He was a mentor to Lawrence of Arabia, a maverick explosives expert who
played a pivotal role in the Arab insurgency against the Ottoman Empire.
But the part that Major Herbert Garland, a British scientist turned soldier, played in the First World War has largely been ignored, airbrushed from history in the wake of his more famous brother-in-arms.
Now the Royal Society of Chemistry is to finally commemorate the army officer who wrecked his health leading the Arab rebellion before dying forgotten and almost penniless in Gravesend aged just 38.
Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), said he was a very rare and "courageous soldier" who was admired by TE Lawrence for his daring and cleverness.
“I am pleased that we are remembering him now, even if it is nine decades after his rather lonely death, far from the desert where his reputation should have been made, as it was with Lawrence, who had learned so much from him,” he said.
Major Garland, born in Sheffield, had worked in Cairo as superintendent of a government explosives laboratory.
He was also intrigued by metallurgy of ancient artefacts, and on 15 May 1913 he was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society (the RSC forerunner) which later awarded a £10 grant to research ancient Egyptian metals.
At the outbreak of war, he joined the Arab Bureau along with Lawrence, a group of intellectuals and businessmen whose "mission was to collect every possible bit of information about Turkish and German influence in the Middle East and act on it in the field".
Despite once blowing himself up with explosives and suffering severe shock, he joined Lawrence and Arab rebels to attack the Hejaz railway, one of the main supply lines of the Ottoman Empire.
He developed the mines and taught Lawrence and the rebels how to use them in their guerrilla campaign that acted as a great diversion allowing the British to take Damascus and bring down the Ottoman Empire.
His final act in the war was being sent to Medina, the last place to be surrendered by the Turks, in late 1918. He was responsible for the overseeing of the surrender of the key town to the allies.
But while Lawrence of Arabia, who died almost 75 years ago, refers to him briefly in his book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the full achievements of Garland have not been revealed until now.
Lawrence alludes to Garland in his book about the desert revolt, upon which the multi Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia was based and which made great play of the derailing of Turkish trains.
He writes that Garland “had years of practical knowledge of explosives" and "his own devices for mining trains and felling telegraphs and cutting metals".
He said that "his knowledge of Arabic" enabled him "to teach the art of demolition to unlettered Beduin in a quick and ready way. His pupils admired a man who was never at a loss”.
“Incidentally, he taught me how to be familiar with high explosive," Lawrence adds.
"Sappers handled it like a sacrament, but Garland would shove a handful of detonators into his pocket with a string of primers, fuse, and fusees and jump gaily in his camel for a week’s ride to the Hejaz railway.
In a letter, Lawrence writes at one point that Garland contribution to the campaign was greater than his.
“Garland is much more use than I could be," he tells a diplomat.
"For one thing he is senior to me and he is an expert on explosives and machinery. He digs their trenches, teaches them musketry, machine gun work, signalling, gets on with them exceedingly well and always makes the best of things and they all like him too."
A Major Davenport, who commanded British officers in Arabia, wrote after his death: ” No man worked harder for the success of the operations than Major Garland, and it was only due to dogged pluck that he worked on as long as he did in the Hedjaz.”
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario