Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams
COMMANDING 34TH DIVISION
FIFTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD GENERAL INGOUVILLE- WILLIAMS HAD a long and distinguished army career behind him before the onset of the Great War. He had joined The Buffs in 1881 and later transferred to the Worcestershire Regiment, serving in the Nile Expedition and the Sudan. Assuming a notable staff role in South Africa throughout the Boer War, he took part in the relief of Ladysmith and was awarded the DSO during the campaign before being appointed Commander of the School of Mounted Infantry at Longmoor. By 1916 he had been given command of 34th Division, in which Billy Disbrey served when it became the worst hit division on 1st July. The general had lost a miserable 6,380 of his men as casualties during the attack in the vicinity of La Boisselle. He was greatly saddened by the losses his battalions sustained on their over-ambitious objectives. ‘Never shall I cease singing the praises,’ he wrote, ‘of my old 34th division, and I shall never have the same grand men to deal with.’
Major General Edward Ingouville-Williams. (Authors’ collection)
An infantry officer in his division said that although the general was a regular martinet, ‘he was loved by every man in his command’. He recalled one incident before 1st July. A train of wagons carrying ammonal was being taken up to the front line and the general found it halted by the side of the road. When he enquired why this was so, the men told him the road was under artillery fire. ‘He took charge of the first vehicle and led it through the shelled area. He never asked men to do things he would not do himself.’
On 22nd July Ingouville-Williams had left his car at Montauban and walked off to reconnoitre the ground up by Contalmaison. He was walking back around the southern edge of Mametz Wood towards his vehicle with an aide when at about 7pm he was mortally wounded by shellfire. In eulogising him, his division’s historian said that he was ‘an absolutely fearless man; a stern disciplinarian, but with a tender heart; he worked his men hard, but he loved them, and looked after their well-being and comfort’.
As he lay mortally wounded, Ingouville-Williams had asked that the Royal Scots Fusiliers provide the firing party at his funeral. The service was held at Warloy the following afternoon, ‘You know my antipathy to bagpipes,’ wrote one witness, ‘but there were few dry eyes amongst those present.’ A large number of the division’s officers and men turned out to pay their respects, including the fighting battalions that could get away from their work. Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams was the highest ranked of all the casualties on the Somme. He left behind a widow and was laid to rest at Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension, plot III.D.13.