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Cameron Shute

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Sir Cameron Shute
General Sir Cameron Shute
Born15 March 1866
Dorking, Surrey, England
Died25 January 1936 (aged 69)
London, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1885–1931
RankGeneral
UnitFirst World War
Commands2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own)
59th Brigade
63rd (Royal Naval) Division
32nd Division
19th (Western) Division
V Corps
4th Division
Northern Command
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Legion of Honour

General Sir Cameron Deane Shute, KCB, KCMG (15 March 1866 – 25 January 1936), was a senior British Army officer during the First World War.[1]

Early life and education

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Shute was born in Dorking, Surrey, the son of Col. Deane Christian Shute of the British Indian Army, and his wife, Elizabeth Isabella Brownlow.[2] He was educated at Marlborough College and abroad.[1] He was the nephew of General Sir Charles Cameron Shute (1816–1904). Francis Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine married his sister Alice Emily Shute.[3]

Military career

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After graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Shute was commissioned into the Welsh Regiment in August 1885.[4][5] He transferred to the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) in September 1895, receiving a promotion to captain in his new regiment,[6] and participated in the Nile Expedition and the Siege of Khartoum in 1898.[4] He was deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) in Malta from 1899 and, a major from June 1904 onwards,[7] a general staff officer (GSO) at Scottish Coast Defences from 1905.[4] In March 1910 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel[8] and appointed commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade and, after being promoted to full colonel in June 1913,[9] he then became a GSO at Aldershot Training Centre from 1914.[4]

He served in the First World War in France and Belgium, becoming commander of the 59th Brigade, 20th (Light) Division, in France during the Guillemont actions in 1915.[10] Upon being made a temporary major general in October 1916[11] he went on to be general officer commanding (GOC) of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, the same year in which he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[12]

A.P. Herbert poem

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As GOC of the Royal Naval Division, Shute had an intense dislike of the division's unconventional "nautical" traditions and made numerous unpopular attempts to stamp them out. He was particularly critical of the poor management of the latrines which could have led to an outbreak of dysentery.[13] Following a particularly critical inspection of the trenches by Shute, an officer of the division, Sub-Lieutenant A. P. Herbert, who later became a famous humorous writer, legal satirist and member of Parliament, wrote a popular poem that summed up the feelings of the men of the division:[14]

The General inspecting the trenches
Exclaimed with a horrified shout
'I refuse to command a division
Which leaves its excreta about.'

But nobody took any notice
No one was prepared to refute,
That the presence of shit was congenial
Compared to the presence of Shute.

And certain responsible critics
Made haste to reply to his words
Observing that his staff advisors
Consisted entirely of turds.

For shit may be shot at odd corners
And paper supplied there to suit,
But a shit would be shot without mourners
If somebody shot that shit Shute.

Although soldier songs hostile to superior officers were not rare, it is unusual to have a song aimed at a named officer.

He later became GOC of the 32nd Division in 1917 and of the 19th Division at the Battle of Messines in France in 1917.[4] In June 1917 he was promoted to the substantive rank of major general.[15] In April 1918 he was promoted to temporary lieutenant general[16] and took command of V Corps in place of the sacked Edward Fanshawe, which he commanded for the rest of the war.[4]

After the war his CB was upgraded to a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KCB)[17] and he was also awarded the French Legion of Honour, January 1919.[18] and, having reverted to his permanent rank of major general in April 1919,[19] and relinquished command of V Corps[20] he became GOC of the 4th Division, a post he held from November 1919 [21] to November 1923.[4] Finally, after being made a substantive lieutenant general in April 1926,[22] he was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1927; after being promoted to full general in March 1931,[23] he retired from the army later that year.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Obituary: Gen. Sir Cameron Shute – Leader and Trainer of Troops". The Times. 27 January 1936. p. 17.
  2. ^ "Marriages". The Gentleman's Magazine. F. Jefferies: 542. November 1850.
  3. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2155. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  5. ^ "No. 25506". The London Gazette. 28 August 1885. p. 4084.
  6. ^ "No. 26666". The London Gazette. 27 September 1895. p. 5356.
  7. ^ "No. 27682". The London Gazette. 3 June 1904. p. 3554.
  8. ^ "No. 28358". The London Gazette. 19 April 1910. p. 2681.
  9. ^ "No. 28819". The London Gazette. 7 April 1914. p. 3003.
  10. ^ "Battlefields". Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  11. ^ "No. 29826". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 November 1916. p. 11125.
  12. ^ "No. 29608". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1916. p. 5555.
  13. ^ Gordon Corrigan Mud, Blood and Poppycock (ISBN 0304359556) pp. 87–88.
  14. ^ Martin Gilbert, The Somme, Henry Holt, 2006, p. 218.
  15. ^ "No. 30111". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1917. p. 5463.
  16. ^ "No. 30707". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 May 1918. p. 6209.
  17. ^ "No. 31092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1918. p. 1.
  18. ^ "No. 31150". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 January 1919. p. 1445.
  19. ^ "No. 31320". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 April 1919. p. 5468.
  20. ^ "No. 31428". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 July 1919. p. 8312.
  21. ^ "No. 31643". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 November 1919. p. 13875.
  22. ^ "No. 33155". The London Gazette. 27 April 1926. p. 2861.
  23. ^ "No. 33695". The London Gazette. 3 March 1931. p. 1451.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC V Corps
1918–1919 		Succeeded by
Post disbanded
Preceded by GOC 4th Division
1919–1923 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC-in-C Northern Command
1927–1931 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Colonel Commandant of the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)
1929–1936 		Succeeded by
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