Samuel Lomax

Samuel Holt Lomax
Samuel Holt Lomax
Born	August 1855
Died	10 April 1915 (aged 59) London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1874 to 1915
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	90th Regiment of Foot, Cameronians, General Staff
Commands held	1st Division
Battles/wars	Zulu War - Kambula, Ulundi First World War - Le Cateau, Marne, Aisne & 1st Ypres

Lieutenant General Samuel Holt Lomax (August 1855 – 10 April 1915) was a British Army officer who commanded the 1st Division during the early battles of the First World War. He was seriously wounded by an artillery shell at the First Battle of Ypres and died of his wounds in early 1915, one of the most senior British officers to die on active service during the war.^[1]

Early career

Born in August 1855 to Thomas and Mary Helen Lomax in South-East England, Samuel joined the Scottish 90th Regiment of Foot as a junior officer aged eighteen in June 1874. In 1877 he travelled with his regiment to South Africa and participated in the 9th Cape Frontier War of the same year and the latter stages of the Zulu War in 1878, seeing action at Kambula and Ulundi, battles which secured British victory in the campaign.^[2] Returning to Britain with his regiment, Lomax was promoted to captain following the Cardwell Reforms which amalgamated his regiment into the Scottish Rifles in 1881. His unit was not called on for service in India or the Boer War and he did not see further action for 36 years.^[2] He was promoted to major in 1886, lieutenant-colonel in 1897, and colonel in 1901. In early 1902, he was transferred to a temporary staff posting as Assistant Adjutant General of the 2nd Army Corps, and Chief Staff Officer to Sir Evelyn Wood, commanding the corps.^[3][4] In 1904 he was given an operational command, 10th Brigade. He was promoted to Major-General in 1908, and in 1910 given command of the 1st Division.^[5] This was normally a four-year posting, and in late July 1914 he received notice that he would not be further employed due to his advanced age and lack of military experience.^[2]

First World War

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 put all plans of retirement on hold (command of 1st Division had been promised to "Wully" Robertson, who would instead held senior staff positions throughout the war^[6]), and General Lomax was commissioned to command the 1st Division as part of the Expeditionary Force under Sir John French. Arriving in the aftermath of the battle of Mons, the Fourth Division was immediately engaged in the battle of Le Cateau where the advancing German Army was held up long enough to allow the outnumbered BEF to escape. Lomax also led his division at the battle of the Marne and the counter-attack at the battle of the Aisne. His operations were so successful that it has been said that he was "the best Divisional General of those early days of the war".^[2] On the 19 October, he received notice that he was to be promoted to Lieutenant General and would gain promotion to Corps Command when one became available.^[2]

During October 1914, the First Division was engaged in the First Battle of Ypres in the salient around the Belgian town of Ypres, with its headquarters based in a large stately home at Hooge known as the Château de Hooge, recently vacated by General Douglas Haig. On 31 October 1914, a meeting took place at the Chateau between Lomax and his Second Division counterpart, Major-General C. C. Monro. An observer noted that the officers' staff cars were parked along the roadsides and provided an obvious target to German artillery.^[7] An aerial spotter soon noticed the gathering and reported the situation to artillery officers on the ground, who fired three 5.9" shells at the Chateau. Both sides had been targeting chateaux on either side of the line in an effort to kill senior officers and gain some advantage in the developing stalemate.^[7]

Death

The first shell exploded in the garden, causing the officers at the meeting to go to the windows of the garden room to see the fall of the shell. Thus they were in the worst possible position for the second shell which exploded right in the window frame of the room. The explosion killed six officers and mortally wounded two others.^[8] The third shell impacted an empty part of the house, although the owner, Baron de Vinck, narrowly escaped injury.^[9] Monro had stepped into another room for a conference with his Chief of Staff and so survived with minor injuries,^[9] but Lomax was seriously wounded and evacuated back to England, being placed in a nursing home in London where he received palliative care for the next five months.

General Lomax died on the 10 April 1915 never having recovered from his wounds. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and buried in a plot at Aldershot Military Cemetery, where he was later joined by his wife under a private headstone.^[10] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle later wrote that his death "was a brain injury to the Army and a desperately serious one."^[9]

Notes

References

• Victor Bonham-Carter (1963). Soldier True:the Life and Times of Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson. London: Frederick Muller Limited. 
• Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (1995). Bloody Red Tabs. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-463-6.