{{Short description|British Army general (1859–1948)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Major-General |name= Herman Landon |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|CMG}} |image= H. J. S. Landon portrait.jpg |image_size= |alt= |caption= Landon in {{circa}} 1911–14 |nickname= |birth_date= {{birth date|1859|08|23|df=yes}} |birth_place= |death_date= {{death date and age|1948|10|16|1859|08|23|df=yes}} |death_place= Scottow, Norfolk |burial_place= |allegiance= United Kingdom |branch= British Army |service_years= 1879–1918 |rank= Major-General |unit= 6th Regiment of Foot<br/>Royal Warwickshire Regiment |commands= 64th Division<br/>35th Division<br/>33rd Division<br/>9th (Scottish) Division<br/>1st Division<br/>3rd Brigade<br/>1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment<br/>2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment |battles= Mahdist War<br/>Second Boer War<br/>First World War |awards= Companion of the Order of the Bath<br/>Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George<br/>Mentioned in Despatches (5)<br/>Croix de Guerre<br/>Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium) |relations= |other_work= }} Major-General '''Herman James Shelley Landon''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|CB|CMG}} (23 August 1859 – 16 October 1948) was a British Army officer. He commanded a battalion during the Second Boer War, and was promoted in the interwar period to take command of a brigade in the British Expeditionary Force following the outbreak of the First World War. He commanded the brigade during the early fighting on the Western Front, and succeeded to the command of the 1st Infantry Division when his commanding general was killed at the First Battle of Ypres; he later commanded four more New Army divisions during the war.<ref name="Who Was Who"/>
==Early life== Herman Landon was born on 23 August 1859, the son of Mary Maria née Edgar (1829–1912){{refn|group=note|The widow of Henry Francis Leigh (1820–1853), son of Augusta Maria Leigh née Byron (1783–1851) and Lt-Col George Leigh (1771–1845)}} and James Landon (1807–1879);<ref>Baptismal record, 16 February 1860. From ''Christ Church, Lancaster Gate: Register of baptisms'' (London Metropolitan Archives, P87/CTC, Item 001), p. 24, entry no. 192</ref> he had one elder sister, Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1845–1915), and an older stepsister, Geraldine Amelia Leigh (1845–1940){{refn|group=note|Supposedly the model for Gwendolen in George Eliot's Daniel Deronda.}}. The family was comfortably well off, living in the respectable area of Paddington, London.<ref name="census-61">1861 English census. (Class: RG9; Piece: 12; Folio: 6; Page: 16; GSU roll: 542556.)</ref>
James Landon was an Indian cotton merchant;<ref name="census-61"/> though predominantly involved in growing rather than processing, he had been responsible for setting up one of the first successful cotton mills in India, at Bharuch in Gujarat, in 1854.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Entrepreneurship in India|first=Phiroze B. |last=Medhora|journal=Political Science Quarterly|volume=80|issue=4|year=1965|pages=558–580|doi=10.2307/2146999 |jstor=2146999}}</ref> Later in the decade he advised Ranchhodlal Chhotalal on the development of a similar mill in Ahmedabad.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A comparative analysis of two major cotton textile centres of India - Bombay and Ahmedabad|last=Shah|first=Jayalaxmi J.|url=http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/TSCG/article/viewPDFInterstitial/4482/4011|journal=Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Geografia|volume=3|pages=87–106}}</ref> He died in March 1879, leaving a substantial estate of eight to nine thousand pounds.<ref>Entry for James Landon (d. 1879) in the ''Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England'', 1881.</ref>
==Early military career== Herman Landon was educated at Harrow from 1874 to 1876, leaving just before his seventeenth birthday. He later attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, passing out in January 1879 in the same class as Thomas Snow, later a lieutenant general, Charles Irwin Fry, later a major general in the Indian Army, and Henry Huntly Leith Malcolm and Herbert Henry Burney, both later brigadier generals. He took his commission in the 6th Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) of the British Army.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24670|page=284|date=21 January 1879}}</ref><ref name="Harrow">{{cite book|title=The Harrow School register, 1800-1911|year=1911|publisher=Longmans|url=https://archive.org/details/harrowschoolregi00harruoft|page=[https://archive.org/details/harrowschoolregi00harruoft/page/503 503]}}</ref>
He was promoted to lieutenant in April 1881, although his seniority was backdated to 12 February,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24961|page=1793|date=12 April 1881}}</ref> and captain on 11 February 1887, seniority dating back to 29 November 1886.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25672|page=724|date=11 February 1887}}</ref>
Promoted in December 1897 to major,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26931|page=376|date=21 January 1898}}</ref> he served in the Sudan in 1898, where he saw action at the Battle of Atbara and the Battle of Omdurman, and was mentioned in dispatches.<ref name="Who Was Who">Who Was Who.</ref>
He returned to Africa in 1900, in the Second Boer War, where he took temporary command of his battalion, the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment (which the 6th Regiment of Foot, into which he had been commissioned, became in 1881), from March to November. For this service, he was again mentioned in despatches, as well as being given a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel.<ref name="Times">''The Times'' obituary</ref>
==Continued career== He then was sent to India, where he joined the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshires, and in 1902 was promoted to substantive lieutenant colonel, and given command of the battalion. He remained in command until 1906, receiving a brevet promotion to colonel in July 1904.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27695|page=4452|date=12 July 1904}}</ref> From February<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27889|page=1352|date=23 February 1906}}</ref> to October 1906 he was on half-pay, and in October was appointed Inspector of Gymnasia in India.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27991|page=743|date=1 February 1907}}</ref> In February 1907, he was promoted substantive colonel.<ref name="Times"/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28099|page=316|date=14 January 1908}}</ref>
He returned to an active command in August 1910, when he was made a temporary brigadier general and given command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, in succession to Major General Frederick Hammersley.<ref name="Who Was Who"/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28408|page=6039|date=19 August 1910}}</ref> He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1911 Coronation Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28505|supp=y|page=4590|date=19 June 1911}}</ref>
==First World War== The 3rd Brigade, part of 1st Infantry Division, mobilised with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the outbreak of the First World War, and was sent to France. Landon commanded it during the Retreat from Mons, the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of the Aisne, and was promoted to major-general, "for distinguished service in the field", in October.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28953|page=8639|date=27 October 1914}}</ref>
During the First Battle of Ypres, which began in October, the divisional commander, Major-General Samuel Lomax, was severely wounded in action (and later died of his injuries in April 1915), and Landon took command.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28994|page=10277|date=1 December 1914|supp=y}}</ref> By the end of the battle in November, however, he himself was invalided home, and was relieved as divisional commander by Major General Sir David Henderson.<ref name="Times"/> Landon was formally replaced in command of his brigade by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Butler on 13 November.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28994|supp=y|pages=10277-10278|date=1 December 1914}}</ref>
On his recovery in December, he was appointed inspector of infantry,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28995|page=10297|date=4 December 1914}}</ref> and early in 1915 was appointed to command the 9th (Scottish) Division of the New Army.<ref name="armylist"/> He accompanied it to France, but was replaced in September due to ill health, shortly before the division saw combat, and sustained heavy losses, at the Battle of Loos.<ref name="Times"/>
In October he took command of the New Army's 33rd Division,<ref name="armylist"/> this time remaining with the division when it went into combat at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. In September he exchanged commands with Major General Reginald Pinney and was appointed to command the 35th Division, remaining with it until July 1917, when his health forced him to retire from active service.
From August 1917 to March 1918 he commanded the 64th Division in the Home Forces,<ref name="armylist">{{cite book|title=Quarterly Army List for the quarter ending 30th June 1919|year=1919|url=https://archive.org/details/armylistjulpart11919grea|pages=[https://archive.org/details/armylistjulpart11919grea/page/32 32]|place=London|publisher=HMSO}}</ref> before finally retiring from the army on 19 August 1919.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31643|supp=y|page=13878|date=14 November 1919}}</ref>
During the war, he was mentioned in dispatches three more times.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28945|pages=8377–8378|date=20 October 1914}}<br />{{London Gazette|issue=29072|supp=y|pages=1647–1649|date=16 February 1915}}<br />{{London Gazette|issue=29422|supp=y|pages=1–6|date=31 December 1915}}</ref> After the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31097|supp=y|page=82|date=31 December 1918}}</ref> He also received the French Croix de Guerre,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31688|supp=y|page=15579|date=12 December 1919}}</ref> and was appointed a Commander of the Belgian Order of Leopold.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31275|supp=y|page=4517|date=4 April 1919}}</ref>
==Family== Landon married Christian Ethel Sharp (1876–1957) in 1903, and they had one daughter, Mary Christian Landon (1904–1968).<ref name="Who Was Who"/>
Landon died at the age of 89 in October 1948 at the family home in Scottow, Norfolk.
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==Sources== {{reflist}}
==References== * Obituary in ''The Times'', p. 7, 20 October 1948 * "LANDON, Major-Gen. Herman James Shelley", in {{cite book|title=Who Was Who|publisher=A & C Black|year=2007|edition=Online|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U227964}} *{{Cite book|title=The war the infantry knew 1914-1919 : a chronicle of service in France and Belgium|last=Dunn|first=Captain J. C.|publisher=Abacus|place=London|year=1994|isbn=0-349-10635-5}} *{{cite book|title=Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1914. Volume I: Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne, August — October 1914|authorlink=James Edward Edmonds|last=Edmonds|first=J. E.|year=1922|series=History of the Great War|url=https://archive.org/details/militaryoperatio01edmouoft|publisher=Macmillan and co.|place=London}} *{{cite book|title=Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1914. Volume II: Antwerp, La Bassé, Armentières, Messines and Ypres, October — November 1914|authorlink=James Edward Edmonds|last=Edmonds|first=J. E.|year=1925|series=History of the Great War|url=https://archive.org/details/3edmilitaryopera02edmouoft|publisher=Macmillan and co.|place=London}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} |- {{s-bef|before=Samuel Lomax}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding 1st Division<br/>(acting)|years=31 October – 22 November 1914}} {{s-aft|after=David Henderson}} |- {{s-bef|before=Charles Fergusson}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding 9th (Scottish) Division|years=January–September 1915}} {{s-aft|after=George Thesiger}} |- {{s-bef|before=George Thesiger}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding 33rd Division|years=1915–1916}} {{s-aft|after=Reginald Pinney}} |- {{s-bef|before=Reginald Pinney}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding 35th Division|years=1916–1917}} {{s-aft|after=George Franks}} |- {{s-bef|before=Richard Bannatine-Allason}} {{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding 64th Division|years=1917–1918}} {{s-aft|after=Henry Lukin}} |- {{end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Landon, Herman}} Category:1859 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Military personnel from the City of Westminster Category:British Army major generals Category:People educated at Harrow School Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Category:British Army generals of World War I Category:Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers Category:People from North Norfolk (district) Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:British recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)