Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby

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Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby : biography

23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936

Allenby went to Patagonia for a last fishing trip, aged 74, to see if the salmon really were as big as those in the Tay.Reid 2006, p67 He died suddenly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, on 14 May 1936, in London, aged 75. He was cremated and his ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey.

Honours

Ribbon bar (as it would look today):

British

  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) – 17 December 1917
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Military Division (GCB) – 5 November 1918 (KCB: 18 February 1915; CB: 26 June 1902)
  • Viscount Allenby of Meggido and of Felixstowe in the County of Suffolk – 18 October 1919
  • Knight of Justice of the Venerable Order of St. John (KJStJ) – 19 June 1925 (Knight of Grace: 21 December 1917)
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – 4 June 1934

Others

  • Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour of France – 18 March 1915
  • Belgian Croix de Guerre – 11 March 1918
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle with Swords of the Kingdom of Serbia – 10 September 1918
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of the Kingdom of Greece – 10 October 1918
  • Croix de Guerre of France – 11 March 1919
  • Army Distinguished Service Medal of the United States – 12 July 1919
  • Grand Officer of the Military Order of Savoy of the Kingdom of Italy – 21 August 1919
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania of the Kingdom of Romania – 20 September 1919
  • Order of Wen-Hu, 1st Class of the Republic of China – 17 February 1920
  • Order of the Renaissance, 1st Class with Brilliants of the Kingdom of Hejaz – 5 March 1920
  • Order of Michael the Brave, 1st Class of the Kingdom of Romania – 7 May 1920
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of the Empire of Japan – 21 January 1921
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers of the Empire of Japan – 20 January 1922
  • Grand Cross (Mil.) of the Order of Leopold of the Kingdom of Belgium – 23 March 1935 (Grand Officer: 26 July 1917)

Legacy

Allenby supposedly once said that people would have to visit a war museum to learn of him, but that T. E. Lawrence would be remembered and become a household name. This quote was used by Robert Bolt in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. A blue plaque unveiled in 1960 commemorates Allenby at 24 Wetherby Gardens, South Kensington, London.

Publicity surrounding Allenby’s exploits in the Middle East was at its highest in Britain in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Allenby enjoyed a period of celebrity in the United States as well. He and his wife went on an American tour in 1928, receiving a standing ovation when he addressed Carnegie Hall in New York City.Gardner, p. 259 Biographer Raymond Savage claimed that for a time Allenby was better known in America than Lawrence.Gardner, p. 257

In David Lean’s film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which depicts the Arab Revolt during World War I, Allenby is given a major part and is portrayed by Jack Hawkins in one of his best-known roles. Screenwriter Robert Bolt called Allenby a "very considerable man" and hoped to depict him sympathetically."As I wrote the part I admired (Allenby) exceedingly and tried to show him as performing his duty… perfectly and without relish." Quoted in Adrian Turner, Robert Bolt: Scenes from Two Lives (London: Hutchinson, 1998), p. 509. Nonetheless, many view Allenby’s portrayal as negative.Wilson, Jeremy. T.E. Lawrence Studies. Retrieved 13 September 2012Caton, Steven C. Lawrence of Arabia: A Film’s Anthropology (University of California Press, 1999), p. 59

T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), whose efforts with the Arab Revolt were greatly aided by Allenby, thought highly of him: "(He was) physically large and confident, and morally so great that the comprehension of our littleness came slow to him".