D SERIES - Major General Lindsay Inglis recalls Brigadiers he served with in World War I and some anecdotes about them. He is interviewed by an unidentified man.
He lists the names of Brigadiers he knew from World War I who ought not to be forgotten, and says a few words about some of them.
In that war they were known as Brigadier-Generals:
Sir Andrew Russell - a better divisional commander never existed
Sir Edward Chaytor
General Meldrum - well known as a stipendiary magistrate in Westland
General Robert Young - a vigorous commander known as "Bobby" behind his back
Sir Herbert Hart - a most thorough man who had a fine flair for tactics
Three infantry brigadiers were killed in action:
Earl Johnson - commander of the 1st Brigade, killed in 1917
Charles Brown - a much-loved man killed a few days after his promotion to brigade command
Harry Townsend Fulton - Rifle Brigade, who was killed in March 1918
Others who are now dead:
W. G. Braithwaite - known as 'Old Bill', unforgotten to all who served with him
Charles Melville
A. E. Stuart, a very brave Milton volunteer officer who commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 'Dinks'
Napier Johnson [?] - the artillery brigadier of the Division
He then recalls an anecdote from a book, General J. F. C. Fuller's "My Time in the Army" which illustrates the eccentricities of some Brigadier Generals.
Bill Braithwaite was brought out from England with General Godley to found the New Zealand Territorial Force. He was loved by his troops but left them after Passchendaele in 1917. Major General Inglis believes it was because he refused to put his men into a second attack and clashed with higher authorities. His headquarters were in a captured German pill-box. Inglis recalls an anecdote about Brigadier-General Braithwaite and his Staff Captain Tom Wilkes and another about an incident with Australian troops.
Harry Fulton (who was educated at Otago Boys' High School) served in the Indian Army and then in the Boer War in command of an Otago squadron. He took one of the first two battalions to Samoa when war broke out. After that he was made commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and went to Egypt. He was a more violent man than Braithwaite, who often lost his temper. He had a reputation for fiery harshness outside his own brigade and was nicknamed 'Bully'.
He was hardest on his officers, especially those who were slack in looking after their men. It was a grand education to serve under him. He was completely just in things that really mattered and capable of deep affection. He suffered from insomnia. Bob Purdie, his adjutant, was often woken to talk to him in the middle of the night. He loved Bob as his own son and the same shell killed them both.
Major General Inglis says he was hauled out of bed one night by Fulton and put under arrest because his company had left rifles piled up outside their tents.
He concludes by saying these Brigadiers were real people to the men under their command, not just distant figures. Their influence was incalculable.
[In D1057.2a he gives a talk concerning his work as a member of the Allied Control Commission in post WWII Germany.]