Chetwode (foreground) at El Arish, Egypt, January 1917
Promoted to lieutenant on 6 August 1890,[3] Chetwode first saw active service in the Chin Hills expedition in Burma from 1892 to 1893[4] and was promoted to captain on 7 February 1897.[5] He served in the Second Boer War where he took part in the actions at Reitfontein in October 1899, Ladysmith in December 1899, Laing's Nek in June 1900 and Belfast in August 1900: he was twice mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.[6] Promoted to major on 21 December 1901,[7] he stayed in South Africa until the end of hostilities. The war ended in late May 1902, and the following month Chetwode returned home in the SS Tagus, arriving at Southampton in July.[8]
He succeeded as 7th Baronet in 1905.[4] In 1906, Chetwode became assistant military secretary to Lieutenant General Sir John French and on 3 January 1908 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel[9] on appointment as commanding officer (CO) of the 19th Hussars.[4]
He commanded the regiment for the next four years, during which time he was promoted to colonel, backdated to 4 October 1911,[10] and was placed on the half-pay list from 3 January 1912.[11] On 1 April he reverted to normal pay and succeeded Colonel Thomas Calley as commander of the London Mounted Brigade, a Territorial Force (TF) formation.[4][12]
During the Curragh incident in March 1914 Chetwode was offered command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade when Brigadier General Hubert Gough threatened to resign.[4] He knew that he would be "looked upon by all his brother officers as a scab” but thought it "his duty as a soldier to do as he was ordered & not to meddle in politics".[13] In the event Gough kept his command and Chetwode remained with the London Mounted Brigade, but his willingness to replace Gough caused some ill feeling.[4] Promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general on 15 May,[14] he was given command of the 5th Cavalry Brigade in August 1914, the same month of the British entry into World War I.[4]
During the war, Chetwode served initially on the Western Front: his 5th Cavalry Brigade helped cover the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the frontier, and checked the pursuing Germans at Cerizy on 29 August 1914.[4]
Chetwode became Chief of the General Staff in India in 1928 and Commander-in-Chief, India, in November 1930.[18] He was promoted to field marshal on 13 February 1933.[27] In his tenure as Commander-in-Chief, India, Chetwode was an opponent of replacing horses with tanks; he "made the surprising pronouncement that the Army in India would be unlikely to adopt tanks for a very long time, and then only to keep up the momentum of horsed cavalry."[28] He was much concerned with the modernisation and "Indianisation" of the army in India. The main building and its central hall at the Indian Military Academy is named after him. The credo of the academy, engraved on the entrance to the central hall, is a passage from his address delivered at the formal inauguration of the academy in 1932:
The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time.
The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.
Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.
This is known as the "Chetwode Motto" and is the motto of the officers passing out from the academy.[29]
Chetwode returned from India in May 1934.[30] In 1937 he declared that as an old soldier he knew what he was talking about when he stated that Britain would not be fighting another war with Germany.[31] He was Constable of the Tower from 1943 to 1948 and also President of the Royal Geographical Society as well as the recipient of an HonoraryDCL from Oxford University.[32] He had been appointed a deputy lieutenant of Buckinghamshire on 6 March 1919.[33] He was created Baron Chetwode, of Chetwode in the County of Buckingham, on 10 July 1945[34][35] and died at the age of 81 in London on 6 July 1950.[30]
Family
Chetwode married Hester (Star) Alice Camilla Stapleton Cotton and had a son Roger and a daughter Penelope.[30]
Roger Chetwode married Honourable Molly Berry, daughter of the 1st Viscount Camrose. He was killed on active service on 14 August 1940 at age 34, leaving two sons: Philip, the 2nd Baron Chetwode, and Christopher.
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