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The Earl of Ypres | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, Commander-in-Chief | |
| Lord Lieutenant of Ireland | |
| In office 9 May 1918 – 27 April 1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Wimborne |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Denton Pinkstone French 28 September 1852 Ripple, Kent, England |
| Died | 22 May 1925 (aged 72) Deal, Kent, England |
| Resting place | Ripple, Kent |
| Relations | Charlotte Despard (sister) |
| Awards | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch/service |
|
| Years of service | 1866–1921 |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Unit | |
| Commands | |
| Battles/wars | |
Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, PC (28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925), known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer. Born in Kent, he saw brief service as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, before becoming a cavalry officer. He achieved rapid promotion and distinguished himself on the Gordon Relief Expedition. He became a national hero during the Second Boer War. He commanded I Corps at Aldershot, then served as Inspector-General of the Army, before becoming Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS, the professional head of the British Army) in 1912. He helped to prepare the British Army for a possible European war, and was among those who insisted that cavalry still be trained to charge with sabre and lance. During the Curragh incident he had to resign as CIGS after promising Hubert Gough in writing that the Army would not be used to coerce Ulster Protestants into a Home Rule Ireland.
French's most important role was as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for the first year and a half of the First World War. After the British suffered heavy casualties at the battles of Mons and Le Cateau, French wanted to withdraw the BEF from the Allied line to refit and only agreed to take part in the First Battle of the Marne after a private meeting with the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, against whom he bore a grudge thereafter. In May 1915 he leaked information about shell shortages to the press in the hope of engineering Kitchener's removal. By summer 1915 French's command was being increasingly criticised in London by Kitchener and other members of the government, and by Haig, Robertson and other senior generals in France. After the Battle of Loos, at which French's slow release of XI Corps from reserve was blamed for the failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough on the first day, H. H. Asquith, the British Prime Minister, demanded his resignation.
French was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces for 1916–1918. He then became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1918, a position he held through much of the Irish War of Independence (1919–1922), in which his own sister was involved on the republican side. During this time he published 1914, an inaccurate and much criticised volume of memoirs.