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{{Infobox military person
|name = John Charteris
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1877|01|08|df=yes}}
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|02|04|1877|01|08|df=yes}}
|birth_place =
|death_place =
|image = THE OFFICIAL VISITS TO THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918, John Charteris and Queen Mary of Teck Q2528 (cropped).jpg
|caption = Charteris being presented to [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]] in 1917
|nickname =
|allegiance =
|serviceyears = 1893–1922
|rank = [[Brigadier General]]
|branch = {{army|United Kingdom}}
|commands =
|unit =
|battles = [[World War I]]
|awards = [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]]<br />[[Distinguished Service Order]]
|laterwork =
}}
[[Brigadier General]] '''John Charteris''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|CMG|DSO}} (1877–1946) was a [[British Army]] officer. During [[World War I]] he was the Chief of [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence]] at the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] General Headquarters from 1915 to 1918. In later life he was a [[Unionist Party (Scotland)|Unionist Party]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Dumfriesshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Dumfriesshire]].

==Early life==
Charteris was born on 8 January 1877, probably in Glasgow, son of [[Matthew Charteris]] (1840–97), Regius Professor of Materia Medica at the [[University of Glasgow]] and Elizabeth Gilchrist (Nee Greer). He was from a distinguished academic family. His uncle was [[Archibald Hamilton Charteris]] (1835-1908), Professor of Liberal Criticism at the [[University of Edinburgh]] and Moderator of the [[General Assembly of the Church of Scotland]] (1892). His older brother, also called Archibald Hamilton Charteris (1874-1940), was Professor of International Law at the [[University of Sydney]], whilst another brother, Francis James Charteris, was Professor of Materia Medica at the [[University of St Andrews]].<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4">Matthew 2004, pp213-4</ref>

He received his early formal education at [[Kelvinside Academy]] from 1886 to 1891, then spent a year studying [[Mathematics]] & [[Physics]] at [[Göttingen University]] in Germany.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> He was fluent in the French and German languages.<ref name=autogenerated1>Reid 2006, pp156-9</ref>

==Early military career==
He entered the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]] in December 1893, and on graduating received a commission into the [[Royal Engineers]] in March 1896, and was sent to [[Asia]], where he joined the British Imperial [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]].<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> He entered [[Staff College, Quetta]] in 1907, and was the outstanding graduate of his year in 1909. Major-General [[Douglas Haig]], then Chief of Staff India, became his patron.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

Charteris was a staff [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] at India HQ 1909–10, then 1910-12 was GSO2 on the Operations Section of the Indian General Staff.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> When Haig was appointed to Corps Command at [[Aldershot]] in 1912, as Assistant Military Secretary Captain Charteris was one of the trusted officers who found a place in his retinue.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/><ref name=autogenerated1>Reid 2006, pp156-9</ref>

==World War I==
In August 1914 on the outbreak of World War I, whilst still at the junior officer rank of captain, Charteris was appointed an Aide-de-Camp to Haig, whom he accompanied to France with the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). In September 1914 Haig issued him with an order to establish an Intelligence Office in [[I Corps (United Kingdom)|I Corps]] Headquarters, Haig's Command, with the aim of providing operational information on the activities of the [[Imperial German Army]]. Despite being fluent in French and German Charteris had no background or formal training in intelligence work. He remained in Haig's retinue engaged in this work when I Corps was enlarged and converted into the B.E.F.'s [[First Army (United Kingdom)|First Army]] in December 1914, and then on to the B.E.F.'s General Headquarters, when Haig was appointed Commander-in-Chief in December 1915, where Charteris was promoted by Haig to the rank of [[Brigadier-general (United Kingdom)|brigadier-general]] in 1915 at 38 years of age. Haig also awarded him the [[Distinguished Service Order]] for his work on his H.Q. Staff in 1915.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

Charteris was brash, untidy, and liked to start the day with a brandy and soda. He was a sort of licensed jester (known as "The Principal Boy" due to his rapid promotion) amidst Haig's staid inner circle. In Walter Reid's view he comes across as likeable and able in his own writings, including his letters to his much younger wife Noel (the "Douglas" frequently referred to in his letters is their infant son).<ref name=autogenerated1 />

Haig's chaplain [[George Duncan (Biblical scholar)|George S. Duncan]] later commented on how Charteris' "vitality and loud-mouthed exuberance" made him unpopular.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]], then [[Secretary of State for War]], began to have doubts about Charteris in the role as the B.E.F.'s Intelligence Chief after an incident in February 1917 when he failed to censor an interview given by Haig to French journalists.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

Charteris was sometimes described as Haig's "evil counsellor", and has been blamed by some historians for Haig's errors, with the accusation that he had a propensity in intelligence briefings to provide assessments of the German situation that gave Haig what he wanted to hear.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> He produced reports of poor German morale based on interviews with prisoners, and of German manpower shortages based on statistical analysis of their paybooks, which gave a German soldier's age and year of callup. These reports were influential in Haig's decisions affecting the conduct of military campaigns, and were increasingly criticised by Major-General [[George Macdonogh|Macdonogh]], intelligence advisor at the War Office.<ref>[http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/charteris.htm John Charteris at First World War.com]</ref> Haig kept him on after his inadequacies had been exposed.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

However, the historian John Bourne has stated that Charteris was methodical and hardworking. [[Herbert Lawrence]], who became the B.E.F.'s Chief of Intelligence briefly in early 1918, testified to the efficiency of the organisation he inherited from Charteris when he replaced him after his dismissal.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> Bourne argues that although Charteris was wrong about the wider issues of German morale and manpower, he was effective at predicting enemy troop deployments, immediate plans and tactical changes. In Bourne's view, he was not Haig's "evil genius", but rather shared Haig's innate optimism and did nothing to undermine it.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

An official inquiry blamed intelligence failures by Charteris' Department for the near debacle at the [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|Battle of Cambrai]], where a German counter-attack had retaken almost all the British gains.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> By the end of 1917 Charteris was known as "the [[U-boat]]".<ref name=autogenerated1 /> In January 1918 Brigadier-General [[Edgar William Cox]] was recalled to France to replace Charteris. Charteris' final intelligence reports correctly predicted a German offensive in Spring 1918. Charteris was moved to the job of Deputy Director of Transportation at GHQ.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

==Propaganda==
Charteris was also associated with some notable allied [[propaganda]] and [[disinformation]] successes, such as "the master hoax" of World War I, being the story of the existence of a German corpse factory [[Kadaververwertungsanstalt]], in which the Germans supposedly rendered their own dead soldiers into fats. This story was circulated in several British and international newspapers in 1917. After the war Charteris allegedly claimed in a public speech that he invented it when he deliberately switched captions on two German war pictures: one image showed soldiers killed in battle being taken away for burial, while the other showed horse carcasses being delivered to a processing factory behind German lines. One of his subordinates created a fake diary describing the use of the factory. This was to have been planted on the corpse of a German soldier, to be "found" as proof of the story, but this plan was eventually dropped. Charteris's comments caused a media outcry.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120219125004/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728588,00.html "Candid Charteris" in ''Time'' 1925]</ref> [[Phillip Knightley]] says that all the evidence suggests that the story originated in newspaper reports about a real factory for rendering animal corpses. Charteris may have concocted the claim that he invented it in order to impress his audience, not realizing a reporter was present.<ref>Knightley, Phillip (2000). ''The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo''. Prion. 105</ref> [[Randal Marlin]] has written that Charteris's claim to have invented the story is "demonstrably false" in a number of details. However, it is possible that a fake diary was created but never used. Nevertheless, this fake diary, which Charteris claimed still existed when he made the comments has never been found.<ref name = "loc">{{cite book | last = Marlin | first = Randal | title = Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion | publisher = Broadview | year = 2002 | pages =73–4 }}</ref> In fact Charteris's comments later gave Adolf Hitler rhetorical ammunition to portray the British as liars.<ref name = "loc"/>

==Post-war military career==
He was awarded the C.M.G. in 1919.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> He served as Director of Movements and Quartering in India from 1920<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=32162|page=12302|date=14 December 1920}}</ref> to 1921,<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=32437|page=6775|date=26 August 1921}}</ref> then as Deputy Adjutant- and Quartermaster-General of [[Eastern Command (India)|Eastern Command]] from 1921<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=32437|page=6774|date=26 August 1921}}</ref> to 1922.<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=32806|page=2079|date=16 March 1923}}</ref>

==Political career==
Charteris left the Army in 1922. From [[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924]] until [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] he was [[Unionist Party (Scotland)|Unionist Party]] British Member of Parliament for [[Dumfriesshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Dumfriesshire]]. His areas of political interest were in farming and the welfare of British war veterans.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

==Publications==
He published three books in his later years concerning his military service, 'Field Marshal Earl Haig' (1929), 'At GHQ' (1931), and "Haig" (1933) (a condensed version of the 1929 biography). His writings were considered controversial.<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/> He had not kept a diary at the time so 'At GHQ' consisted of papers, notes and letters from the time re-written into diary form. He confessed to sometimes amplifying from memory but by and large the reconstructed "diary" is consistent with records which he kept at the time, e.g. his entry for the [[First Day of the Somme]] which he states was "not an attempt to win the war at a blow", and that "weeks of hard fighting" lay ahead.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

"At GHQ" also contains a letter from Charteris with the date 5 September 1914, noting that "the story of the [[Angels of Mons]] [is] going strong through the 2nd Corps". If authentic, this may be the earliest account of the rumour, predating [[Arthur Machen]]'s ''The Bowmen''—widely held to be the source of the Angels of Mons legend.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/213/the_angel_of_mons.html |title=The Angel of Mons |access-date=2008-03-13 |last=Clarke |first=David |date=May 2003 |work=Fortean Times |publisher=[[Dennis Publishing Limited]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316005857/http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/213/the_angel_of_mons.html |archive-date=16 March 2008 }}</ref> However, examination of Charteris' original letters gives evidence that these entries and/or dates were falsified,<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_1_115/ai_n6118622/pg_1 Rumours of Angels: a response to Simpson, Folklore, April 2004 by David Clarke] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210011210/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_1_115/ai_n6118622/pg_1 |date=10 December 2007 }}</ref> leading [[David Clarke (journalist)|David Clarke]], among others, to suggest that Charteris was using the Angels rumour for propaganda purposes.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

==Death==
Charteris died at the age of 69 on 4 February 1946 at his home, 'Bourne House', in the village of [[Thorpe, Surrey|Thorpe]], in the county of [[Surrey]].<ref>Entry for Charteris in the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'.</ref> His body was buried in the graveyard of [[Tinwald, Dumfries and Galloway|Tinwald]] Kirk (Church), in [[Dumfries and Galloway]], which also displays a memorial [[stained glass window]] to his memory.<ref>[http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-ftopic1739.html Entry for the stained glass windows dedicated to the Charteris's at Tinwald Church, Scottish Military Research Group website, published online 9 January 2007.]</ref>

His will was valued for probate at £6,895 4s 11d (around £250,000 at 2016 prices).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |title=Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound |access-date=18 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194822/https://measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |archive-date=31 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

==Personal life==
He married Noel Hodgson in October 1913. They had three sons, all of whom became officers in the British Army (one of them, Euan, was killed in the [[North African Campaign]] during [[World War II]] on 3 December 1942 with the [[2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment]]).<ref name="Matthew 2004, pp213-4"/>

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book|last = Matthew |first = Colin| author-link = Colin Matthew| year = 2004| title = Dictionary of National Biography|volume = 11| location = Oxford| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0198614111}}, essay on Charteris written by John Bourne.
* [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=368&inst_id=21 AIM25: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London: CHARTERIS, Brig Gen John (1877-1946)] at www.aim25.ac.uk
* {{cite book | last = Reid | first = Walter | title = Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig | publisher=Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh | year = 2006 | isbn = 1-84158-517-3}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscatinline}}
*{{Hansard-contribs | brigadier-general-john-charteris | John Charteris }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Dumfriesshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Dumfriesshire]]
| years = [[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924]]–[[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]]
| before = [[William Allan Chapple]]
| after = Dr [[Joseph Hunter (UK politician)|Joseph Hunter]]
}}ig
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charteris, John}}
[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army generals of World War I]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:People educated at Kelvinside Academy]]
[[Category:Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1924–1929]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Bengal Sappers and Miners personnel]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta]]
[[Category:British Army brigadiers]]

John Charteris - Revision history

Bot at 12:44, 17 November 2022