The Peter principle in World War I

[Martin Bennitt]

The Peter Principle states that a person tends to be promoted to beyond the level of his or own competence, e.g. win promotion by being very good at one job but a failure in the next one up. I would consider there are many examples of this in the War, Nivelle being the most glaring. What about others -- Gough, Hamilton? Others seem to be have been moved up under the principle of Buggins' Turn (Stopford) or because they had a martial name (Moltke). Kitchener as War Minister could also be in there, despite his recruiting successes.

Grateful for other examples of successes who became failures and comments on how much a factor the wrong guy in the job was, if the problem was recognised and how generals were assessed for promotion.

Oh yes, did Hunter-Bunter do well at any level?

cheers Martin B