 1914-1918". The Long, Long Trail. http://www.1914-1918.net/59div.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
32. ^ "1916 Easter Rising: Aftermath". BBC History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/aftermath/af01.shtml. 
33. ^ Blackader also chaired the courts-martial of Ned Daly, Michael O'Hanrahan and John MacBride. See entries for individual trials in Stratford, Stephen. "The 1916 Easter Uprising". http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/easter.htm. 
34. ^ Flanagan, Frank M. (1997). "Patrick H. Pearse". Minerva 1. http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol1/pearse.html. 
35. ^ Archive document DE 6007/271
36. ^ ^{a b} Robbins, p. 58
37. ^ Farr, pp. 101–102
38. ^ Farr, p. 106
39. ^ Farr, p. 114
40. ^ Farr, p. 97; Robbins, p. 59; Ekins, p. 61
41. ^ Ekins, pp. 60–61
42. ^ Dunn, p. 484, gives it as some point from 23 May to 4 June; Robbins, p. 59, gives "May"; the Army List (p. 51) gives 8 June for the end of Blackader's tenure, but 23 May for the start of Cubitt's.
43. ^ Robbins, p. 59
44. ^ ^{a b} Ekins, p. 63
45. ^ Quarterly Army List for the quarter ending 30th June 1919. London: HMSO. 1919. p. 51. http://www.archive.org/details/armylistjulpart11919grea. 
46. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30568. p. 3093. 8 March 1918.
47. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30568. p. 3094. 8 March 1918.
48. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30945. p. 11944. 8 October 1918.
49. ^ Entry for Charles Guinand Blackader (d. 1921) in the Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England, 1941.
50. ^ Leicester Research (2001). "The Monuments of St Martin's Cathedral: St George's Chapel". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027054828/http://uk.geocities.com/st_martins_leicester/george1.htm. 

References

• "BLACKADER, Maj.-Gen. Charles Guinand". (2007). In Who Was Who. Online edition
• Death notice in the Times, 4 April 1921, p. 7
• Dunn, Captain J. C. (1994). The war the infantry knew 1914–1919 : a chronicle of service in France and Belgium. London: Abacus. ISBN 0349106355. 
• Ekins, Ashley (2010). 1918 – Year of Victory: The End of the Great War and the Shaping of History. Exisle. ISBN 1921497424. 
• Farr, Don (2007). The Silent General: Horne of the First Army, A Biography of Haig's Trusted Great War Comrade-in-Arms. Helion. ISBN 187462299X. 
• French, David (2003). "The real Captain Blackadder". UCL History Department Alumnus Association Newsletter. http://www.uclhistory.co.uk/ArchiveBlackadder2003.htm. 
• Robbins, Simon (2005). British generalship on the Western Front 1914–18: defeat into victory. Routledge. ISBN 0415350069. 
• Willcocks, James (1920). With the Indians in France. Constable. http://www.archive.org/details/withindiansinfra00will. 
• The National Archives (2010). "Royal Leicestershire Regiment Records 1901-1995 (DE 5891)". Access to Archives. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=056-de5891&cid=-1. 
• The National Archives (2010). "Records of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, 1757–1975 and of the Old Comrades, and other military units and personalities (DE 6007)". Access to Archives. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=056-de6007&cid=-1. 

Further reading

• Jenkins, Robin (2006). "'Old Black': the Life of Major General C.G. Blackader, 1869–1921". Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 80. 

Military offices
Preceded by Herbert Watts	General Officer Commanding the 38th (Welsh) Division July 1916 – May 1918	Succeeded by Thomas Cubitt

Persondata
Name	Blackader, Charles
Alternative names
Short description	British Army general
Date of birth	20 September 1869
Place of birth
Date of death	2 April 1921
Place of death