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{{short description|British Army general}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| name =Hugh Jamieson Elles
| image =Hugh Elles portrait by William Orpen.jpg
| caption =1917 portrait by [[William Orpen]].
| birth_date = 27 May 1880
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|07|11|1880|05|27|df=yes}}
| placeofburial_label =
| placeofburial =
| birth_place =[[British Raj|British India]]
| death_place =[[London]], [[England]]
| nickname =
| allegiance ={{flag|United Kingdom}}
| branch ={{army|United Kingdom}}
| serviceyears =1899–1938
| servicenumber =349
| rank =[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]]
| unit =[[Royal Engineers]] [[Royal Tank Regiment|Royal Tank Corps]]
| commands =[[Royal Tank Regiment|Royal Tank Corps]] [[9th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|9th Infantry Brigade]] [[42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division]]
| battles =[[Second Boer War]] [[World War I]]
| awards =Knight Commander of the [[Order of the Bath]] Knight Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] Knight Commander of the [[Royal Victorian Order]] [[Distinguished Service Order]]
| laterwork =
}}
[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] '''Sir Hugh Jamieson Elles''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCB|KCMG|KCVO|DSO}} (27 May 1880 – 11 July 1945) was a British officer and the first commander of the newly formed [[Royal Tank Regiment|Tank Corps]] during the [[World War I|First World War]].

==Early life==
Born in [[British Raj|British India]] on 27 May 1880, Hugh Jamieson Elles was the younger son of [[Edmond Elles|Sir Edmond Alles]]. Returning to [[England]], he was educated at [[Clifton College]],<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. ref no 4717: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> and the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]], after which he was [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] as a [[second lieutenant]] into the [[Royal Engineers]] in June 1899. He served in [[South Africa]] during the latter part of the [[Second Boer War]] and then undertook regimental duty in [[Aldershot]]. In 1913 he attended the [[Staff College, Camberley]].<ref name=travers>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYGjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281|title=The Killing Ground|first= Tim|last= Travers|publisher=Pen and Sword|year=2009|isbn=978-1844158898}}</ref>

==World War I==
On the outbreak of [[World War I]] in August 1914, he was posted to the staff of the [[4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)|4th Division]] and departed for [[France]] soon afterwards. He served at [[Battle of Le Cateau|Le Cateau]], then took part in the [[Great Retreat|Retreat to the Seine]] and the [[First Battle of the Aisne|battle of the Aisne]], where the [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]] was halted. He then moved north with the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] (BEF) to [[Flanders]], taking part in the [[Battle of Armentières]] in October 1914. In February 1915, he was promoted to [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] and served as the [[brigade major]] of the [[10th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|10th Brigade]]. He was wounded during the brigades' [[counterattack]], on 25 April 1915, during the [[Second Battle of Ypres]].<ref name=lawrence>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgMkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22|title=Exercise Tiger: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Silent Few|first= Wendy|last= Lawrance|publisher=Fonthill|year=2013|isbn=978-1781551103}}</ref>

In August 1915, after recovering from his injuries, Elles was one of three officers specially selected by [[General (United Kingdom)|General]] [[Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet|Sir William Robertson]], soon to be [[Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|Chief of the Imperial General Staff]] (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, to liaise with troops at the front and pass the information directly to the British General Headquarters (GHQ). In January 1916, as a [[Staff (military)|General Staff Officer]] (GSO), Elles was sent by General [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Sir Douglas Haig]], the [[Commander-in-chief|Commander-in-Chief]] (C-in-C) of the BEF on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], to investigate the first [[tank]]s or "caterpillars" being built in England. He attended the first trials of [[Mark I tank#Production history|"Mother"]] and reported back to Haig on its success. During the summer of 1916, he was tasked to report back from the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]], where the tanks were first used. Promoted to the temporary rank of [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|colonel]], Elles was appointed to head the Heavy Branch (the first tank units) of the [[Machine Gun Corps]] in France on 29 September 1916.<ref name=lawrence/>

Having seen the tanks achieve little success during the [[Battle of Passchendaele]] because of the exceptionally wet ground conditions of the autumn 1917, he pressed Haig to use massed tanks on the drier, open ground at [[Cambrai]]. On 20 November 1917 he personally led 350 tanks into [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|battle at Cambrai]] in a [[Mark I tank|Mark IV tank]] called ''Hilda'', named after a favourite aunt.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fuller|first1=J.F.C.|title=Memoirs of an unconventional soldier|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77218|date=1936|publisher=Nicholson & Watson|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77218/page/n224 200]}}</ref>

Elles continued to command the Tank Corps until [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|Germany's surrender in November 1918]].<ref name=travers/>

==Later career==
After the war, he commanded the Tank Corps Training Centre from 1919 to 1923<ref name=travers/> and was Inspector of Tank Corps at the [[War Office]]. He then commanded the [[9th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|9th Infantry Brigade]] being posted to HQ [[Eastern Command (United Kingdom)|Eastern Command]] as [[Chief of staff|Chief of Staff]] in August 1926. In 1930 he was appointed Director of Military Training at the War Office<ref name=travers/> and then, in 1933, became [[General officer commanding|General Officer Commanding]] (GOC) of the [[42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division]], a [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] formation, for a few months.<ref name=travers/> In April 1934, he was appointed [[Master-General of the Ordnance]] in the rank of [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|lieutenant general]];<ref name=travers/> he was also the head of the Mechanisation Branch for which his previous service made him particularly suitable. He retired in 1938 and was Civil Defence Commissioner for South West England during the [[World War II|Second World War]].<ref name=travers/>

Elles was married three times, his first two wives dying before him. He died in [[London]] on 11 July 1945.<ref name=travers/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur McNamara]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division|GOC 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division]]|years=1933–1934}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Kenneth Buchanan]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Ronald Charles|Sir Ronald Charles]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Master-General of the Ordnance]]|years=1934–1938}}
{{s-aft|after=Vacant}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elles, Hugh}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:People educated at Clifton College]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War]]
[[Category:British Army generals of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army generals of World War II]]

[[Category:Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium)]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class]]
[[Category:Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]

Hugh Elles - Revision history

Bot at 14:33, 24 October 2022