Nevil Macready

Sir Nevil Macready
Born	7 May 1862
Died	9 January 1946 (aged 83)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Commands held	2nd Infantry Brigade Belfast District Ireland
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, 1st Baronet, GCMG, KCB, PC (Ire) (7 May 1862–9 January 1946), known as Sir Nevil Macready and affectionately as Make-Ready (close to the correct pronunciation of his name), was a British Army officer. He served in senior staff appointments in the First World War and was the last British military commander in Ireland, and also served for two years as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis in London.

Early life

Macready was the son of the prominent actor William Charles Macready.^[1] He was born in Cheltenham and was brought up in the bohemian circles frequented by his parents (his mother, Cecile, was the granddaughter of the painter, Sir William Beechey), and was educated at Marlborough College (for two years, before falling ill) and Cheltenham College. He later claimed that he was far too lazy to pursue an artistic career himself, and although he expressed an interest in a stage career, his father, who loathed his own profession, expressly forbade it (although he continued to be involved in amateur dramatics all his life and was also a talented singer). He therefore joined the Army, passing out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and being commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders in October 1881.^[1]

Regimental career

He joined the 1st Battalion at Malta, and in 1882 went with them to Egypt, fighting at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir.^[1] He stayed in Egypt, and in 1884 was appointed garrison adjutant and staff lieutenant of military police at Alexandria.^[1] In 1886, he married Sophia Geraldine Atkin (died 1931), an Irishwoman; they had two daughters and a son.^[1] Macready remained in Alexandria until early 1889, when he returned to England to rejoin his regiment, and then served in Ceylon and India.^[1] He was promoted Captain in 1891.^[1] He was transferred to Dublin in 1892, and in 1894 became adjutant of the regiment's 2nd Volunteer Battalion in Aberdeenshire.^[1] In 1899, he was promoted Major and returned to India to join the 2nd Battalion, which was sent to South Africa in September.^[1]

Boer War and South Africa

Macready saw active service in the Second Boer War, serving in the besieged garrison at Ladysmith from October 1899 to February 1900.^[1] He was mentioned in despatches twice and promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in 1900, and in June 1901 headed a commission investigating cattle-raiding in Zululand.^[1] He stayed in South Africa in a series of staff posts, including Assistant Provost Marshal at Port Elizabeth (1901), Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the district west of Johannesburg (December 1901–1902), Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief Staff Officer of Cape Colony (1902–1905), and Assistant Quartermaster-General of Cape Colony (1905–1906). He was promoted Colonel in November 1903.^[1] He was appointed Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1906 and returned to England in October 1906.

War Office

In 1907, Macready was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General in the Directorate of Personal Services at the War Office in London, and helped to form the Territorial Force.^[1] He commanded the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot from May 1909, being promoted to Brigadier-General, and in June 1910 returned to the War Office as Director of Personal Services, responsible for a variety of personnel matters.^[1] Also having responsibility for military aid to the civil power, he played a large part in a series of labour disputes and in deploying troops to Ireland in anticipation of disturbances there.^[1] Unusually for an army officer of the time, he had marked liberal tendencies, believed in the right to strike, and supported Irish home rule. He was contemptuous of politics, socialism, communism, pacifism and capitalism (unless the employers treated their employees very well). He was promoted Major-General in October 1910, and in November he took direct command of troops deployed to deal with a possible miners' strike, in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, insisting that his troops remained subordinate both to the police and to the Home Office and not answerable to the panicking local magistrates. This policy probably helped to avert serious unrest in 1910 and again in a similar situation in 1912. A civil CB was added to his military CB in 1911, and in 1912, he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB). After the Curragh incident in Ireland in March 1914, Macready was made General Officer Commanding Belfast District and was nominated as military governor-designate of Belfast in the event of civil war breaking out, something averted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.

First World War

Macready was immediately sent to France as Adjutant-General of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).^[1] In 1915, he was appointed Knight Commander of St Michael and St George (KCMG). In February 1916, having efficiently carried out this job, he was recalled to London as Adjutant-General to the Forces, one of the most senior staff appointments in the British Army.^[1] He was promoted Lieutenant-General in June 1916 (although he was already temporarily in that rank). He was an enthusiastic proponent of the employment of female labour to free men up to go to the front. He also abolished the compulsory wearing of moustaches by British soldiers, and immediately shaved off his own, which he had hated. In 1918, he was promoted full General and raised to Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George (GCMG). He had been mentioned in dispatches four times during the war, been made a Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur of France (1915), and a member of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, the Order of the Crown of Italy, and the Order of the Sacred Treasures of Japan.

Commissioner of Police

In August 1918, Macready somewhat reluctantly took the post of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police,^[1] to which Prime Minister Asquith had intended to appoint him before war broke out in 1914. Morale was low, and many men were currently on strike over pay and trade union recognition. Macready got them back to work by granting a pay rise and promising the introduction of machinery for collective bargaining. He was popular among the constables and sergeants, whom he got to know far more than his predecessors had done. He abolished the system of punishment by deducting fines from men's pay over a period of months or even years. He also abolished the shilling a day deduction made from the pay of men on sick leave. He had an intense dislike of trade unions, and never took the short-lived National Union of Police and Prison Officers seriously, which partly led to the strike of 1919. Only a small percentage of the men went out on strike, and they were all dismissed, although Macready wrote a good reference for every one who asked.

Ireland

In 1920, Macready was sent to command the troops in Ireland as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) British forces operating in the counter-insurgency role against the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence.^[1] He had, however, already formed a deep dislike for the country and its people. Nevertheless, he was a good and dynamic commander, increasing morale, improving policy, and securing additional troops and equipment. He refused to also take command of the Royal Irish Constabulary, however, which many perceive as a mistake. A military committee of review appointed by the Cabinet, which he chaired, did oppose the recruitment of the Black and Tans and Auxiliary Division, and he continued to be a strident critic of these bodies.^[2] He was instrumental in negotiating the truce in July 1921, and, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty and creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, in withdrawing the troops without great incident. He retired in 1923 and was created a Baronet. He had been sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1920.

Later life

In 1924, he published his two-volume memoirs, Annals of an Active Life.^[1] He briefly returned to police service during the 1926 General Strike, when he served as a staff officer to the Chief Commandant of the Metropolitan Special Constabulary.

Death

He died at his home in Knightsbridge in 1946, aged 83. His son, Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Macready (1891–1956), was also a distinguished soldier and inherited the baronetcy on his father's death.

Styles

• 1862–1881: Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1881–1891: Lieutenant Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1891–1899: Captain Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1899–1900: Major Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1900–1903: Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1903–1906: Colonel Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready
• 1906–1910: Colonel Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, CB
• 1910–1912: Major-General Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, CB
• 1912–1915: Major-General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, KCB
• 1915–1916: Major-General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, KCB, KCMG
• 1916–1918: Lieutenant-General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, KCB, KCMG
• 1918–1920: General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, GCMG, KCB
• 1920–1923: General The Rt Hon Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, GCMG, KCB, PC(Ire)
• 1923–1946: General The Rt Hon Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, Bt, GCMG, KCB, PC(Ire)

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} Nevil Macready at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. ^ "The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries in Ireland, 1920-1921: Their Origins, Roles and Legacy", by John Ainsworth, 2001

References

• The Times
• Martin Fido & Keith Skinner, The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard (Virgin Books, London:1999)

Military offices
Preceded by George Browne	Director of Personal Services, War Office 1910–1914	Succeeded by ?
Preceded by Sir Henry Sclater	Adjutant-General to the Forces 1916–1918	Succeeded by Sir George Macdonogh
Preceded by Sir Frederick Shaw	General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Ireland 1920–1922	Succeeded by Last incumbent
Police appointments
Preceded by Sir Edward Henry	Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1918–1920	Succeeded by William Horwood
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New creation	Baronet (of Cheltenham) 1923–1946	Succeeded by Gordon Nevil Macready

Persondata
Name	Macready, Nevil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	7 May 1862
Place of birth
Date of death	9 January 1946
Place of death