Richard Pope-Hennessy

{{Infobox military person

| name = Richard Pope-Hennessy

| birth_date = 18 August 1875

| birth_place = London, England, United Kingdom

| death_date = 1 March 1942 (aged 66)

| death_place = London, England United Kingdom

| image = 1927 Richard Pope-Hennessy.jpg

| caption = Richard Pope-Hennessy in 1927

| nickname =

| serviceyears =

| servicenumber =

| rank = Major-General

| branch = British Army

| current position =

| commands = 4th Battalion, King's African Rifles
1st Bn, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
50th (Northumbrian) Division

| unit =

| known_for = Sotik Massacre

| battles = Second Boer War
First World War

| awards = Companion of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Service Order

| laterwork =

}}

Major-General Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|DSO}} (18 August 1875 – 1 March 1942) was a British Army officer of Irish Catholic descent who served in both the Second Boer War and First World War.{{Cite web |title=FamilySearch.org |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L6FP-TY3/ladislaus-herbert-richard-pope-hennessy-1875-1942 |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=ancestors.familysearch.org}} In 1905, he led a punitive expedition which resulted in the killings of 1,850 men, women and children of the Kipsigis tribe.

Background

File:John Pope Hennessy family.jpg

Pope-Hennessy was the eldest son of Sir John Pope-Hennessy MP, of Rostellan Castle, County Cork and Catherine Elizabeth Low. He was educated at Beaumont College.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5_HDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208|title=Thom's Irish who's who|page=208|publisher=Alexander Thom|year=1923}}

Military career

Pope-Hennessy was commissioned into the Oxfordshire Light Infantry in 1895. He was deployed to South Africa and served with the West African Frontier Force during the Second Boer War.

In June 1905, in response to attacks on native Maasai people by the Kipsigis people in the East Africa Protectorate, Pope-Hennessy led an expedition to subdue the latter. During the expedition, Pope-Hennessy's men raided the town of Sotik, resulting in a massacre which involved the deaths of 1,850 men, women and children.{{Cite web |title=London Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28119/page/1962/data.pdf}}{{cite news|url=https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/how-sotik-massacre-koitalel-area-to-white-settlers-3696378|title=How Sotik massacre, Koitalel killing opened area to white settlers|date=28 February 2022|newspaper=Buinness Daily|access-date=10 August 2023}}

Following the success of the expedition, Pope-Hennessy, promoted to major in March 1906,{{London Gazette|issue=11866|page=986|date=21 September 1906|city=e}} was made commandant of the 4th Battalion, King's African Rifles in 1906 for which service was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in 1908.

During the First World War he became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in Mesopotamia in 1916 and then became a staff officer with the British Indian Army in 1917.James Wassermann (ed.): Secret Societies: Illuminati, Freemasons and the French Revolution. Nicolas Hayes, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0892541324}}, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=S3GaL4BOSUoC&pg=PA49 49-50]

After the war he was promoted to brevet colonel in January 1919{{London Gazette|issue=31210|page=2996|date=28 February 1919|supp=y}} and, promoted again, now to colonel (with seniority backdated to January 1919{{London Gazette|issue=32044|page=9120|date=7 September 1920|supp=y}}), he served as a staff officer at the War Office and then was Military Inter-Allied Commissioner of Control in Berlin. Subsequently, he spent three years as military attaché in Washington D.C.The Times House of Commons, 1935 He was promoted to substantive major general in August 1930{{London Gazette|issue=33639|page=5358|date=29 August 1930}} and became general Officer Commanding 50th (Northumbrian) Division in 1931 before retiring in 1935.{{cite web|url=https://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf|title=Army Commands|accessdate=1 June 2020}}

Pope-Hennessy published a number of books an articles on military matters and in one of them he predicted the technique of the German Blitzkrieg.

Political career

He took particular interest in military matters and in issues affecting his native Ireland. In 1919 he had published 'The Irish Dominion: a Method of Approach to a Settlement'.

He was Liberal candidate for the Tonbridge Division of Kent at the 1935 General Election. Tonbridge was a safe Conservative seat that they had won at every election since it was created in 1918. The Liberal Party had not fielded a candidate at the previous general election and he was not expected to win and finished a poor third.

{{Election box begin ||title=General Election 1935: TonbridgeBritish parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F. W. S.

Electorate 56,106

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate = Rt Hon. Herbert Henry Spender-Clay

|votes = 23,460

|percentage = 61.3

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Labour Party (UK)

|candidate = F M Landau

|votes = 9,405

|percentage = 24.6

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate = Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy

|votes = 5,403

|percentage = 14.1

|change =

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes =14,055

|percentage = 36.7

|change =

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes =

|percentage =68.2

|change =

}}

{{Election box hold with party link|

|winner = Conservative Party (UK)

|swing =

}}

Personal life

He married, in 1910, Una Birch a writer, historian and biographer. They had two sons, both of whom were gay: James, who became a writer, and Sir John, an art historian.Quennell, P., Introduction to A Lonely Business – A Self-Portrait of James Pope-Hennessy, 1981, p. xv.

File:Friary Churchyard of St Francis and St Anthony, Crawley, 2017.jpg