Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough | |
|---|---|
&sq=Albert Einstein&lang=en&file=File:175_7_Gough_(cropped)_(cropped).jpg) Hubert Gough in 1917 | |
| Born | 12 August 1870 London, England |
| Died | 18 March 1963 (aged 92) London, England |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | British Army |
| Years of service | 1888–1922 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands | Fifth Army I Corps 7th Division 3rd Cavalry Brigade 16th (Queen's) Lancers |
| Battles/wars | Tirah Campaign Second Boer War |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order |
| Relations | Sir Charles Gough (father) Sir Hugh Gough (uncle) Sir John Gough (brother) |
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO (/ɡɒf/ GOF; 12 August 1870 – 18 March 1963) was a senior officer in the British Army in World War I. A controversial figure, he was a favourite of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, and the youngest of his Army commanders.
Gough was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before commissioning into the 16th Lancers in 1889. He served on the North-West Frontier of British India, before attending Staff College at Camberley. Before completing the course he was sent to serve in the Second Boer War, where he commanded a small Composite Regiment consisting of various units of Light Horse and Mounted Infantry, fighting with Redvers Buller's forces in Natal. During the later guerrilla war phase of the war he was briefly taken prisoner by the Boers in November 1901, but escaped.
After being invalided back to Britain with a wounded hand Gough reverted briefly to his substantive rank of captain and missed out of a staff posting as he had hoped in vain for a return to the war, then in its final months. However he soon resumed steady promotion and became a brigade-major, then an instructor at Staff College, then commanding officer of the 16th Lancers. By 1914 he was an acting brigadier-general, and General Officer Commanding of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh in Ireland. During the Curragh Incident of March 1914 he was one of the leading officers who threatened to accept dismissal rather than deploy into Protestant Ulster. As one of the ringleaders he was summoned to London to explain himself, and along with his brother Johnny (a brigadier-general at Aldershot) he insisted on an assurance in writing from J.E.B. Seely (Secretary of State for War) and Sir John French (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) that the Army would not be used to coerce Protestant Ulster into a Home Rule Ireland. Seely and French were forced to resign for signing the document without Cabinet authority.