81.100.69.69 at 17:45, 15 October 2022

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{{redirect|Fenton Aylmer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix=
| name =Sir Fenton John Aylmer
| honorific_suffix=Bt VC
| image =Fenton Aylmer VC (cropped).jpg
| image_size =
| caption =Lieutenant General Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet of Donadea VC KCB
| birth_date ={{Birth date|df=yes|1862|04|05}}
| death_date ={{Death date and age|df=yes|1935|09|03|1862|04|05}}
| placeofburial_label =
| placeofburial = [[Golders Green]], [[London]]
| birth_place =[[Hastings]], [[Sussex]]
| death_place =Lingfield Road, [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]], [[Surrey]]
| placeofburial_coordinates =
| nickname =
| allegiance ={{UK}}
| branch ={{army|United Kingdom}}
| serviceyears =1880–1919
| rank =[[File:British Army (1920-1953) OF-8.svg|23px]] [[Lieutenant General]]
| unit =[[Corps of Royal Engineers]]
| commands =
{{plainlist|
*[[III Corps (India)|Tigris Corps]]
*Commandant, Royal Engineers
}}
| battles =
{{plainlist|
*[[Burmese resistance movement 1885–95]]
*[[Hunza–Nagar Campaign]]
*[[Chitral Expedition]]
*[[First World War]] ([[Mesopotamian campaign]])
*Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad
*[[Siege of Kut]]
*Battle of Hanna)
*[[Battle of Dujaila|Dujaila Redoubt]]
*Sinn Abtar Redoubt
}}
| awards =[[Victoria Cross]]<br>[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
| relations =Elsie Julie Oppermann (wife)
| laterwork =
}}
[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] '''Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|VC|KCB}} (5 April 1862 – 3 September 1935) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] recipient of the [[Victoria Cross]]. He was in command of the first failed efforts to break the [[siege of Kut]] in 1916. From a military background, Aylmer was commissioned into the Indian Army, and immediately involved in fierce fighting on the north-west frontier. In a singularly heroic action, still in his twenties, he helped rescue Townshend's garrison at [[Chitral]], spearheading the relief column. For his valorous conduct he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and rapid promotion through the officer class.

==Early career==
Born the son of Captain Fenton John Aylmer and Isabella Eleanor Darling. Aylmer attended the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]], as a Gentleman Cadet and was promoted [[Lieutenant]] on 27 July 1880.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24870|page=4258|date=3 August 1880}}</ref> He took part in the Burma expedition between 1886 and 1887.<ref name=lh>{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201213427/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/AYLMER1.shtml|date=1 February 2014|title=Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives}}</ref>

==The Victoria Cross==
Fenton was 29 years old, and a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] in the [[Corps of Royal Engineers]], [[British Army]] and [[Bengal Sappers & Miners]] ([[British Indian Army]]),<ref name=rem>[http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ccroyeng.htm The Royal Engineers Museum - Victoria Crosses held by the Royal Engineers Museum]</ref> during the [[Hunza–Nagar Campaign]], India when he won the [[Victoria Cross]] in 1891 for the following deed:
{{Quote|On 2 December 1891 during the assault on [[Nilt Fort]], [[British India]], Captain Aylmer, with the storming party, forced open the inner gate with gun-cotton which he had placed and ignited, and although severely wounded, fired 19 shots with his revolver, killing several of the enemy, and remained fighting until, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried out of action.<ref name=LG1>{{London Gazette|issue=26306|page=4006|date=12 July 1892}}</ref>}}

He was promoted [[Major]] on 18 October 1893 in recognition of his services during the Hunza-Nagar Expedition,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26450|page=5833|date=17 October 1893}}</ref> and was part of the [[Chitral Expedition]] in 1895.<ref name=lh/> Further service with the Royal Engineers saw him promoted a [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Lieutenant-colonel (British Army)|Lieutenant-colonel]]. In July 1901 he was appointed Assistant [[Quartermaster general]] in India, and promoted to the substantive rank of [[Colonel (British Army)|colonel]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27383 |date=6 December 1901 |page=8642}}</ref> Ten years later, in March 1912, having been promoted to [[major-general]], he became [[Adjutant-General (India)|Adjutant-General, India]].<ref>[http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf Army Commands] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705211343/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf |date=5 July 2015 }}</ref>

In 1913 he married Lady Risley, the widow of Sir [[Herbert Hope Risley]], head of the Indian Civil Service. She was born Elsie Julie Oppermann, daughter of Friedrich Oppermann.<ref>Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.</ref>

==First World War==
Having been promoted to [[lieutenant general]] on 11 June 1915,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29420|supp=2|page=13009|date=30 December 1915}}</ref> Aylmer was sent to Mesopotamia to take over command of the [[7th (Meerut) Division]]. However, shortly after his arrival, he was put in charge of the [[Tigris Corps]] that was assembled as the first effort to end the [[siege of Kut]].<ref>F. J. Moberly, ''[[History of the Great War]]: The Campaign in Mesopotamia'', vol. 2 (1924) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b746002&view=1up&seq=174 p. 146n].</ref><ref>{{Lives of WWI | id= 112164 | name= Fenton John Aylmer }}</ref> Tigris Corps comprised the Meerut Division, the [[12th Indian Division]], and a number of other smaller military units. All told he had more than 20,000 men. They left [[Basra]] in late December 1915 and arrived at Sheikh Sa'ad on 3 January 1916.<ref name=tucker>Tucker, p. 1,233</ref> While the 12th Indian Division (under command of General [[George Gorringe]]) made a diversionary move near Nasiriyeh, the 7th (under the command of General Younghusband) staged a direct assault on the Ottoman positions on 6 January (the [[Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad]]).<ref name=tucker/> After two days of fighting, the Ottoman army withdrew. The British sustained approximately 4,000 casualties - much more than the medical units could cope with.<ref name=tucker/> The Ottoman troops, under the generalship of [[Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz|Baron von der Goltz]] only withdrew some six miles up river and occupied another defensive position near the edge of the Suwaikiya Marshes. A British assault on this position on 13 January was partially successful, the position was carried but again with significant losses (some 1,600 casualties) (the Battle of Wadi).<ref name=tucker/>

By now, a third division had been added to Aylmer's Tigris Corps, the [[3rd (Lahore) Division]]. This new division, along with the weakened 7th Division, attacked Ottoman defensive works at Hanna on 21 January (the [[Battle of Hanna]]). This assault was a complete failure. The Ottoman troops held their trench lines while some 2,700 British soldiers were killed or wounded.<ref name=tucker/>

General Aylmer was reinforced with another division, the [[13th (Western) Division]]. The next month was spent resting the troops and probing the Ottoman defensive positions. With time running out on Major-General [[Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend|Townshend]]'s garrison in [[Kut]], Aylmer finally launched a two pronged attack on the Ottoman positions, one attack at the Sinn Abtar Redoubt, the other attack at the [[Battle of Dujaila|Dujaila Redoubt]]. The attacks were launched on 7 March 1916. Both attacks failed due to lack of initiative and an inability to coordinate the timing of the assaults: they ended up being sequential, not simultaneous as was intended. The British lost some 4,000 casualties.<ref name=tucker/>

Fenton Aylmer was replaced by the former commander of the 12th Indian division, Major-General Gorringe. He did not command in battle again, but served as a divisional commander in India from 1915<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29651|page=6619|date=4 July 1916}}</ref> to 1917<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=30353|page=11047|date=26 October 1917}}</ref> before retiring from the British Army in 1919.<ref name=lh/> From 1922 till his death he was a [[Colonel Commandant]] of the [[Royal Engineers]].<ref name=lh/>
[[File:Sir Fenton John Aylmer - Golders Green Crematorium.jpg|thumb|Commemorative plaque dedicated to Aylmer and his wife at Golders Green Crematorium]]
Following his death in 1935 he was cremated at the [[Golders Green Crematorium]], where his ashes remain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.memorialstovalour.co.uk/vc407.html|title=Sir Fenton John Aylmer|publisher=Memorials to Valour|access-date=4 October 2022}}</ref>

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the [[Royal Engineers Museum]] in [[Chatham, Kent]], England.<ref name=rem/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TogXVHTlxG4C&q=The+Attempt+to+Relieve+Kut%2C+1916+Aylmer&pg=PA1233|last=Tucker|first=Spencer C.|title=World War 1|publisher=Routledge|year=1997|isbn=978-1857283914}}
*[[Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross]] (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)
*[[Monuments to Courage]] (David Harvey, 1999)
*[[The Register of the Victoria Cross]] (This England, 1997)
*[[The Sapper VCs]] (Gerald Napier, 1998)

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060810230716/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/rem_his_vc.htm#1a Royal Engineers Museum] Sappers VCs
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120154659/http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/golders.htm Burial location of Fenton Aylmer] "Golders Green Crematorium, London"
*[http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ccroyeng.htm Location of Fenton Aylmer's Victoria Cross] "Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham"
*[http://www.1914-1918.net/meso_bat9.htm The Attempt to Relieve Kut, 1916] - from The Long, Long March website, downloaded January, 2006.

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Barrett (Indian Army officer)|Sir Arthur Barrett]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Adjutant-General (India)|Adjutant-General, India]]|years=1912–1915}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Walter (Indian Army officer)|John Walter]]}}
|-
{{s-reg|ie-bt}}
{{succession box | title=[[Aylmer baronets|Baronet]]<br />'''of Donadea''' | years=1928–1935 | before= Arthur Percy FitzGerald Aylmer | after=Gerald Arthur Evans-Freke Aylmer}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aylmer, Fenton}}
[[Category:1862 births]]
[[Category:1935 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people]]
[[Category:20th-century Anglo-Irish people]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Ireland]]
[[Category:People from Hastings]]
[[Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British Army generals of World War I]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Chitral Expedition]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:Bengal Sappers and Miners personnel]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Hunza-Naga Campaign]]
[[Category:British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:Golders Green Crematorium]]
[[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Sussex]]

Sir Fenton Aylmer, 13th Baronet - Revision history

81.100.69.69 at 17:45, 15 October 2022