armourersergeant Posted 19 March , 2006 Share Posted 19 March , 2006 I am in the process of reading Sir William Marshall's Autobio 'Memories of Four Fronts'. It is claer and well written and almost to my reading not in a dated written terms. You get the feeling he writes the truth even if he does say its written without the help of papers or a diary and from memory! He writes that as a Brigade commander he was dispatched by Hunter Weston when at Gallipoli to over see Brigadier-General Noel Lee's command to help him settle in. He says he was there a day and could see that lee knew within reason his job yet when he told HW this he was asked still to stay longer than a day. Is anyone aware of a 'real' reason for this or is it just simply that lee i believfe and his brigade were Territorials and HW did not trust them? regards Arm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 19 March , 2006 Share Posted 19 March , 2006 Arm Dunno about this. There's no mention of the visit in Lee's biography "I shall not find his equal" - written by Forum Pal, Niall Cherry. Nor is there any mention of him visiting 6/Manchester in the recently published diary of it's CO (Great Gable to Gallipoli, edited by Forum Pal, Robert Bonner). Any indication why he might have visited the Manchester Brigade and not the other Territorials in 42nd Division (apart from the fact that I gather Hunter-Weston and Lee knew each other). John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armourersergeant Posted 20 March , 2006 Author Share Posted 20 March , 2006 There is no indication why Lee's Brigade was picked and not any others. There is also no indication that Hunter Weston knew Lee, only that Marshall was asked to go and 'babysit' the man his brigade Major and the battalions! I know very little about Noel Lee except that I recall his ability was not necesserily in question! Where as Hunter Westons could quiet easily be doubted. Marshall writes that he found it 'embarressing' to do adn after a day rather pointless, apart from a very small few things. He does also say that Lee however took it all in good faith and was not put out atal. regards Arm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 20 March , 2006 Share Posted 20 March , 2006 Arm The ref. to the two of them knowing each comes from "I shall not find his equal". Lee notes in his diary for 7 May that he had met Hunter Weston "General Hunter-Weston (who reminded me of his call at Quarry bank last summer) was very pleasant and considerate". Quarry Bank was Lee's home, 5 minutes drive down the road from me at Styal, Cheshire. No mention of the visit in the Brigade War Diary, either, so it seems to have been a reasonably low-key visit. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_armstrong Posted 20 March , 2006 Share Posted 20 March , 2006 There may not have been a direct connection between the two, but there were a number of people in Styal Lee could possibly have met Hunter-Weston through. Major-General Douglas (42nd Division) was also living on the Greg estate at Styal just before the war - possibly even in Quarry Bank House too, but I can't check now as the Historical Directories site doesn't seem to be working and my notebooks are at home, but it is in the 1914 one. I've never been able to find exactly what Noel Lee was doing with the Gregs - he did after all have his own family textiles firm Tootal Broadhurst Lee - but there was definitely a little colony rich textiles men with military connections on the estate in the pre war years. There was: Lt Col Ernest William Greg: commanding the 7th Cheshires and at the time the member of the Greg family in charge at Styal Maj-Gen W Douglas: commanding division of Manchester territorials Maj Robert Alexander Greg: from memory, without my notes, I think he was something of a local hero of the Boer War and later commanded a reserve battalion of the Cheshires Col Noel Lee: at the time commanding 6th Manchesters, later promoted Brigadeer-General These men were all living within spitting distance of each other on the Greg estate (and some within the same houses), and there were also a number of other textiles-related territorial officers in the near vicinity, so it might not be surprising if there had been some kind of get together if there had been an important military visitor to one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_armstrong Posted 21 March , 2006 Share Posted 21 March , 2006 The Historical Directories are back online now... Below is from Kelly's Directory of Cheshire 1914 - quite a little concentration of officers in such a small village... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 21 March , 2006 Share Posted 21 March , 2006 Jon Not exactly a little area unknown for it's toffs though, is it? Even today John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_armstrong Posted 21 March , 2006 Share Posted 21 March , 2006 As long as we remember to doff our caps to them they don't shoot us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_armstrong Posted 8 October , 2011 Share Posted 8 October , 2011 Doing some more reading the other day, I was reminded of this thread. If Hunter-Weston met Lee in Styal in 1914, a likely person for them to have met through could be Arthur Wyndham Tufnell. Tufnell had been on the General Staff of the Scottish Command 1906 to 1910. Hunter-Weston was also at the Scottish Command 1908 to 1911, so the two would certainly have known each other. By the summer of 1914, Tufnell was a staff officer with the East Lancashire Division, and living at Woodend, Styal. Its commander, Major-General William Douglas, was at the other side of the village at Oak Brow. One of his Brigade commanders, Noel Lee, was at Quarry Bank. As an aside, Tufnell came to an curious end. In 1920 he accepted a position in the Indian Armby but was attacked by robbers on the train to Silma and found mortally wounded on the platform, dying in hospital in Calcutta the next day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tufnell Posted 27 July , 2020 Share Posted 27 July , 2020 Yes, Arthur Tufnell certainly did know Hunter Weston. I had a photographs of HW in Arthur Tufnells correspondence. Richard Tufnell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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