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General Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, (20 February 1864 – 28 March 1925), known as Sir Henry Rawlinson, 2nd Baronet between 1895 and 1919, was a British First World War general best known for his roles in the Battle of the Somme of 1916 and the Battle of Amiens in 1918. ==Military career== Rawlinson was born in Westminster, London.〔(Free BMD )〕 His father, Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, was an Army officer, and a renowned Middle East scholar who is generally recognised as the father of Assyriology. Rawlinson attended Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and entered the Army as a lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in India on 6 February 1884. His first military experience was serving in Burma during an 1886 uprising.〔(Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives )〕 In 1889, Rawlinson's mother died and he returned to Britain. He transferred to the Coldstream Guards〔 and was promoted to captain on 4 November 1891 He served on General Herbert Kitchener's staff during the advance on Omdurman in Sudan in 1898, and was promoted to major on 25 January 1899 and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 26 January 1899. Rawlinson served with distinction in a field command in the Boer War from 1899 to 1902, earning promotion to local colonel on 6 May 1901. He was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel on 1 April 1903 and named as commandant of the Army Staff College.〔 Promoted to temporary brigadier-general on 1 March 1907, he was made Commander of 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot that year and, having been promoted to major-general on 10 May 1909, he became General Officer Commanding 3rd Division in 1910.〔 Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Rawlinson was appointed General Officer Commanding 4th Division in France.〔 Promoted to temporary lieutenant-general on 4 October 1914, he then took command of the IV Corps.〔 Rawlinson wrote to the Conservative politician Lord Derby (24 December 1914) forecasting that the Allies would win a war of attrition, but it was unclear whether this would take one, two or three years.〔Jeffery 2006, p139〕 At the end of 1915, Rawlinson was considered for command of British First Army, in succession to Douglas Haig, but the command was instead given to Sir Charles Monro. He was promoted to temporary general on 22 December 1915. Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-general on 1 January 1916, Rawlinson assumed command of the new Fourth Army on 24 January 1916.〔Prior & Wilson 2003, p. 137.〕 as the planned Allied offensive on the Somme. He wrote in his diary: "It is not the lot of many men to command an army of over half a million men."〔Martin Middlebrook, ''The First Day on the Somme'', Allen Lane, 1971, p78〕 The Somme was originally conceived as a joint Anglo-French offensive, but owing to the demands of the Battle of Verdun, French participation was greatly reduced, leaving the British, and especially Rawlinson's inexperienced army, to bear the brunt of the offensive.〔Middlebrook, 70〕 Nevertheless, on the eve of the offensive, he "showed an attitude of absolute confidence."〔Middlebrook, 90〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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