Sir Frank Fox

First World War and WW2 Author, author of Breaker Morant

George V- Grandpa England

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George V (Captain General 1910-1936) is a much under-rated King. At this year of the Centenary of the WW 1 Armistice it is appropriate to examine his legacy.

As Duke of York he was serving as a Commander aged 27 in the Royal Navy when his elder brother Albert died unexpectedly. He was thus required to abandon his naval career as he became the heir to his father King Edward VII. The next year he married, somewhat unusually , his dead brother’s fiancée, Mary of Teck.

There could hardly be more of a contrast between the characters of father and son. Edward, as Prince of Wales, had scandalised the country by his high life of philandering and gambling; George’s life has been described as epitomising “Upper Middle Class respectability”. He was devoted to Queen Mary, to whom he was faithful, and brought up 5 sons and a daughter. Having no intellectual pretensions, his prime personal interests were shooting and stamp collecting.

It would seem that he was ill prepared to cope with the many challenges that he would face following his Accession in 1910.

Storm clouds were gathering over Europe ; there were new political under-currents at home and throughout the Empire. He toured his Empire extensively in the wake of the Boer War, thanking those countries which had sent troops in that conflict, and held a Durbar in India in 1911 where there were early rumblings of Independence.

However nothing could have prepared him for the outbreak of the Great War when Britain was obliged to declare war when an expansionist Germany, led by his first cousin the Kaiser, invaded Belgium in August 1914.

The King shared the hope (and the belief) of many that the war would be of short duration. This optimism proved to be ill-founded as trench warfare brought stagnation and slaughter in equal measure.

Haig had been appointed as an ADC to the King in February 1914 and this was the prelude to frequent meetings throughout the war. Haig lunched with the King and Kitchener in London in 1915, and the King regularly visited the Front.

Contact continued either directly or indirectly, often through the medium of Haig’s wife who had important contacts at Court.

Haig had expressed “ grave doubts” about Sir John French in August 1914, and eventually replaced him as Commander in Chief, BEF in December 1915. Unsurprisingly there was intermittent criticism of his own conduct of the War as it dragged on, but his influence at the Palace probably protected him from political pressure from Lloyd George and others.

It was significant that in promoting him to Field Marshal on New Year’s Day 1917, the King sent him a personal message “ A New Year’s gift from myself and the country”. Later he insisted that Haig be created an Earl in contrast to French’s Viscountcy.

In the aftermath of the War the King was anxious to visit the Military Cemeteries in Belgium and France as soon as it were possible. Nothing better illustrated his sensitivity and common sense in that he insisted on taking a very modest entourage.

Thus he was able quietly to pay his respects in a dignified manner in the face of such huge sacrifice, and to talk to bereaved families and local people.

Frank Fox, an Imperialist who had worked with Fabian Ware on The Morning Post, had been selected to record the Pilgrimage. Fox was later knighted by the King in 1926 for his work organising the British Empire Exhibition.

Fox, as a War Correspondent, had recorded the German Invasion of Belgium, and having been seriously wounded on the Somme, joined Haig’s GHQ at Montreuil-sur-Mer in the planning of the final offensive.

The resulting book “ The King’s Pilgrimage “ ( see below) records a visit, devoid of pomp, in words, evocative photographs, and verse by Rudyard Kipling. Once again the King had demonstrated his instinctive decency and sense of duty. Embarrassed by praise at his Silver Jubilee, he declared “ I’m a very ordinary sort of fellow”

After the War the King played a critical role in developing cordial relations with leaders of the Labour Party and the TUC. This served the Monarchy- renamed as the House of Windsor to replace the Germanic Saxe-Coburg- Gotha -and the country well when Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924.

During the General Strike of 1926 the King, true to his role as a Constitutional Monarch, advised understanding of the issues, and urged moderation dealing with the strikers. The introduction of the annual Christmas Broadcast further enhanced his popularity.

This admirable King ( called “Grandpa England” by Princess Elizabeth) had on his death left the Monarchy more secure- in stark contrast to the fate of his German and Russian first cousins, both of whom had lost their thrones.

Thus it was appropriate that his life ” moved peacefully to a close”

NOTE. “ The King’s Pilgrimage” has been republished by Fox’s Great Grandson, Dr Charles Goodson- Wickes (Representative Deputy Lieutenant for Islington and a Member of the HAC)

It is available via [email protected]

In the words of John Terraine:-

“Few people, unless the subject is brought particularly to their attention can realise to what an extent GHQ itself marked a revolution in the art of waging war……. the whole machine became a remarkable fusion of the best available talent, civilian and military, in the country.”

An insider´s view of G.H.Q. review by Professor Gary Sheffield

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‘Gary Sheffield has established himself as one of the foremost authorities on the British Army of the First World War’
Professor Saul David, University of Buckingham

‘Gary Sheffield is one of Britain’s foremost historians of the First World War – insightful, original, and superbly informed’
Sir Max Hastings, military historian

AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF GHQ- Review by Professor Gary Sheffield

G.H.Q. (Montreuil-sur-Mer) by SIR FRANK FOX

London: Beaumont Fox, 2015
216pp., hardback, many illustrations, foldout chart, ,ISBN 978-0-9928901-2-4

G.H.Q., first published in 1920, is something of a hidden gem.It is a long time since I first read this book, and I had forgotten how interesting and useful it is. Written by Sir Frank Fox, originally under the pseudonym ‘G.S.O’, it is an account of what went on at the BEF’s General Headquarters written by a staff officer who served there.

It serves as an excellent introduction to some vital aspects of the BEF’s war. Administration, logistics and staff work are not numbered among the glamourous aspects of warfare, and so, far too often, are overlooked. Tellingly, the one part of this book which may be familiar to readers focuses on the human element. Fox mentions that Haig was rarely seen, and when he did appear, staff officers rushed to a window ‘to catch a glimpse of him’. This annoyed Haig, who crossly annotated his copy of the book, perhaps sensitive to the accusations of remoteness from the rest of GHQ.

Fox wrote the book to defend GHQ against its critics, by explaining what went on there. He takes us through the various branches of GHQ, covering such matters as munitions, salvage, and the medical services, enlivening what might have been a rather dry account with anecdotes.

Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke, the relatively youthful Quartermaster-General from 1917, emerges as one of the unsung heroes of the British army. All of this repays reading, but needs to be supplemented by recent works, such as Craig Gibson on relations with French civilians. Fox wrote as an outsider; an Australian and a journalist, not a professional soldier.

So, he was well placed to see the extent to which GHQ became civilianised, and this is one of his most interesting themes. In his view, the prejudice against New Army officers, which was strong in 1916, had largely vanished by the end of the war. These citizen-soldiers had not only brought their civilian skills into the army, but had made GHQ more interesting, with the Mess a far less stuffy place: ‘I was struck by the general good temper with which the Trade Union of Officers ultimately took its “dilutees”’ (p.133).

Both as a memoir and a history, G.H.Q. is valuable, and it is very good to see this new edition in print. It has a foreword from the author’s great grandson, Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, a former MP, and, as a bonus, the ‘Game Book’, a statistical annex compiled by Travers Clarke for King George V.

Gary Sheffield

The King’s Pilgrimage

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The King’s Pilgrimage By Sir Frank Fox An Account of King George V’s Visit to the War Graves in Belgium and France Republished to mark the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice. Publication date: 7 June 2018, Price: £20

A WWI commemorative reproduction of King George V’s secret journey to the battlefields of Northern Europe to visit the war graves of the fallen. First printed in 1922, this volume is reproduced with the blessing of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, with an introduction written by Dr. Charles Goodson-Wickes, great-grandson of the original author. It features 59 evocative and unposed photographs. Recently reviewed by Dan Snow´s History Hit, click on the image to listen to the podcast (**update, you now need to be a member of History Hit**):

Dan Snow´s History Hit WW1 About the Author Sir Frank Fox (1874-1960) was an Australian born Journalist, Soldier, Author and Campaigner who lived in Britain from 1909. Having warned on the public platform and in the press of an impending war in Europe he was appointed to the Morning Post and was sent as their War correspondent to the Balkan wars. He was then attached to the Belgian Army and recorded the German invasion in 1914. Motivated by the atrocities he witnessed to the civilian population there, he was commissioned at the age of 41 into the British Army.


Fox was appointed O.B.E. (Military) and was Mentioned in Despatches. In 1926 he was Knighted by King George V. He was a prolific author writing over 33 books, 5 of which books relating to World War One, including the recently republished “The Agony of Belgium” and ”GHQ Montreuil-sur-Mer”.

Introduction by Dr. Charles Goodson-Wickes, Great-Grandson and Literary Executor of Sir Frank Fox. It was the wish of King George V to honour the dead of the Great War by visiting the Military cemeteries in Belgium and France as soon as this were practically possible.

He determined that the Visit should be simple and dignified, with the minimum of formality and trappings. Thus it was, following the first State Visit to Belgium in 1922, that he assembled a small but distinguished party to accompany him: Field Marshal the Earl Haig, The Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Ponsonby, Major General Sir Fabian Ware, Colonel Clive Wigram and Major Reginald Seymour. They were joined by Queen Mary, Lady Haig (her Lady-in-Waiting) and Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Beatty, towards the end of the itinerary.

Frank Fox, War Correspondent for the Morning Post at the time of the German invasion of Belgium in 1914, had subsequently been commissioned as a combatant and was seriously wounded on the Somme. After convalescence, during which he worked for MI7, he joined Haig’s GHQ in Montreuil-sur-Mer. His name probably came to the fore to write this narrative of the King’s Pilgrimage, through his association with Ware on the Morning Post, before the latter championed the formation of the Imperial War Graves Commission. The result is this book, full of evocative and unposed photographs, preceded by Rudyard Kipling’s verse.

For press information please contact Flora Ross [email protected] Price: £20 (initially only available in the UK) Postage and Packaging: £3.00 (For UK postage only)

The Times includes GHQ in its “Six of the best First World War reads”

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Allan Mallinson from The Times reviewed new books on the wider aspects of the Great War. We were delighted that G.H.Q. was selected as one of the 6 books.

Sir Frank Fox’s G.H.Q., first published in 1920 and now reissued in a limited edition by his great-grandson, Charles Goodson- Wickes (Beaumont Fox, £25), is an absorb­ing study of Haig’s chateau-HQ at Montreuil-sur-Mer. Fox — a journalist and tempo­rary soldier — paints a vivid picture of the comprehensive com­plexity of the British Ex­peditionary Force, with organisational dia­grams, statistics and vi­gnettes of day-to-day life.

The BEF, or more correctly in the later stages of the war the British Armies in France, was the largest organisa­tion the country has ever maintained abroad — more than two million men. Montreuil-sur-Mer began to look as much like a colonial administration as an operational headquarters, with di­rectors of agricultural production (Brigadier-General the Earl of Radnor) and forestry (Brigadier-General Lord Lovat), controllers of labour, of salvage and of canteens, subordinate directors of docks, of inland water transport, of roads, and of light railways. The list goes on, testimony to the industrialisa­tion of the war and the sheer scale of Haig’s purview. For these and other reasons, on taking over as C-in-C at the end of 1915 he had moved GHQ back from Saint-Omer to Montreuil, almost on the Channel coast, placing him 70 miles and more behind the front line.

Fox writes: “It was the job of General Headquarters to try to see the war as a whole.” In fact. Haig found it difficult to see strategically beyond the Western Front or the tactical reality of the war in the trenches. Fox’s fascinating book explains a lot.”

The scan of the article is below and the link to the website here (summary only available to non-subscribers of The Times):
Six of the best First World War reads

You can also download the PDF of the article here: Six of the best First World War reads

The RUSI Journal review essay including G.H.Q.

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Excerpt from THE SOMME A CONTEST OF ENDURANCE, Review Essay by Jack Spence:

So much for context. Two of the authors under review — Frank Fox and Taylor Downing — provide specialised treatment of two subjects: the work of General Headquarters (GHQ) based at Montreuil-sur-Mer and the impact of shell shock on those who suffered and those in authority who had to deal with it.

Frank Fox, whose G.H.Q. (Montreuil-sur-Mer) was first published in 1920, was severely wounded on the Somme, but after a year’s convalescence returned to France as a staff officer at Montreuil.
The work was reissued in 2015 by Charles Goodson-Wickes, the author’s great-grandson and literary executor.
The reader is offered a meticulous and well—researched account of the vast bureaucratic structure and process required by Britain to prosecute the war successfully. This was, in many ways, a miracle of improvisation that governments of the past had never had to deal with on this scale, given the logistic requirements of modern war. In effect, the war, at one level of analysis, was a bureaucratic contest between states, all of which were seeking to mobilise and destroy the enemy’s ability to wage war most effectively. The author considers this in superb detail: for example, how munitions were supplied and despatched to the front; how medical facilities were organised; how horses and mules were cared for; and how a rudimentary educational system was devised. Fox is also illuminating on Secretary of State for War Horatio Kitchener’s New Army, providing an altogether fascinating account of the supporting role of the Dominions and the US. This argument is supported by a wealth of statistical information, photographs and a helpful chart detailing the various directorates and inspectorates controlled by the quartermaster general. Finally, there is a delicately phrased account of GHQ at play: ’monkish in its denial of some pleasures, rigid in discipline, exacting in work, but neither austere nor anxious’.7

This is an important text full of insight into how the British organised themselves for war.

7Frank Fox, G.H.Q. (Montreuil—sur-Mer)
(Beaumont Fox, 2015), p. 1.

(The RUSI Journal Dec 2016, Vol.161)