ジョン・フレンチ

出典: フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』

ジョン・フレンチ (John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, 1852年9月28日 –1925年5月22日) は英国の軍人。セント・パトリック勲章、バス勲章、メリット勲章、ロイヤル・ヴィクトリアン勲章、セント・ミカエル・セント・ジョージ勲章、PC 授与者。第一次世界大戦初期において英国遠征軍 (BEF) の司令官を務め、後に元帥に昇進した。

[編集] 生涯

ケント州のリップルに生まれた。父は英国海軍の提督であり、自身も1966年に海軍に入隊したが、1874年に陸軍へと移籍している。1884年から1885年まではスーダンにおいて第19フッサール師団で仕官として勤務し、中佐に昇進した。1899年から1902年までは第二次ボーア戦争において中将として騎兵師団の司令官を務めた。 1902年から1907年まではアルダーショット士官学校の校長を務め、1907年に大将へと昇進した。1911年にはイギリス陸軍の参謀総長に任命され、1913に元帥に昇進した。

Given command of the BEF in August 1914, he argued with the Cabinet against Lord Kitchener and Sir Douglas Haig that the BEF should be deployed in Belgium, rather than Amiens, where both Haig and Kitchener believed it would be well placed to deliver a vigorous counter attack once the route of German advance was known. Kitchener argued that the placement of the BEF at Mons would result in having to abandon its position and much of its supplies almost immediately as the Belgian Army would be unable to hold its ground versus the Germans, given the solid belief in fortress at the time it is not surprising that French and the British cabinet disagreed with Kitchener on this issue. After the BEF's first battles at Mons and Le Cateau, where as Kitchener predicted, it had to retreat from its position to avoid the danger of being flanked when the Belgian position failed, French was increasingly indecisive and more concerned with preserving his troops, even suggesting removing them to the Channel Ports, than aiding the French. He began a tentative withdrawal which threatend to break the line between French and Belgian armies and needed an unwanted emergency meeting with Kitchener on September 2 1914 to reorganise his thinking and direct the counter-offensive at the First Battle of the Marne. French was particularly upset by the fact that Kitchener arrived wearing his Field Marshal's uniform, he felt Kitchener was implying that he was French's superior and not simply a cabinet member, a fact he mentioned in a letter to Winston Churchill. No one knows exactly what was said during the meeting, as neither man kept any record, but French became increasingly antagonistic towards Kitchener in the following months until he was eventually relieved of command in September 1915.

During the First Battle of Mons French issued a series of hasty orders to abandon positions and equipment which were ignored by his sub-ordinate in charge of the 2nd Corps of the BEF, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. Smith-Dorrien instead mounted a vigorous counter-attack, relieving the pressure and allowing the troops to re-organise, gather up their supplies and make a comfortable fighting withdrawal. Smith-Dorrien also ignored other orders from French which he considered to be unrealistic. He was removed from command after advocating a tactical withdrawal away from German lines, following the first use of poison gas by German troops. Several days after this French ordered the 2nd Army to perform the exact manoeuvre that Smith-Dorrien had recommended.

He remained in command as major trenching began and oversaw the fighting at Neuve Chapelle and Ypres that finally destroyed the last of the original BEF. In 1915 he declined to cooperate with the French and after the failures at Aubers Ridge and at Loos the British offensive operations were almost halted. In September 1915, he was replaced by Douglas Haig. He returned to England to be appointed Commander of the [[British Home Forces. It was a post he held until the end of the war.

He was created Viscount French, of Ypres and of High Lake in the County of Roscommon, in January 1916. Lord French oversaw the suppression of the Irish uprising in 1916 and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1918 until his retirement in 1921. In May 1922 he was created Earl of Ypres.

[編集] Further reading

Holmes, Richard The Little Field Marshal: A Life of Sir John French Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004 ISBN 0297846140 — Well-received modern account.

[編集] See also

• Gheluvelt Park – a public park in Worcester which he opened on 17 June 1922

先代: ウィリアム・ニコルソン	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1912–1914	次代: チャールズ・ダグラス
先代: —	英国遠征軍司令官 1914–1915	次代: ダグラス・ヘイグ
先代: The Lord Wimborne	アイルランド総督 1918–1921	次代: The Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent

先代: New Creation	イープル伯爵 1922年–1925年	次代: ジョン・フレンチ
先代: 創設	フレンチ子爵 1916年–1925年