Lieutenant General Sir James Andrew Harcourt Gammell KCB DSO MC DL of ALRICK 1892-1975
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Lieutenant General Sir James Andrew Harcourt Gammell KCB DSO MC DL of ALRICK 1892-1975 James Andrew Harcourt Gammell was the eldest son of Sir Sydney James Gammell of Countesswells and his wife Alice Stobart. He was born in Edinburgh on 25 September 1892. At the age of 9, he was sent to a Preparatory Boarding School - Ardvreck, Crieff, Perthshire, and remained there until he entered Winchester College in the autumn of 1905. There he reached the 6th Form, and represented the School at Football before leaving in the summer of 1911 to go to Pembroke College, Cambridge as an undergraduate in the autumn of the same year. At Cambridge, he read History, and graduated with a 2nd Class Honours Degree in the summer of 1914. Some time before leaving Cambridge, he had decided to make the Army his career, and joined the University O.T.C. and the Scottish Horse Yeomanry. He was accepted as a University Candidate by the Army under date of 19 December 1912, to be 2nd Lieutenant in the James in about 1909, with his brithers, Harry, Dick, William and Edward (being carried on Royal Artillery, but not to carry pay and James' back) allowances until 5 August 1914 (which date turned out to coincide almost exactly with the date on which the 1st World War broke out). Almost immediately after taking up his duties with the Royal Artillery, he found himself in the firing line in France, the exact date of his embarkation being 20 August 1914. He was awarded the Military Cross early in 1915 for gallantry at La Bassée, returned to England soon afterwards, and was appointed to the Expeditionary Force being prepared for the assault on Gallipoli. He served throughout the Gallipoli campaign, and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. After the Gallipoli campaign ended, he was posted to Egypt, to join General Allenby, who was preparing for his campaign against the Turks. James was appointed G.S.0.3 to the Allenby Forces in December 1915, and G.S.0.2 to the same force in December 1916. He was promoted to full Lieutenant in June 1915, temporary Captain in February 1916 (full Captain December 1916), and Acting Major in September 1917, on which date he was also appointed a Battery Commander, still in the Middle East. In the summer of 1918 he returned to Europe and after a short secondment to the Royal Air Force for observer duties, he was appointed G.S.0.2 at the War Office as from October 1918, a post he retained until the summer of 1921. During the war he was wounded more than once and was hit in the chest by a bullet, but saved by a combination of a bible and cigarette case that he was carrying in his breast pocket. While serving in the Senussi Campaign in the Middle East in 1917, he had been awarded The Distinguished Service Order, and Mentioned in Despatches at least 3 more times. He was also awarded the Serbian Decoration of The Karageorge 4th Class with Swords, and the Order of the Crown of Italy 5th Class. In 1921, James entered the Army Staff College at Camberley and having successfully completed his course there, was appointed G.S.0.2 Aldershot Command in May 1924. In 1927, when his Aldershot Command appointment came to an end, he transferred from the Royal Artillery to The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, largely due to the lack of promotion prospects in the Artillery, and was granted the rank of Major with effect from 25 May 1927. After serving nearly 2 years with the 2nd Battalion in Edinburgh, he was posted to the 1st Battalion which was stationed at Rangoon in Burma and served with them until he was recalled to England, and appointed Instructor at the Staff College at Camberley with effect from January 1930, with the rank of Acting Lt. Colonel. When his 3 year appointment at the Staff College came to an end, James returned to Regimental duties, initially at Aldershot, and from May 1935 when he was promoted to the substantive rank of Lt. Colonel, as Colonel of the 1st Battalion, which was stationed at Khartoum in the Sudan, and afterwards at Catterick in Yorkshire. On 7 June 1919, James had married at St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens in the West End of London, Gertrude Don, elder daughter of Gilbert William Don of Ravensby, Carnoustie, Angus, and partner in the firm of Don Bros, of Forfar, Jute Manufacturers. Owing to military commitments, James and his wife lived in a variety of houses in the Aldershot area, including Ringmore, Camberley; The Beeches, Farnborough; Cranbrook House, Aldershot, until finally settling at The Rowans, Camberley, which was their home until they moved to Scotland at the end of the 2nd World War. James and "G" had four children as follows: James Gilbert Sydney b. 4 March 1920 John Frederick b. 31 December 1921 Mary Finella b. 15 April 1924 Elizabeth Alice b. 22 April 1926 Both sons were educated at Winchester College, and the 2 daughters also received Boarding School education. In 1938, after attending a course at The Imperial Defence College in London, James was appointed to command the 4th Infantry-Brigade, with the Temporary rank of Brigadier, having been gazetted full Colonel in the same year. In 1940 he was on the General Staff, and was Chief of Staff to General Auchinleck in the abortive Norway expedition in the summer of that year. Official portraits 1942 - National Portrait Gallery In July 1940, on his return from Norway, he was appointed to command the 3rd Division with the acting rank of Major General, and in May 1941, on promotion to substantive Major General, he took command of 12th Corps. Both these appointments were to units stationed in Southern England, at a time when invasion by German Forces appeared imminent, and were a tribute to the high opinion held of his ability. At the beginning of 1942 he was raised to the rank of Acting Lt. General, and appointed General Officer Commanding Eastern (England) Command, one of the most important posts in the country. This position he held until early in 1944, when he became Chief of Staff to The Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean, Field Marshall Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, and was thus chiefly responsible for the plans for the invasion of Southern France to coincide with the Normandy Landings in the summer of that year. In the early part of 1945, when the Mediterranean campaign was virtually completed, James returned to England, and after the surrender of Germany in May of that year, was sent to Moscow as head of the British Military Mission to the U.S.S.R., where he remained until he vacated that post in October 1945. He had been appointed Commander of The Bath in 1940, created a Knight of The Bath in 1944, attained the rank of full Lieutenant General in that same year. Besides the honours and decorations he was awarded by his own country, he was also appointed a Commander of the Legion of Merit by the Government of the United States of America, and awarded the Order of the White Lion by the Czecho- Slovak Government and the Order of Military Merit by the Government of Brazil; all these in recognition of his services to their countries during the 1939/45 war. He thus had every reason to feel satisfied with what can only be described as a brilliant military career, spread over some 32 years and since there seemed to be few military fields left to conquer, he decided to apply for retirement with effect from 9 May 1946. In 1943, James had purchased from his brother-in-law Eric Ivory of Brewlands in Glenisla, Angus, the property of Alrick, which lies also in Glenisla, and adjoins the Brewlands estate. The property consisted of the house, possibly better described as a shooting lodge, together with a hill farm, the whole amounting to some 1000 acres. James and his wife moved into the property on his retirement, and set out on the task of making a home for themselves and their family, and a viable farming unit out of the land. In 1946, on the death of his father Sir Sydney Gammell, James fell heir to what remained of the Gammell estates - namely the estate of Countesswells just outside the town of Aberdeen, but James and his wife had, sometime previously, ruled out the possibility of living there. The house was rambling and inconvenient, and the position of the James with his family at Alrick in about 1948. From left to right, Meg and John property generally Gammell, Mary & Jamie Stomonth Darling, "G" with her grandson Jamie on her did not compare knee, Lt Gen Sir James Gammell, Mervyn and Elizabeth Dalley, Jimmy and Sue with that Gammell which they had acquired in Glenisla. James therefore decided to sell up and sever the last Gammell connections with Aberdeenshire. The Mansion house was sold to the sitting tenant, the farms sold off gradually to tenants as opportunity offered, and the woods and moorland made over to the Forestry Commission. With part of the proceeds of these sales, James was able to purchase more land in Glenisla from the Earl of Airlie plus the small property of Little Forter, thus completing a compact unit, and bringing the total acreage of the estate to approximately 3000 acres. James was keenly interested in the economics of modern hill farming; he reclaimed much marshy ground, planted numerous shelter belts to protect his stock, and was a pioneer in the reseeding of heathery hillsides with clover and grass, thus providing a vast increase in the number of animals the land could sustain.