Field Marshal Lord NICHOLSON of Roundhay
(1845-1918)

William Gustavus Nicholson was born in Leeds on 2 March 1845. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1863 and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in March 1865.

After the usual young officers course at the Royal Engineers Establishment in Chatham, he was sent to the West Indies and served in Barbados until 1871. After this tour of duty he returned to England but soon volunteered for service in India, where he was sent later that year.

In India, where he served for much of the next 30 years, and where he was destined to rise to very high positions, he was employed first in the Public Works Department at Hyderabad and in the Punjab Irrigation Branch.

After a number of years, he transferred to Military Works where he was initially based in Rawalpindi and Peshawar on barrack and road projects.

In Peshawar he was involved in the first of a series of important waterworks projects - collecting water from a river some ten miles away, passing it through settling tanks and filters and conveying it to its destination by a concrete aqueduct. In addition to the engineering experience, he learned much about the frontier conditions and the local tribesmen.

In 1878 the war with Afghanistan broke out and for the next two years Nicholson was involved in the engineering aspects of a number of military expeditions and operations. But he was gradually becoming more of a staff officer - reliable, cool, far-seeing and capable. In 1880 he returned to Simla as Secretary of the Defence Committee. This had been set up to consider all the problems connected with coastal defence, frontier defence and internal arrangements for the safety of India.

But, before long, he was again summoned to active service. In the Egyptian campaign of 1882 an Indian contingent was involved, with Nicholson as one of the two field engineers to the Commander Royal Engineers. Reaching Suez in August they set about the defence of public buildings and works as well as constructing landing stages, piers and railways.

The force moved to Ismailia and on 13 September took part in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir and the subsequent advance on Cairo.

Returning to India at the end of the campaign, Nicholson resumed his job in Simla. In 1885, Lord Roberts was appointed Commander-in-Chief and took much personal interest in the very important work of the Defence Committee. He spoke highly of Colonel Nicholson, whose technical knowledge and judgement led to the swift and economic completion of defence works for frontiers and for the ports of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (or Kolkata), Rangoon and Madras.

Prior to this, however, Nicholson had been involved in Burma where he was mentioned in despatches and in 1890 was appointed military secretary to Lord Roberts. From that point onwards, all his appointments were on the General Staff.

During the next ten years, he was involved in numerous projects and operations. Tribal conflicts on the North West frontier - road and rail construction to open up this troublesome area - modernising frontier defences - training and military policy.

In 1897 he was knighted (KCB) and appointed Adjutant General in India but he had barely taken up this post when Lord Roberts was summoned to take command of the British armies in South Africa. He sent for Nicholson from India and Kitchener from the Sudan to assist him in the task of restoring the situation after the initial setbacks of the Boer war (1899-1902).

In 1900 he returned to India and was promoted to Major General. In the following year he returned to England and was appointed Director General of Mobilization and Military Intelligence at army headquarters - his first home posting since he was a junior subaltern. This was a position of great importance and one in which his experience of war and his wide grasp of civil affairs was especially valuable.

The east called again in 1904 when Nicholson was sent as Chief Military Attaché to the Japanese army in Manchuria. Here the operations which he witnessed were of a war on a far larger scale than anything he had seen hitherto.

On returning to England in 1905 he was offered a command in the Mediterranean but declined, preferring to go on half pay until something more in line with his experience presented itself. He did not have to wait long.

At the end of that year he was appointed Quartermaster General and was now a member of the Army Council. In 1908 he was promoted Chief of the General Staff - a post which later became Chief of the Imperial General Staff as it embraced the colonial and Indian armies as well as those of Britain.

During the years leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914 Nicholson used his knack of selecting good men and he welded together the various elements of the general staff, at the same time keeping in close touch with the civil powers so as to maintain the military weapon in step with its recognised policy.

However, in 1912 he handed his responsibilities on to Sir John French and on his retirement was raised to the peerage as Baron Nicholson of Roundhay, Yorkshire. He had been promoted to Field Marshal in the previous year and had been made ADC General to George V when he came to the throne in 1910.

Although this marked the end of his military career, he continued to serve on various commissions and committees and in 1916 was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers.

Lord Nicholson was essentially a man who did not bid for popular applause. He was a fine speaker with a good sense of humour but he played little part in Corps affairs. Nevertheless, the distinguished officers under whom he served not only admired his talents but had the warmest appreciation of his personal characteristics.

He was probably unique in that he never commanded a unit, either in peace or war, yet he rose to be a Field Marshal; he never graduated from the Staff College yet rose to be Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He died on 13 September 1918, aged 73.