Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer


The Viscount Plumer

Portrait by Alexander Bassano, 1899
Born(1857-03-13)13 March 1857
Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom
Died16 July 1932(1932-07-16) (aged 75)
Knightsbridge, London, England, United Kingdom
Buried
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1876–1919
RankField Marshal
Unit65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot
York and Lancaster Regiment
CommandsBritish Army of the Rhine
Second Army
Northern Command
5th Division
7th Division
10th Division
4th Brigade
Battles / warsMahdist War
Second Matabele War
Second Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Mentioned in Despatches
Other workHigh Commissioner of Palestine

Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, KStJ (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took command of the Second Army in May 1915 and in June 1917 won an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the Battle of Messines, which started with the simultaneous explosion of a series of mines placed by the Royal Engineers' tunnelling companies beneath German lines, which created 19 large craters and was described as the loudest explosion in human history. He later served as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine and then as Governor of Malta before becoming High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1925 and retiring in 1928.