Berkeley Vincent

{{Infobox military person

|name=Berkeley Vincent

|birth_date= {{birth date|1871|12|04|df=yes}}

|death_date= {{death date and age|1963|01|29|1871|12|04|df=yes}}

|birth_place=

|death_place=

|image=

|caption=

|nickname=

|allegiance= United Kingdom

|branch= British Army

|serviceyears=1891−1924

|servicenumber=

|rank= Brigadier-General

|commands=35th Infantry Brigade

|unit=Royal Artillery

|battles=Second Boer War
World War I

|awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George

|laterwork=

}}

Brigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|sep=,|KBE|CB|CMG}} (4 December 1871 – 29 January 1963) was a British Army officer and sportsman.

Military career

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Vincent was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 24 July 1891.[http://www.sirberkeleyvincent.co.uk/ Obituary: Sir Berkeley Vincent] Irish Times, 2 February 1963{{sfn|Davies|1997|p=199}} He was promoted to lieutenant on 24 July 1894 and to captain on 13 February 1900.{{London Gazette |issue=27175 |page=1878 |date=20 March 1900}}Hart′s Army list, 1901 He served with the China Expeditionary Force in late 1900 and then in the Second Boer War in South Africa.

Following the end of the war, Vincent left Point Natal for India on the SS Ionian in October 1902 with other officers and men of the J Battery Royal Horse Artillery, and after arrival in Bombay, was stationed in Meerut, Bengal Presidency.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa - Troops returning Home |date=8 October 1902 |page=8 |issue=36893}} In 1903, Vincent was sent to Tokyo to learn Japanese:{{Cite web |url=http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/genealogy/web/brownbaltimore/pafg06.htm |title=28. "Sir Bart, merchant, Brown. Shipley and Co Brown Alexander Hargreaves-55317" |access-date=8 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405123315/http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/genealogy/web/brownbaltimore/pafg06.htm |archive-date=5 April 2016 |url-status=dead }} he served as British military attaché with the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War and, from 1 March 1904, was attached to the 2nd Division of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria.Great Britain War Office, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CGAsa4o_4vYC&dq=captain+jardine+general+kuroki&pg=PA296 p. 280.]

Vincent was a protégé of Ian Hamilton, also an observer in the Russo-Japanese War, and who Vincent had served as an assistant military secretary in October 1905.{{London Gazette|issue=27842|page=6706|date=6 October 1905}} Vincent attended the Staff College, Camberley. The then commandant of the college, Henry Wilson, was sceptical of Berkeley's claims that Japanese morale had enabled their infantry to overcome Russian defensive firepower.Jeffery 2006, p82-3 He was promoted to major in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons in 1908.

In January 1910 he was appointed as a professor at the Staff College.{{London Gazette|issue=28385|page=4264|date=17 June 1910}} In 1911, when Vincent learned that he was to leave his job, and was shown General Haig's critical report on him, he availed himself of his right to Appeal to the King, under Section 42 of the Army Act, claiming unfair dismissal.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London, Hamilton 5/1/10 and Capper 2/4/17

He served in World War I, initially as a general staff officer with the Indian Corps. In April 1915 he was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel and was appointed as general staff officer, grade 1, essentially chief of staff, of the 37th Division, a Kitchener's Army formation.{{London Gazette|issue=29139|page=3932|date=20 April 1915|supp=y}} Appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1916, he took part in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Ancre. Promoted in January 1917 to brevet lieutenant colonel,{{London Gazette|issue=29886|page=18|date=29 December 1916|supp=y}} and soon after to temporary brigadier general, he succeeded Arthur Solly-Flood as commander of the 12th (Eastern) Division's 35th Infantry Brigade.{{London Gazette|issue=29986|page=2635|date=16 March 1917}} He took part in the Battle of Arras in April, when he was buried alive, and the subsequent retreat, when he was gassed. He also took part in the attack on the Hindenburg Line.

After the war, he became commanding officer of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. He went on to be commander of the British Forces in Iraq in 1922 and retired from the army in 1924.

Honours

Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), 1916.{{cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Thom%27s_Irish_Who%27s_Who/Vincent,_Col._Berkeley|title=Vincent, Col. Berkeley|publisher=Thom's Irish Who's Who|access-date=6 October 2023}}
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), 1919.{{London Gazette|issue=31370|page=6790|date=30 May 1919}}
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 1924.{{London Gazette|issue=14029|page=766|city=e|date=6 June 1924}}

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = Sir Berkeley Vincent Escutcheon.png

|notes = Confirmed 23 November 1928 by Sir Nevile Rodwell Wilkinson, Ulster King of Arms.{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000810941/StaffViewMARC#tabnav |access-date=24 August 2022 |page=241 |title=Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume M |publisher=National Library of Ireland}}

|escutcheon = Azure three cinquefoils Argent within a bordure Or.

|crest = On a wreath of the colours out of a ducal coronet Or a griffin's head Gules charged with a billet of the first.

|mantling = Gules doubled Argent.

|motto = Vincenti Dabitur}}

References

Sources

Burke, John and Bernard Burke. (1914). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RVggAAAAYAAJ&q=james+bruce+jardine Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of peerage, baronetage and knightage.] London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2790692 OCLC 2790692]
Debrett, John, Charles Kidd, David Williamson. (1990). [https://books.google.com/books?id=8hDxGAAACAAJ&q=Debrett%27s+Peerage+and+Baronetage Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage.]{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} New York: Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-0-333-38847-1}}
{{cite book|last=Jeffery|first=Keith|title=Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-820358-2}}
{{cite book |title=Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918 |last=Davies |first=Frank |year=1997 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-85052-463-5}}