Thomas Snow (British Army officer)
Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, KCB, KCMG (5 May 1858 – 30 August 1940) was a British Army officer who fought on the Western Front during the First World War. He played an important role in the war, leading the 4th Division in the retreat of August 1914, and commanding VII Corps at the unsuccessful diversion of the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient on the first day on the Somme (1 July 1916) and at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.
Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow
"Slush"
"Snowball"
"Polar Bear"
5 May 1858
Newton Valence, Hampshire
30 August 1940 (aged 82)
Kensington Gate, London
United Kingdom
1879–1920
Western Command (1918–19)
VII Corps (1915–18)
27th Division (1914–15)
4th Division (1911–14)
Early life and military career[edit]
Snow was born at Newton Valence, Hampshire, on 5 May 1858.[1] He was the eldest son of the Reverend George D'Oyly Snow and his wife Maria Jane Barlow,[1] Snow attended Eton College (1871–1874) and went to St John's College, Cambridge in 1878.[2][1]
After attending and later graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Snow obtained a commission in the 13th Regiment of Foot in 1879,[3][4][1] taking part in the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa the same year.[4] In 1884–1885, having transferred to the Mounted Infantry Regiment of the Camel Corps,[4] Snow fought with them in the Nile Expedition of the Mahdist War at the Battle of Abu Klea and the Battle of El Gubat.[4] He was severely wounded at the latter battle on 19 January 1885.[1]
In 1887, he was promoted to captain and attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1892 to 1893. Snow was promoted in 1895 to brigade major at Aldershot and further in 1897 to major in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.[4] Snow was brigade major for William Gatacre in the Nile campaign of 1898, fighting at the Battle of Atbara and the Siege of Khartoum.[4] He was twice Mentioned in Despatches for his services in the Sudan.[5]
Snow was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel, and in April 1899 he became the second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment,[4][1] and was posted to India, causing him to miss out on service in the Second Boer War.[1] In March 1903, he was promoted to substantive lieutenant colonel and returned home, so never actually commanded a battalion of his own.[1] In June 1903 he was promoted to colonel and appointed assistant quartermaster-general of the 4th Corps (which later became Eastern Command).[4] He stayed there being promoted to assistant adjutant-general (1905),[4] brigadier-general, general staff (1906),[4] and commander of the 11th Brigade (October 1909).[4] He had been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1907 Birthday Honours.[1]
Snow was then promoted to major-general in March 1910 and became the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 4th Division, then serving in Eastern Command, in early 1911.[4] In 1912, as GOC of the 4th Division, Snow took part in the Army Manoeuvres of 1912, the last major manoeuvres before the First World War, as part of the 'Blue Force' under Sir James Grierson which gained a clear 'victory' over the 'Red Force' of Douglas Haig. According to James Edmonds, who served under Snow, his only practice at division command was three or four days at army manoeuvres, which were not practical as General Sir Charles Douglas, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) from April 1914, had forbidden retreats to be practised.[6] However, he also concentrated on making junior officers critique one another's performance, and on night moves, march discipline and concealment from the air. He drew up Standing Orders for War, which were used by other divisions in 1914.[1]
First World War[edit]
1914[edit]
On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Snow was still in command of 4th Division,[4] which was initially deployed for home defence on the eastern coast, headquartered in Suffolk.[7] Although Snow had written the Eastern Command's Defence Scheme for event of war as a staff officer years before, he recalled he found that "very few people knew, or cared, that such a scheme existed and the chaos on the East Coast was appalling".[8]
When the division arrived at the front (25 August) Snow's orders were to help prepare a defensive position on the Cambrai-Le Cateau position, as General Headquarters (GHQ) had no idea of the seriousness of the situation facing II Corps (this being at a time when I and II Corps were retreating on opposite sides of the Forest of Mormal, and the British Expeditionary Force's Chief of Staff, Archibald Murray, was about to collapse from strain and overwork).[9] Snow was in time to take part in the Battle of Le Cateau. The 4th Division covered the left flank of II Corps and he was one of those who urged Smith-Dorrien to stand and fight.[1] The diary of Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien, the GOC of II Corps, recorded:
Post-war life[edit]
Snow retired from the army in September 1919.[1][26] He was also Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment from 1918 to 1919 and Colonel of the Somerset Light Infantry from 1919 to 1929.[27] Snow became largely confined to a bath chair and moved from Blandford to Kensington. He devoted much of his time to charitable work and became chairman of the Crippled Boys' Home for Training.[1] Snow died at his home in Kensington Gate, London, on 30 August 1940, aged 82.[1] His wealth was £15,531.95 (over £750,000 at 2016 prices).[1][28]
Personal life and descendants[edit]
Snow was 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) in height.[1] Snow married Charlotte Geraldine, second daughter of Major-General John Talbot Coke of Trusley, Derbyshire, on 12 January 1897.[29] They had two sons and one daughter.[1] His son George D'Oyly Snow became the Bishop of Whitby.[30] Snow was the grandfather of British broadcasters Peter Snow and Jon Snow (who writes about him in the foreword to Ronald Skirth's war memoir The Reluctant Tommy[31]) and great-grandfather of historian and TV presenter, Dan Snow.[32]