George Colborne Nugent

Brigadier-General George Colborne Nugent, MVO (22 February 1864 – 31 May 1915) was a British Army officer who served on the staff during the Second Boer War, was closely involved in training the Territorial Force, and was killed in action in the Great War.

Brigadier-General

George Colborne Nuget
Vanity Fair caricature by Spy (Leslie Ward), 12 August 1897.
Born22 February 1864
Died31 May 1915(1915-05-31) (aged 51)
Western Front
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1885–1915
RankBrigadier-General
UnitIrish Guards
Commands held141st (5th London) Brigade
Battles/warsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsMember of the Royal Victorian Order

Early life

George Colborne was born on 22 February 1864, the eldest son of Sir Edmund Charles Nugent, 3rd Baronet of Waddesdon (1839–1928) and his wife Evelyn Henrietta Gascoigne.[1] He was educated at Eton.[2]

Military career

Nugent entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1884[3] and on passing out in February 1885 was commissioned as a lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards.[2][4]

Promoted to captain in 1897,[5][6] Nugent served with the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, at Gibraltar before being appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General Sir Henry Colville, commanding the infantry brigade at Gibraltar in March 1899.[6][7]

Second Boer War

In October 1899 Nugent and his brigadier were transferred to Cape Colony as part of the troop build-up for the Second Boer War. Colville took command of the 1st (Guards) Brigade in Lord Methuen's 1st Division, with Nugent as his aide-de-camp.[2][6][8][9]

Advancing to relieve Kimberley at the beginning of the war, Methuen attempted a night attack at Belmont on 22–23 November 1899. He sent Colville off with his brigade to assault Gun Hill; although the attack was a failure, Nugent received his first Mention in Dispatches for his work that night.[2][9][10][11][12] He distinguished himself again at the Battle of Modder River[2][13] and was present at the Battle of Magersfontein.[2][6]

When Colville was promoted to command the 9th Division,[14] Nugent went with him and served at the battles of Poplar Grove and Driefontein.[2][6] However, in May 1900, while Lord Roberts was closing in on Johannesburg, a Yeomanry battalion under Colville's command was cut off and forced to surrender; Colville was made a scapegoat and sent home.[15] Nugent also returned to the UK, because he had been appointed with the rank of major as one of the first officers of the Irish Guards, newly-forming in London.[6][16]

Service in London

In 1901 Nugent was made Commandant of the School of Instruction for Officers of the Auxiliary Forces. Based at Chelsea Barracks, it provided training for the part-time officers of the militia, yeomanry and volunteers.[6] In May 1908 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and took command of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards.[6] As commander of the 1st Irish Guards, Nugent was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) by King Edward VII in January 1909.[17]

Nugent became commander of the regiment and the regimental district in July 1909. This brought him the rank of temporary colonel,[18][19] and also made him ex-officio commander of the 5th London Infantry Brigade in the Territorial Force, newly formed from the Volunteers.[20] The 5th London Brigade comprised four battalions (17th–20th) of the London Regiment and formed part of the 2nd London Division.[21][22] He was promoted to substantive colonel in December 1911.[23]

On completion of his four-year term commanding the district and brigade, Nugent was appointed Commandant of the Duke of York's Royal Military School at Dover.[2][24]

First World War

Nugent was still Commandant when war broke out. When Charles FitzClarence, VC (who had succeeded him in command of the Irish Guards and the 5th London Brigade)[25] was transferred to command the 1st (Guards) Brigade in the British Expeditionary Force, Nugent was brought back to command 5th London Brigade.[22][26]

In October 1914, the 2nd London Division was selected for service on the Western Front, and progressive training was carried out through the winter. Nugent's 5th London Brigade was the leading element of the division to land in France on 9 and 10 March 1915. In May the division (already known in France simply as 'The London Division' to distinguish it from the Regular Army 2nd Division) took its place in the line and was designated the 47th (1/2nd London) Division, with the brigades numbered consecutively: the 5th London became the 141st (1/5th London) Brigade.[22][27]

The 47th Division took part in fighting at the battles of Aubers Ridge (9 May) and Festubert (15–25 May), but the 141st Brigade was only marginally involved. During a quiet period of trench-holding, Nugent was killed by a stray bullet on 31 May.[2][28] He is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery in France.[29]

Family life

Nugent married Isabel Bulwer, daughter of General Sir Edward Gascoigne Bulwer in 1891. She died in 1941[1][2] They had two sons:

  • George Nugent, born 5 November 1892, Captain and Adjutant of 3rd Bn Grenadier Guards in the First World War, succeeded his grandfather as the 4th Baronet in 1928 and died in 1970.[1][2]
  • Terence Edmund Gascoigne Nugent, Lieutenant, Irish Guards in 1915, later Lt-Col, created Baron Nugent in 1960.[2] In 1935 he married Rosalie Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughy, daughter of Brig.-Gen Charles Strathavon Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, who had commanded 6th London Bde alongside Nugent's brigade in 2nd London Division.[1][30][31]

Notes
  1. 'Nugent of Waddesdon', Burke's Peerage (various edns).
  2. Obituary, The Times (London), 4 June 1915.
  3. Sandhurst Register – forename misspelt as 'Feorge'
  4. London Gazette, 6 February 1885.
  5. London Gazette, 18 May 1897.
  6. Quarterly Army List (various edns)
  7. London Gazette, 4 July 1899
  8. London Gazette, 13 October 1899
  9. Creswicke.
  10. Colville's dispatch of 23 November 1899, London Gazette, 26 January 1900
  11. Miller, pp. 90–4.
  12. 'Mentions in Despatches' at Anglo-Boer War.com
  13. Methuen's dispatch of 15 February 1900, London Gazette, 16 March 1900
  14. London Gazette, 1 May 1900
  15. Kruger, pp. 310–2.
  16. London Gazette, 1 May 1900.
  17. London Gazette, 26 January 1909.
  18. London Gazette, 13 July 1909.
  19. London Gazette, 16 July 1909.
  20. Hart's Army List 1911.
  21. Maude, pp. 227–8.
  22. Becke, pp. 69–75.
  23. London Gazette, 15 December 1911.
  24. London Gazette, 15 July 1913.
  25. London Gazette, 15 July 1913.
  26. Maude, p. 232.
  27. Maude, pp. 11–19.
  28. Maude, p. 22.
  29. "Brigadier General George Colborne Nugent | War Casualty Details 60954".
  30. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, vol. 2 (107th ed.), Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, p. 2956, ISBN 978-0-9711966-2-9(Cited at thePeerage.com, which accessed 18 July 2020) {{citation}}: External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  31. Maude, pp. 4, 232.

References
  • Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2a: The Territorial Force Mounted Divisions and the 1st-Line Territorial Force Divisions (42–56), London: HM Stationery Office, 1935/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-39-8.
  • Louis Creswicke, South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol II: From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, 15 December 1899, Edinburgh, 1900
  • Alan H. Maude (ed.), The History of the 47th (London) Division 1914–1919, London: Amalgamated Press, 1922/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2002, ISBN 1-84342-205-0.
  • Stephen M. Miller, Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa, London: Frank Cass, 1999, ISBN 0-7146-4904-X..

External sources
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