John Humphrey Davidson

Major General Sir John Humphrey 'Tavish' Davidson KCMG, DSO, CB (24 July 1876 – 11 December 1954) was a British army officer and Member of Parliament. He was born in Mauritius to George Walter Davidson, a merchant, and his wife Johanna, and some time before 1890 they moved back to England. From 1890 Davidson was educated at Harrow School, then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, after he left Harrow in 1893. He graduated in 1896 and joined the 1st Battalion the King's Royal Rifle Corps. By 1899 the Corps had been transferred to Cape Colony, and they were directly involved in the Second Boer War. With his Regiment he took part in the Battle of Talana Hill and the Battle of Ladysmith before he was attached to a local cavalry unit with the objective of disrupting Boer commando units. By 1902 he had been promoted to Captain and made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order.

After the end of the Boer War he was engaged in Imperial garrison service at Malta and Crete before being accepted into the Staff College, Camberley in 1905. After graduation he served in a variety of positions as staff officers, including as director of training at the War Office from 1908 to 1910 followed by two years as a staff major with the 5th Infantry Brigade. In 1912 he was transferred back to the Staff College, this time as an instructor. After the outbreak of the First World War, Davidson joined the III Corps as a staff officer and participated in the First Battle of the Marne, First Battle of the Aisne and the First Battle of Ypres. After the formation of the First Army in 1915 he became the operations officer for Douglas Haig, the Army commander. As operations officer Davidson was the principal organiser of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Loos and the Second Battle of Artois. After Haig became Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front Davidson's star was in the ascendant as a part of Haig's inner circle and he was appointed to the post Director of Military Operations at General Headquarters, one of the key posts controlling activities on the Western Front in WWI. In 1916 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, in 1917 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. During the planning of the initial attack at Third Ypres, he urged more limited advances with regard to tactical objectives so as to increase the concentration of British artillery fire and leave the British attacking forces less vulnerable to German counter-attack, but his advice was not followed.

Ahead of the German Michael Offensive Davidson advised Gough (GOC Fifth Army) that he could overcome his lack of men by “skilful handling of rearguards”. Gough was irritated by this.

On 6 April 1918, with the German Georgette Offensive imminent, he was sent on a mission to Beauvais to attempt to persuade Foch to take over British line up as far as the Somme, to send French reserves behind British line at Vimy Ridge, or to conduct a major French offensive. (Foch, concerned at the risk of a German attack in the French sector, refused, although he did offer to participate in a joint Anglo-French offensive near Amiens).

Ahead of the Bluecher Offensive, Haig later claimed that he and Davidson had repeatedly warned of the dangers of a German attack along the Chemin des Dames, but that their warnings were brushed aside by Foch, Weygand and de Barescut. No evidence had been found to substantiate this claim.

In 1919 Davidson was appointed and knighted a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. He left the army in 1922, and immediately stood for Parliament as a Conservative. He was returned for Fareham, and took an active role in the House of Commons army committee. He resigned in 1931 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds to concentrate on his business interests, including a seat on the Vickers-Armstrongs board and a position as chairman of the Bank of Australia between 1937 and 1945. In the early 1950s he published "Master of the Field", a defence of Douglas Haig's generalship in 1917 and 1918. He died in Daviot on 11 December 1954.