#2546, Herbert Charles Onslow PLUMER

Younger son and 2nd. of 4 children 1st. Viscount Plumer. Created Baron Plumer Oct. 1919.

Obituary

Few men have served their country more devotedly or more efficiently than the quiet resolute soldier whose death we record today. And there have been few who have known how to inspire a more complete confidence or a more affectionate respect among their countrymen. Whatever Lord Plumer had to do, whether as commander of the Second Army during the War or later as Governor of Malta or still more recently as High Commissioner for Palestine, was done thoroughly and successfully and without ostentation. He was no seeker after popularity, yet there was no more popular commander in the British Army nor one more trusted by those who served under him.

During his five years in Malta he converted into gratitude and affection the surly hostility with which he was received on his appointment, and he left amid demonstrations of universal regret. The rare combination of quiet firmness of character with sympathetic understanding and consideration for others which was responsible for his success in his Mediterranean post was equally effective in the Holy Land, assuaging discontent and reconciling difference.

But great administrator as he showed himself to be after the War, it is for his War services that he will always be remembered, as the commander of the Second Army, the defender of Ypres, and the victor of Messines. In Flanders, as previously in South Africa he displayed all the typical qualities of his Yorkshire ancestry. He was a sound rather than a brilliant soldier, cautious in counsel, thorough in preparation, resolute in action. He had the two essential qualities of leadership; his imperturbable courage was an inspiration to all who came into contact with him, and he knew how to gather good men around him, to weld them into a team and to get the best out of them. An infantry man himself he thoroughly understood the man in the trenches, and the man in the trenches knew the General understood, knew that he would not be asked to make useless sacrifices, that any operation he was called upon to undertake had been thoroughly thought out in advance and that every precaution had been taken to make it as little costly as possible.

The men of the Second Army had the same confidence in their leader that their leader had in them. In Lord Plumer the nation has lost a great soldier, a great administrator and above all a great Englishman. The whole country will join in heart in the last tribute which will be paid to him on Wednesday in Westminster Abbey.

Known to his soldiers as 'Old Plum' or 'Daddy Plumer' he was seen by all as 'a man of steadfast dedication to whatever task was at hand.'  Affectionately, 'The Britsh soldier's favourite General in WWI'

General Sir Charles Harington (his biographer) wrote in 'Plumer of Messines' 1935

"Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer G.C.B. is buried in the chapel of St George at the west end of the nave of Westminster Abbey. He was a distinguished commander during the 1914-1918 war, Governor of Malta and High Commissioner for Palestine. A son of Hall Plumer and his wife Louise (Hudson) he was born in Kensington in London on 13th March 1857. His great grandfather was Sir Thomas Plumer, Master of the Rolls. Educated at Brighton and Eton college he joined the army and served in India and the Sudan and later South Africa 1896-1902 when Robert Baden Powell was one of the scouts for his regiment. In 1884 he married Annie Goss. Their son Thomas became 2nd Viscount Plumer and their daughters were Sybil, Eleanor and Marjorie. Herbert commanded troops on the Western Front from 1915 and was given the rank of General. In 1917 he took part in the battle of Messines and after a spell at the Italian front returned to Ypres as Lord Haig's subordinate. After the war he was made a Field Marshal and created a peer. He was a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and in Henry VII's chapel in the Abbey, the chapel of this Order, is his stall plate."

"He died on 16th July 1932 and his funeral took place at the Abbey after a procession from the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks. Lord Allenby was one of the pallbearers and a few years later he was buried next to Plumer. The stone reads simply:

                                                                      Plumer Field Marshal 1857-1932

The chapel in which Herbert is buried was re-modelled earlier in 1932 and dedicated to those who had died during the Great War. An inscription on the west wall reads:

This chapel was completed as a memorial to Field Marshal Lord Plumer 1932
The chapel was known as the chapel of the Holy Cross or the Warriors Chapel until it was dedicated to St George in 1944."

Further Reading
"Plumer of Messines" by General Sir Charles Harington, 1935