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{{Short description|British Army general}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Philip de Fonblanque
|image=
|caption=
|birth_date={{birth date|1885|11|16|df=yes}}
|death_date={{death date and age|1940|7|2|1885|11|16|df=yes}}
|birth_place=[[British India]]
|death_place=[[Cambridge]], England
|placeofburial=[[Cambridge City Cemetery]]
|placeofburial_label=
|nickname=
|allegiance={{flagu|United Kingdom}}
|branch=[[British Army]]
|serviceyears=1905–1940
|rank=[[Major General]]
|unit=[[Royal Engineers]]
|commands=Lines of Communication, [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]]
|battles=[[Battle of France]]
|awards=[[Distinguished Service Order]]
|relations=[[John Anthony Fonblanque]] (great, great grandfather)<br>[[Albany Fonblanque]], [[John Samuel Martin Fonblanque]] (uncles)<br>[[Edward Barrington de Fonblanque]] (grandfather)<br>[[Edward Barrington de Fonblanque (British Army officer)|Edward Barrington de Fonblanque]] (brother)
|laterwork=
}}

[[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] '''Philip de Fonblanque''' {{small|[[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]]}} (16 November 1885 – 2 July 1940) was a senior British officer, who at the start of the [[Second World War]], organised the [[Military logistics|logistics]] for the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] in France and Belgium. Already a sick man, the result of his exertions was that he died shortly after his evacuation from France in June 1940.

==Early life==
Philip de Fonblanque was born in 1885 in [[British India]],<ref name ="CWGC">{{cite web |url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2651033/DE%20FONBLANQUE,%20PHILIP |title=Casualty details – DE FONBLANQUE, PHILIP |website=www.cwgc.org |publisher=The Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref> the elder son of Lester Ramsay de Fonblanque, Vicomte de Fonblanque<ref>de Fonblanque formerly of Guildford House pedigree, Burke's Landed Gentry 1972</ref> whose father was [[Edward Barrington de Fonblanque]], a writer and traveller descended from a [[Huguenot]] family, and Constance Lucy, the daughter of Colonel Hon. Robert Dundas Kerr, and great-granddaughter of [[William Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian]]. He entered [[Rugby School]] in May 1899 at the age of 13 and left in 1902. From there, he became a cadet at the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]<ref>Michell, Arthur Tompson (1904), [https://archive.org/stream/rugbyschoolregis03rugbuoft#page/264/mode/2up ''Rugby School Register: Volume III''], A J Lawrence, Rugby (p. 264)</ref> for a year<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.sandhurstcollection.co.uk/view/2029/61710/RMA_WO_149_Vol_8_1901-1916/Philip_De+Fonblanque/ |title=The Sandhurst Collection Archive – Philip De Fonblanque |website=archive.sandhurstcollection.co.u |publisher=Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref> and was commissioned as a [[Second Lieutenant]] in March 1905.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27777/page/2183 |title=The London Gazette: Publication date: 21 March 1905 Issue: 27777 Page: 2183 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk |publisher=The Stationery Office |access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref>

In 1916 he married Stella, eldest daughter of [[Francis Henry May|Sir Henry May]], governor of Hong Kong. There were a son and two daughters of the marriage.<ref name=Obit>Obituary, Major-General Philip de Fonblanque, DSO. ''The Times'' Monday, 8 Jul 1940; pg. 7; Issue 48662</ref>

==Military career==
During the [[First World War]], [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]] de Fonblanque was given the temporary rank of [[Major]] when he took command of a Field Company of [[Royal Engineers]] in November 1916,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29994/supplement/2830 |title=The London Gazette: 20 March 1917 Issue: 29994 Page: 2830 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk |publisher=The Stationery Office |access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref> although he relinquished this rank to become a [[staff officer]] to a chief engineer in July 1917.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30191/supplement/7317 |title=The London Gazette: 17 July 1917 Issue: 30191 Page: 7317 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk |publisher=The Stationery Office |access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref>

Between the wars, de Fonblanque held a number of staff posts, culminating in being appointed Chief Administration Officer of [[Scottish Command]] in 1937.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.generals.dk/general/de_Fonblanque/Philip/Great_Britain.html |title=Generals from Great Britain – de Fonblanque, Philip |last1=Ammentorp |first1=Steen |website=www.generals.dk |publisher=The Generals of WWII |access-date=26 May 2014}}</ref> In October 1938, he headed a British mission with the task of observing the withdrawal of the [[Military of the Czech Republic|Czechoslovak Army]] from the [[Sudetenland]] under the terms of the [[Munich Agreement]].<ref>Wilkinson, Peter and Astley, Joan (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=tPY_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 ''Gubbins & SOE''], Pen & Sword Military, {{ISBN|978-1848844216}} (p. 33)</ref>

[[File:The British Army in France 1940 F4849.jpg|thumb|right|British vehicles awaiting evacuation on the quayside at [[Cherbourg]] during [[Operation Aerial]] in June 1940.]]

With the outbreak of the Second World War and the dispatch of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France in September 1939, de Fonblanque was appointed General Officer Commanding, Lines of Communication Area for the force, which was under the overall command of [[Lord Gort]].

De Fonblanque's responsibility was to facilitate the supply of everything required by the force in its forward positions on the border with [[Belgium]]. By January 1940, the total size of the BEF had risen to 222,200 men in six divisions. Originally, the [[materiel]] needed by the force was all channelled through depots at [[Nantes]] and [[Brest, France|Brest]], but construction of an Advance Base Area began at [[Le Havre]] in November 1939. By the following April, some nineteen French ports were being used for British logistics, with up to 100,000 [[Imperial ton|tons]] of stores being imported monthly. In addition to that, a network of reserve and forward supply depots had been constructed in an area extending over a third of France.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/LondonGazette/35305.pdf |title=Supplement to The London Gazette: 10 October 1941 Issue: 35305 Page: 5904 |last1=Gort |first1=General the Viscount |website=www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ |access-date=25 May 2014}}</ref>

As the [[Battle of France]] progressed, de Fonblanque, whose headquarters were at [[Le Mans]], and much of his logistic chain, became separated from the fighting formations of the BEF by the German ''[[Blitzkrieg]]''. The arrival of General Sir [[Alan Brooke]] on 13 June to command the remaining British troops in France, was the catalyst for the decision to evacuate all of them, an undertaking codenamed [[Operation Aerial]]. De Fonblanque was heavily involved in organising the landward side of the evacuation, which was successful in getting away almost all the men, some 190,000 of them, as well as a great quantity of invaluable guns, vehicles and stores that could easily have been lost. [[Winston Churchill]] later wrote in his memoirs, [[The Second World War (book series)|''The Second World War'']]:

{{Quotation|This reflects great credit on General Brooke's embarkation staff, of whom the chief, General de Fonblanque, a British officer, died shortly afterwards as a result of his exertions.<ref>Churchill, Winston S (1949), [https://books.google.com/books?id=PT8qAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT172&dq=%22reflects+great+credit+on+General+Brooke%27s+embarkation+staff,+of+whom+the+chief,+General+de+Fonblanque,%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PXOCU5G6FIiWPYfXgcAJ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22reflects%20great%20credit%20on%20General%20Brooke's%20embarkation%20staff%2C%20of%20whom%20the%20chief%2C%20General%20de%20Fonblanque%2C%22&f=false ''The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour''] Penguin Classics, {{ISBN|978-0141441733}} (p. 172)</ref>}}

His death from an existing illness hastened by his heavy responsibilities in France took place in Cambridge on 2 July 1940, aged 54.<ref name=Obit/> He is buried in [[Cambridge City Cemetery]].<ref name=CWGC />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book| first=Nick| last=Smart| title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War| isbn=1844150496| year=2005| location=Barnesley| publisher=Pen & Sword}}

==External links==
*[https://generals.dk/general/de_Fonblanque/Philip/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]
*[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw204313/Philip-de-Fonblanque Photographic portrait of Philip de Fonblanque, by Walter Stoneman, April 1940], in the collection of the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Fonblanque, Philip}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Rugby School]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:British Army generals of World War II]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:Burials at the Cambridge City Cemetery]]
[[Category:De Fonblanque family]]
[[Category:British Army personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
[[Category:British Army major generals]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]

Philip de Fonblanque - Revision history

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