Sir Fenton Aylmer, 13th Baronet

Lieutenant-General Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet VC KCB (5 April 1862 – 3 September 1935) was an Anglo-Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was in command of the first failed efforts to break the siege of Kut in 1916. From a military background, Aylmer was commissioned into the Indian Army, and immediately involved in fierce fighting on the north-west frontier. In a singularly heroic action, still in his twenties, he helped rescue Townshend's garrison at Chitral, spearheading the relief column. For his valorous conduct he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and rapid promotion through the officer class.

Sir Fenton John Aylmer Bt VC
Lieutenant General Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet of Donadea VC KCB
Born	5 April 1862 Hastings, Sussex
Died	3 September 1935 (aged 73) Lingfield Road, Wimbledon, Surrey
Buried	Golders Green, London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1880–1919
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Corps of Royal Engineers
Commands held	Tigris Corps Commandant, Royal Engineers
Battles/wars	Burmese resistance movement 1885–95 Hunza–Nagar Campaign Chitral Expedition First World War (Mesopotamian campaign) Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad Siege of Kut Battle of Hanna) Dujaila Redoubt Sinn Abtar Redoubt
Awards	Victoria Cross Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Relations	Elsie Julie Oppermann (wife)

Early career

Born the son of Captain Fenton John Aylmer (24 December 1835 – 9 April 1862) and Isabella Eleanor Darling (died 27 December 1908).[1] Aylmer attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a Gentleman Cadet and was promoted Lieutenant on 27 July 1880.[2] He took part in the Burma expedition between 1886 and 1887.[3]

The Victoria Cross

Fenton was 29 years old, and a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers, British Army and Bengal Sappers & Miners (British Indian Army),[4] during the Hunza–Nagar Campaign, India when he won the Victoria Cross in 1891 for the following deed:

On 2 December 1891 during the assault on Nilt Fort, British India, Captain Aylmer, with the storming party, forced open the inner gate with gun-cotton which he had placed and ignited, and although severely wounded, fired 19 shots with his revolver, killing several of the enemy, and remained fighting until, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried out of action.[5]

He was promoted Major on 18 October 1893 in recognition of his services during the Hunza-Nagar Expedition,[6] and was part of the Chitral Expedition in 1895.[3] Further service with the Royal Engineers saw him promoted a brevet Lieutenant-colonel. In July 1901 he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster general in India, and promoted to the substantive rank of colonel.[7] Ten years later, in March 1912, having been promoted to major-general, he became Adjutant-General, India.[8]

In 1913 he married Lady Risley, the widow of Sir Herbert Hope Risley, head of the Indian Civil Service. Born Elsie Julie Oppermann, daughter of Friedrich Oppermann, she was considered a great beauty and had, for many years prior to her marriage to him, had an affair with Aylmer—an affair that was well known within Indian society and apparently tolerated by Sir Herbert.[1] Lady Aylmer died on 18 July 1934.[1]

First World War

Having been promoted to lieutenant general on 11 June 1915,[9] Aylmer was sent to Mesopotamia to take over command of the 7th (Meerut) Division. However, shortly after his arrival, he was put in charge of the Tigris Corps that was assembled as the first effort to end the siege of Kut.[10][11] Tigris Corps comprised the Meerut Division, the 12th Indian Division, and a number of other smaller military units. All told he had more than 20,000 men. They left Basra in late December 1915 and arrived at Sheikh Sa'ad on 3 January 1916.[12] While the 12th Indian Division (under command of General George Gorringe) made a diversionary move near Nasiriyeh, the 7th (under the command of General Younghusband) staged a direct assault on the Ottoman positions on 6 January (the Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad).[12] After two days of fighting, the Ottoman army withdrew. The British sustained approximately 4,000 casualties - much more than the medical units could cope with.[12] The Ottoman troops, under the generalship of Baron von der Goltz only withdrew some six miles up river and occupied another defensive position near the edge of the Suwaikiya Marshes. A British assault on this position on 13 January was partially successful, the position was carried but again with significant losses (some 1,600 casualties) (the Battle of Wadi).[12]

By now, a third division had been added to Aylmer's Tigris Corps, the 3rd (Lahore) Division. This new division, along with the weakened 7th Division, attacked Ottoman defensive works at Hanna on 21 January (the Battle of Hanna). This assault was a complete failure. The Ottoman troops held their trench lines while some 2,700 British soldiers were killed or wounded.[12]

General Aylmer was reinforced with another division, the 13th (Western) Division. The next month was spent resting the troops and probing the Ottoman defensive positions. With time running out on Major-General Townshend's garrison in Kut, Aylmer finally launched a two pronged attack on the Ottoman positions, one attack at the Sinn Abtar Redoubt, the other attack at the Dujaila Redoubt. The attacks were launched on 7 March 1916. Both attacks failed due to lack of initiative and an inability to coordinate the timing of the assaults: they ended up being sequential, not simultaneous as was intended. The British lost some 4,000 casualties.[12]

Fenton Aylmer was replaced by the former commander of the 12th Indian division, Major-General Gorringe. He did not command in battle again, but served as a divisional commander in India from 1915[13] to 1917[14] before retiring from the British Army in 1919.[3] From 1922 till his death he was a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers.[3] Following his death in 1935 he was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes remain.[15]

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent, England.[4]

References

1. "Lt.-Gen. Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Bt., V.C." The Peerage. 29 January 2011.
2. "No. 24870". The London Gazette. 3 August 1880. p. 4258.
3. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 February 2014)
4. The Royal Engineers Museum - Victoria Crosses held by the Royal Engineers Museum
5. "No. 26306". The London Gazette. 12 July 1892. p. 4006.
6. "No. 26450". The London Gazette. 17 October 1893. p. 5833.
7. "No. 27383". The London Gazette. 6 December 1901. p. 8642.
8. Army Commands Archived 5 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
9. "No. 29420". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 30 December 1915. p. 13009.
10. F. J. Moberly, History of the Great War: The Campaign in Mesopotamia, vol. 2 (1924) p. 146n.
11. Fenton John Aylmer on Lives of the First World War
12. Tucker, p. 1,233
13. "No. 29651". The London Gazette. 4 July 1916. p. 6619.
14. "No. 30353". The London Gazette. 26 October 1917. p. 11047.
15. Fenton John Aylmer at Find-A-Grave

Sources

• Tucker, Spencer C. (1997). World War 1. Routledge. ISBN 978-1857283914.
• Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)
• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• The Sapper VCs (Gerald Napier, 1998)

External links

• Royal Engineers Museum Sappers VCs
• Burial location of Fenton Aylmer "Golders Green Crematorium, London"
• Location of Fenton Aylmer's Victoria Cross "Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham"
• The Attempt to Relieve Kut, 1916 - from The Long, Long March website, downloaded January, 2006.