'Lions Led By Donkeys'
Frederick Gore Anley
(1864-1936)
Brigadier-General
CB, CMG. GOC Infantry Brigade
RMC Sandhurst
Essex Regiment
Frederick Gore Anley was the son of a colonel in the Royal
Artillery. He was commissioned in the Essex Regiment on 28 August 1884. He
quickly saw active service in the Sudan (1884-5), which became something of a
motif in his pre-war career. He was later seconded to the Egyptian Army
(1896-9), taking part in the Dongola (1896) and Nile expeditions (1899). He was
for a time Governor of Wadi Halfa province in the Sudan (1899). During the South
African War he commanded a Mounted Infantry battalion at the relief of Kimberley
and at the battle of Paardeberg and was twice mentioned in despatches. From 1904
to 1906 he served with the Macedonian Gendarmerie. Anley thus took full
advantage of the varied opportunities offered by the late Victorian and
Edwardian army. In February 1912 he assumed command of 2nd Battalion Essex
Regiment. He was still in command when the European war broke out.
Anley took his battalion to France as part of 12th Brigade,
4th Division. He commanded it at the battle of Le Cateau (26 August 1914) and
during the following retreat. This was an arduous period for battalion
commanders and casualty rates were high. Anley perhaps owed his survival to his
being promoted to command 12th Brigade on 4 October 1914. He was 50. He remained
in command until 4 June 1916, including the battles of the Marne, Aisne, and
First and Ypres. This made him one of the most experienced brigade commanders in
the BEF. The reason for Anley’s giving up command of 12th Brigade is unclear.
He may simply have been sent home for a rest after a long period of continuous
command under combat conditions. But in November 1916 his career took a curious
and unpredictable turn when he was appointed Commander Administrative HQ and
Training Centre Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch), later the Tank Corps. He held
this post until June 1917.
The reason for Anley’s appointment to the tank staff is
also obscure. His predecessor was the tank pioneer Ernest Swinton. Anley had no
experience of tanks and - apparently - little faith in them. His appointment did
not go down well with the true believers on the tank staff. The GSO2,
Lieutenant-Colonel J F C Fuller, described Anley as ‘a pleasant little man,
the problem was in inverse ratio to his size. He may have been a good infantry
Brigadier but he knew nothing about tanks. On one occasion I heard him say, “Little
Anley is like a small china pot, floating among a lot of big iron ones; little
Anley is not going to get cracked”’.
Anley returned to infantry duties in June 1917 as GOC 234th
Brigade, 75th Division, which he commanded in the Palestine campaign at the
Third Battle of Gaza (27 October-7 November 1917). He fell sick on 19 November
1917. After a period on half pay, he was appointed GOC Newhaven Garrison
(April-December 1918) and then GOG No. 8 Demobilisation Area (December
1918-March 1919). Brigadier-General Anley retired from the army on 19 October
1919. He was later County Director of the Sussex Branch of the Red Cross.
John Bourne
Centre for First World War Studies
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