Allenby, Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount

Allenby, Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount (ăl`ənbē), 1861–1936, British field marshal. Educated at Sandhurst, he saw active service in Bechuanaland (1884–85) and Zululand (1888) and in the South African War (1899–1902). When World War I broke out (1914), he commanded first the cavalry and then (1915–17) the 3d Army in France. Appointed commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in June, 1917, he waged the last of the great cavalry campaigns by invading Palestine, capturing Jerusalem, and ending Turkish resistance after the battle of Megiddo (Sept. 18–21, 1918). He served as British high commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan (1919–25). He was made viscount in 1919.

Bibliography

See A. P. Wavell, Allenby (1941) and Allenby in Egypt (1945); B. Gardner, Allenby of Arabia (1965).

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Allenby (of Megiddo and of Felixstowe), Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount

(born April 23, 1861, Brackenhurst, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire, Eng.—died May 14, 1936, London) British field marshal. He fought in the South African War and served as inspector general of cavalry (1910–14). In World War I, he commanded with distinction in the Middle East. His victory over the Turks at Gaza (1917) led to the capture of Jerusalem, and his victory at Megiddo, along with his capture of Damascus and Aleppo, ended Ottoman power in Syria. His success was partly due to his innovative use of cavalry and other mobile forces, and he is remembered as the last great British leader of mounted cavalry. As high commissioner for Egypt (1919–25), he steered that country to recognition as a sovereign state (1922).