GENERAL SIR C. C. MONRO, K.C.B.

Evening Star, Issue 16198, 21 August 1916, Page 8

GENERAL SIR C. C. MONRO, K.C.B.

transferred to the command of the A Division, Territorial Force. He is also a past commandant of the School of Musketry at Hythe. In October last year General Monro was appointed to the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, in succession to General Sir lan Hamilton. But for the war Sir Charles Monro might have lived and died plain Major-general Monro, known only in the Army as a very efficient instructor aud commandant at Hythe School of Musketry. When the war broke out he had been five years a major-general. The day after war was declared he was appointed a divisional commander, and in a short time was out in France trying to stem the amazing rush of the German troops towards Paris. What he did is only known in its fullness to Sir John French. Planning, organising,'fighting, Monro never rested day or night during those dreadful days of 1914 when hope seemed lost. He was one of those men who, on September 6, began to stem the German torrent, fought in the battle of the Aisne—and saved Europe. For that he was mentioned in Sir John French's despatches of the battle of the Aisne, promoted to lieutenant-general, and then to full general, and in February of last yeari made a K.C.8., "for services rendered in connection with operations in the field," as I the bald official announcement states it. His work has never ceased to disclose his most pre-eminent quality—soundness. He knows his mind right through; he has always thought out every possibility beforehand: he is never hurried, never flustered, never taken by surprise. He is prepared for as many sorts of failure as there are chances of success, and ho has the precise professional knowledge to estimate tho breaking! strain on the weak links of his material. I And so far it is the failures which he avoided. He had done with everything entrusted to him just what could be "done with it, and the men for whom he has worked have known how to appreciate the safeguards he lias provided. He has always been in inveterate believer in training. Even with his Territorials he would permit no scamping of the elements. "Squad drill" was his prescription so long as squad drill was required. So there will bo found no untrained men round him, no men who do not know their trade. Everything submitted to him must be worked out to the last detail; there is no room left for any guesswork in his plans. As Chief Instructor

at Hythe he had close acquaintance' with' the most important branch of the soldier's business; as brigade-major at Gibraltar and D.A.A.G. with the famous Sixth Division in South Africa he gained experience iu the machinery of the Army. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade for five years, the 2nd London Territorial Division for two, till the war claimed him.

Sir Charles Monro is one of the chief machine-gun experts in the British Army. For six years he was at the Hythe School of Musketry as Chief Instructor and Commandant. Tho Hythe School is the chief school for the training of officers and noncommissioned officers in the handling of machine guns. His knowledge of what has easily proved the most, useful weapon in the present war has proved of the greatest value. He was one of the first, indeed, to predict the enormous extent to which they would be used, and to urge for an overwhelming supply of them: lie is one of tho men who have gained a greater reputation in the Army than out of it—for he hates advertising himself. That's why so many people asked who he was when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Dardanelles. But the Army knows that it has got a fine leader, a man who doesn't talk; but does things. And the Army's opiuion is the thing that counts nowadays. Sir Charles Monro, who is an Irishman, is 56 years of age. He has' relatives in Dn:iedin. His mother was a Miss Power, a sister of the late Mr Pierce Power, of Moruington.