Major-General Sir Thompson Capper, KCMG, CB, DSO (20 October, 1863 - 27 September, 1915) was a highly decorated and senior British Army officer who served with distinction in the Second Boer War and was a divisional commander during the First World War. At the battle of Loos in 1915, Capper was shot by a sniper as he reconnoitered the front line during an assault by his division on German positions. He died the next day from wounds to both lungs in a casualty clearing station and is buried nearby.
Sir Thompson Capper | |
|---|---|
| Thompson Capper Sir Thompson Capper | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service | File:Army flag.svg British Army |
| Years of service | 1882 to 1915 |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Unit | East Lancashire Regiment, General Staff |
| Commands | 7th Infantry Division |
| Battles / wars | Chitral Relief Force, Mahdist War, Second Boer War, First World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of St Michael and St George, Companion of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order |
Capper was an active and vigorous soldier who had been wounded just six months before his death in an accidental grenade detonation. Shortly before this wound he had been knighted by King George V for his service in command of his division during the first battle of Ypres. Field Marshall Sir John French commented upon his death that "he was a most distinguished and capable leader and his death will be severely felt."[1] He was also a keen military historian and his collected papers are currently stored at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College, London.
Early career
Thompson Capper was born in October 1863 to William Capper and Sarah Capper (neé Copeland). William Capper was a civil servant with the Bengal Civil Service and Sarah was the daughter of industrialist William Copeland. Thompson and his elder brother John Capper were born in Lucknow but at a young age were sent to England for their education.[2] In England, Thompson Capper attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst before being commissioned into the East Lancashire Regiment as a junior officer in 1882.[3]
He was employed on home service for the next ten years and was made captain in 1892,[4] attending Staff College before being transferred with his unit to India. It was in India that Capper saw his first action, when in 1895 his regiment was attached to a force sent to the Indian-Afghan border to relieve a trapped British force in Chitral.[5] Three years later as a brevet major, he was again in action as an advisor to an Egyptian unit of the Anglo-Egyptian army under Horatio Kitchener which travelled down the Nile in the final campaign of the Mahdist War. Although Capper was not present at the culminating battle of Omdurman he did participate in the battle of Atbara and was with the force which captured the Mahdist capital of Khartoum.[5]
South African service
The following year, 1899, Capper and his regiment were again engaged in Africa, being transported to South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War. There Capper performed his duties with distinction for the next three years, being heavily engaged at the defeat of Spion Kop and participating in the relief of Ladysmith in 1900.[5] He remained in South Africa engaged in guerilla operations against the Boer forces until the armistice of 1902, commanding a flying column in the Cape Colony.[2] Following the war's conclusion, Capper was promoted and awarded the Distinguished Service Order on his return home.[6] He was also awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with six clasps and the King's South Africa Medal with two clasps in recognition of his long service in the colony.[7]
Staff career
As an experienced staff officer, he was given a post as a professor at the Staff College, Camberley from 1902 to 1904. He was then transferred to the Command and Staff College at Quetta in India as commandant. It has been suggested that this move was initiated by jealous colleagues at the college due to his ability as a teacher and tactician.[2] He retained this position until 1911, teaching the lessons of the Russo-Japanese War and emphasising the importance of "attacking dash" as the best means of overcoming entrenched positions.[2] He came into contact with numerous important figures of the First World War through this work, including Douglas Haig, whom he did not get on well with and Hubert Gough, who admired his "spirit of self-sacrifice and duty, instead of the idea of playing for safety and seeking only to avoid getting into trouble".[2] He also amassed a prodigious collection of military literature during his research and teaching.[8]
In 1906 he was promoted to Brigadier–General and in 1908 he married Winifride Mary, with whom he would have one son.[2] In 1910 his work at the staff college was recognised with the award of the Companion of the Order of the Bath. In 1911 Capper was transferred from India to Ireland, where he commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade until 1913. He returned to Ireland briefly a year later in the aftermath of the Curragh Incident, to support his friend Hubert Gough.[2] During early 1914, Capper was briefly the Inspector of Infantry but in the emergency of the summer of 1914 he was posted to the 7th Infantry Division of regular troops which was sent to the Western Front.[5]
First World War
During the opening months of the war, Capper busied himself with organising the new division placed under his command, and the work invovled in this task meant that the division was not ready for action until October 1914.[5] On the 6 October the 7th Division arrived at Zeebrugge just as the German forces began to push into the area as part of the "Race for the Sea".[5] Initially forced back, Capper's division covered the Belgian withdrawal to the Yser and then held the line near the town of Ypres.[2] For the next two months, the 7th Division was embroiled in bitter fighting at the first battle of Ypres, when they were crucial in stopping the German advance but lost over 10,000 men. The Times later stated that "no one but Capper himself could, night after night, by the sheer force of his personality, have reconstituted from the shattered fragments of battalions a fighting line that could last through tomorrow".[2] For the service he and his men provided during the battle, Capper was awarded a knighthood as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in early 1915.[9]
Remaining on the front lines during the winter of 1914–1915, Capper's men held the German advance and were given some respite in early 1915 with the arrival of territorial divisions. It was during one of these rest periods that Capper was seriously wounded when in April 1915 he was struck in the shoulder by shrapnel from a "Jam-tin bomb" during a demonstration of improvised grenades being held behind the lines.[2] He returned to England to convalese, but was back with the 7th Divison on the 19 July 1915.[5]
Battle of Loos
In late September 1915, the division was assigned to participate in the battle of Loos against fortified German positions at Loos-en-Gohelle and Hulluch. Advancing on the 26 September against furious German opposition, the 7th Division was held up several times and Capper visited the frontline to view the enemy for himself from the captured trenches. Urging his men into a final assault, Capper stayed behind to view the field and was struck by a sniper's bullet fired from houses along the line of advance which were thought to have been abandoned.[5] The assault failed and Capper was discovered by his retreating units and taken to Number 6 Casualty Clearing Station to the rear of British lines.[5] The bullet had penetrated both lungs, and doctors gave no hope of survival. Major–General Sir Thompson Capper died the following day, on the 27 September 1915 in the casualty clearing station. His division had lost over 5,200 men killed or wounded in just three days of fighting.[5]
Following his death, a rumour abounded that he had been killed charging the German lines on horseback.[2] This story has persisted despite eye-witness accounts to the contrary.[5] Capper was buried in Lillers Communal Cemetary behind British lines and his grave is surmounted by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.[10] His collected papers were donated to King's College in 1971, where they are still avaliable to researchers and contain a wide selection of primary materials concerning the warfare of the early twentieth century.[8]
Notes
- ^ Sir John French's Ninth Despatch, The Long, Long Trail, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sir Thompson Capper, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ The London Gazette, September 8, 1882, The London Gazette, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ The London Gazette, May 12, 1891, The London Gazette, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k P.53-54, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
- ^ The London Gazette, October 31, 1902, The London Gazette, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ Old Haileyburians Who Died in the Service of Their Country 1915, Haileybury School, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ a b Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ The London Gazette, March 16, 1915, The London Gazette, Retrieved 9 July 2007
- ^ Major-General Sir Thompson Capper, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Retrieved 9 July 2007
References
- Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (1995). Bloody Red Tabs. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-850524-63-6.
- "Capper, Sir Thompson". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- "Archive Search Results for Thompson Capper". The London Gazette.
- "CAPPER, Maj Gen Sir Thompson (1863-1915)". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London.
- "CAPPER, Sir THOMPSON". Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
- "Old Haileyburians Who Died in the Service of Their Country 1915". Haileybury School.
- "Sir John French's Ninth Despatch". The Long, Long Trail.