LIFE OF SERVICE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 186, 25 July 1935, Page 11

LIFE OF SERVICE

Late Viscount Byng’s Method SOLDIER AND POLICE CHIEF Man Who “Reformed” London “Byng of Vimy Ridge”—commander of the Canadian troops in the immortal episode of the Great War—that must always be the nation’s first thought of Field-Marshal Viscount Byng, whose death occurred in England last month. To Londoners, however, he stood also as the man who, while Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1928 to 1931, set himself to purge the metropolis ot evil elements and to improve the shaken morale of the great force which was just then the object of bitter criticism. Lord Byng took over control of the Metropolitan force when all was not well with that body. He did not desire the post, and only accepted it because, in the words of Sir William Joynson-Hicks, then Home Secretary, he regarded it as “a stern call to duty.” A HUMAN TOUCH. Those, however, who expected him to introduce stern, military methods, untempered by the human touch, were to receive a surprise, for Lord Byng quickly showed that he realised that, although the police are a disciplined body, they are not soldiers to be controlled by parade-ground methods. Just as he had moved about among his Canadian troops on the Western battle-front, and later among the men of the 3rd Army, so he moved about the Metropolitan area, visiting police stations, with a smile and cheery word that won him the liking and loyalty of all ranks. Rumours of bribery and corruption were rife. Lord Byng did not hesitate to probe the allegations to the full, and as a result a police officer, Sergeant Goddard, Mrs. Meyrick, the “Night Club Queen,” and a Sono restaurant manager named Luigi Pubriffi were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. There were other purgings of the Force, and a wholesale cleaning up of the West End—bogus clubs were suppressed, undesirable meeting-places wiped out, and night life in London became a more wholesome thing.

THE FLYING SQUAD. Meanwhile promotion by merit, rather than seniority, had placed every police officer on his mettle. Motor bandits were giving trouble; the Commission enlarged the Flying Squad and equipped it with more and faster cars and called wireless to their aid. He gave the public a greater ieeling of security by increasing night patrols in the suburbs where burglars had been very active, and placing a ring or police telephone boxes round London. This is only part of what he did for the Metropolitan Police and for the security of the 8,000,000 people and the untold wealth under his care. As a military commander he had a magnificent and unsullied record. As commander of the Canadian Corps and then of the 3rd Army, he showed a fine technical efficiency and a personality which could lead and inspire. The storming of Vimy Ridge in April, 1917, by the Canadians, and the breakthrough by the 3rd Army at Cambrai were among the most brilliant and successful of offensive operations during the war. In the final push, it was Lord Byng’s Army that had the difficult task of breaking the Hindenburg line.

CAVALRY LEADER. Born in 1862, the seventh son of the Earl of Strafford, Lord Byng, like the late Earl Haig, was a cavalry officer and served with distinction in the Sudan campaign of 1884 and in the South African War. In the Great War he was in the furious fighting which marked the first Battle of Ypres in 1914, and then tok command of the Cavalry Corps. He served in the later stages of the Gallipoli campaign, commanding the 9th Corps. On his return to France he commanded first the 17th Corps and then the Canadian Corps, which became known at the front as

“the Byng Boys.” In March, 1918, after Ludendorff had struck with terrific violence at the sth British Army under Gough to the south of Lord Byng’s 3rd Army, Lord Byng repulsed a great German assault at Arras. In 1919 he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Byng of Vimy and Thorpe-le-Soken, receiving the thanks of Parliament and a grant of £30,000, a large part of which he spent in helping demobilised or disabled soldiers. VISIT TO MAE WEST. Lord Byng was wont to say that at Eton he took bottom place at the school, and watched distinguished geniuses come and go until he was ousted by his great friend. Sir Henry Rawlinson. His education, he said, was comprised in two books —Henry’s First Latin Book (he didn’t know who Henry was or it he wrote another) and Liddell and Scott’s Greek lexicon. After his retirement from Scotland Yard Lord and Lady Byng travelled abroad. While in California, Lord Byng, who confessed himself a film enthusiast, was greatly interested in Hollywood and its methods. While there he met Miss Mae West, whom he described as a “very charming woman.” Returning to England he had a heart attack on the voyage home, and when in April he landed at Southampton he said: “My heart is not what it was, I have to take things more easily.”