Herbert Garland

Herbert Garland
Garland in Arabia, December 1917
Born	1880 Sheffield, England
Died	2 April 1921 (aged 40–41) England
Buried	Gravesend
Allegiance	United Kingdom / British Empire
Service / branch	British Army
Rank	Major
Battles / wars	First World War Arab Revolt
Awards	Military Cross Officer of the Order of the British Empire Order of the Nile (fourth class) Order of El Nahda (third class)

Major Herbert Garland OBE MC FCS M. Inst. Metals (1880 – 2 April 1921^[1]) was a British metallurgist and army officer. An Army Ordnance Corps member, in 1906 he was stationed on Guernsey, where he wrote a novel, Diverse Affections: a Romance of Guernsey. Garland rose to become Superintendent of Laboratories at the Cairo Citadel, Egypt by 1913 and received a grant from the Chemical Society, of which he was a fellow, to conduct research into ancient Egyptian alloys. The outbreak of war saw him commissioned as a Special List officer with the Arab Bureau. Garland developed explosives for the army, including the Garland grenade and was, in September 1916, assigned to train T. E. Lawrence and the fighters of the Arab Revolt in explosives. His mines were used against the Hejaz Railway and may have been involved in the first derailing of a moving train by explosives. Garland commanded the desperate defence of Yanbu in which he forced an attacking superior Ottoman force to withdraw with almost no bloodshed. Awarded the Military Cross and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Garland became director of the Arab Bureau after the war and was involved in the post-war negotiations for the future of Arabia. Returning from Egypt because of poor health, Garland died within days of setting foot in England.