A Preliminary Study of Leader-Follower Relations in the Canadian Expeditionary Force During the First World War, 1914-1918
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-12-04 Stripes, Pips and Crowns: A Preliminary Study of Leader-Follower Relations in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, 1914-1918 Mantle, Craig Leslie Mantle, C. L. (2013). Stripes, Pips and Crowns: A Preliminary Study of Leader-Follower Relations in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, 1914-1918 (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27896 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1169 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Stripes, Pips and Crowns: A Preliminary Study of Leader-Follower Relations in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, 1914-1918 by Craig Leslie Mantle A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CENTRE FOR MILITARY AND STRATEGIC STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA NOVEMBER, 2013 © Craig Leslie Mantle 2013 ABSTRACT Relying heavily on the personal documents created by Canadian soldiers both contemporary to and following the First World War – letters, memoirs, diaries and interview transcripts – Stripes, Pips and Crowns addresses a noticeable gap in Canadian historiography by examining the manner in which leaders and followers interacted with one another in a variety of settings and the probable results thereof. Leadership at the lower levels of command in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), involving men holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel and below, was a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. So much more than the simple transactional exchange of ordering and obeying, it encompassed, in addition to other social dynamics not addressed here: i) paternalism (the care and attention that a superior gave his subordinates); ii) power (understood, in all its many forms, to be “the capacity of some persons to produce intended and foreseen effects on others”); and iii) the negotiated order (an unwritten exchange whereby disciplinary concessions were “traded” for later performance). Such dynamics significantly influenced the nature of the relationships that prevailed between men of dissimilar (and occasionally similar) rank. Perhaps nowhere than in the very close association that existed between an officer and his personal servant (batman) were these three phenomena more obviously manifested. By uncovering some of the mechanisms through which leaders interacted with their followers, and vice-versa, it becomes readily apparent that soldiers of inferior rank had a degree of agency with which they could influence their immediate surroundings and the individuals set over them; that leaders who were somewhat “less military” with their followers than what was expected of them could actually forge exceedingly strong teams in comparison to their confreres who were devoutly “regimental” in their comportment; that evinced styles of leadership were ii context-dependent; and that, concerning leadership specifically, the army was not so uniform and monolithic as is commonly assumed. While not a totally comprehensive discussion of lower- level leadership, Stripes, Pips and Crowns ultimately suggests that the success and effectiveness of the Canadian Corps in battle was partially due to the nature and strength of the relationships that existed between leaders and followers throughout the chain of command. iii DEDICATION For Dad, who worked tirelessly and sacrificed much to help get me to this stage but who unfortunately did not live to see its completion, and for Mom and Angela, who helped similarly. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: LENDING A HELPING HAND: PATERNALISM .................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 2: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DIMENSIONS OF POWER – PART ONE – FORCE, MANIPULATION, PERSUASION AND ELEMENTS OF AUTHORITY ................................................................ 96 CHAPTER 3: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DIMENSIONS OF POWER – PART TWO – PERSONAL AUTHORITY ............................. 155 CHAPTER 4: A LITTLE GIVE AND TAKE: THE NEGOTIATED ORDER AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF DISCIPLINE .......................................................................................... 201 CHAPTER 5: LEADER-FOLLOWER RELATIONS IN MICROCOSM: BATMEN ..................................... 245 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 330 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The Forms of Power ................................................................................................. 102 Figure 5.1: The Forms of Power Utilized by Officers and Servants .......................................... 268 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BCA British Columbia Archives BEF British Expeditionary Force Bn Battalion BSM Battery Sergeant-Major CAMC Canadian Army Medical Corps CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CCRC Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp CDQ Canadian Defence Quarterly CE Canadian Engineers CEA City of Edmonton Archives CEF Canadian Expeditionary Force CF Canadian Forces CFA Canadian Field Artillery CHR Canadian Historical Review CIHM Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions CMGC Canadian Machine Gun Corps CMJ Canadian Military Journal CMR Canadian Mounted Rifles CO Commanding Officer CSM Company Sergeant-Major CWM Canadian War Museum D.C.M. Distinguished Conduct Medal DHH Directorate of History and Heritage DUA Dalhousie University Archives FP Field Punishment GM Glenbow Museum GOC General Officer Commanding HMSO His Majesty’s Stationery Office HQ Headquarters KR&O King’s Regulations & Orders LAC Library and Archives Canada LCMSDS Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies MAUA Mount Allison University Archives M.C. Military Cross MG Manuscript Group M.M. Military Medal MML Manual of Military Law NCO Non-Commissioned Officer NSARM Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management OP Observation Post OR Other Rank PAA Provincial Archives of Alberta PANB Public Archives of New Brunswick vii PPCLI Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry QUA Queen’s University Archives RG Record Group SM Sergeant-Major UAA University of Alberta Archives UBC University of British Columbia UTARMS University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services UVicSC University of Victoria Special Collections UWOA University of Western Ontario Archives V.C. Victoria Cross V.D. Volunteer Officers’ Decoration viii INTRODUCTION …because there is no place if it is not in war that human nature shines through so clearly, so undisguised.1 For war is the great tester; it brings out the best that is in a man, even as also it brings out the worst that is in him.2 Particular images from the First World War have, over the last century, become nothing less than iconic. Photographs of makeshift cemeteries with their carefully constructed wooden crosses standing guard over slight mounds of earth; man and animal struggling in tandem; the wounded with their faces fully wrapped in bandages save slits for their eyes; exhausted soldiers caked in mud; raped and ravaged landscapes; the medieval Cloth Hall at Ypres; the Leaning Virgin at Albert – all bear witness to the conflict that figuratively ended the nineteenth century and opened the twentieth. With their foreboding atmosphere, such black-and-white pictures instantly convey a sense of loss and immense challenge, a suggestion that gives ample reason to pause and reflect, and in most cases, mourn. Such images, in but a singular moment, define both a generation and an era. Perhaps no photograph is as poignant, however, than “British” soldiers – Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Canadians, Irish and others 3 – advancing into “no man’s land” after having just left the relative safety of their trenches. With their backs to the camera, their rifle and bayonet pointed heavenward, some can be seen stepping gingerly yet cautiously over barbed wire obstacles; others have disappeared like phantoms into the mist that obscures the hard edges of their outline;