GALE Richard Nelson Capt

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Surname: GALE;

Forename(s): Richard Nelson;

Initials: RN;

Rank: Capt;

Born in: Wandsworth;

Previous Regiment: Worcs Regt;

MGC Branch: Infantry;

MGC Unit: 164 Coy;

Other MGC Unit Served (1): 42 Bn;

Other MGC Unit Served (2): 12 Bn;

Awarded: MC;

Gallantry Notes: MC: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in covering the retirement of the infantry with his section of machine guns, holding up the attack and causing the enemy heavy casualties. Later, when a shell landed in the centre of the gun limbers, he went out under heavy fire and unhitched the killed and wounded horses so enabling the transport to move away to cover.;

Other Data: Merchant Taylors Sch. B 25/7/1896. At Sch 1909- 1911 to Aldenham Sch 1911-1913. RMC 1915. 2Lt Worcs Regt 1915, Lt 1917 sec to MGC( MGC13/3/1916-31/3/1921 A/Capt 16/10/1918) served 164 Coy, 126 Coy & 42 Bn. 1920: 12 Bn MGC, Mhow, India. Fairleigh, Shepperton, Middx

Aldenham Sch: Major R Innisk Fus 1930

Who's Who 1968: General Sir Richard Nelson Gale, GCB 1954 (KCB 1953, CB 1945) KBE 1950 (OBE 1940) DSO 1944, MC 1918. Son of the late Wilfred Gale and Helen Webber Ann Gale d. of Joseph Nelson of Townsville, Queensland. Married 1) 1924 Ethel Maud Larnack (d 1952) d of Mrs Jessie Keene of Hove. 2) 1953, Daphne Maybelle Eveline, d of Francis Blick of Stroud, Glos. Lt Col Sept 1939, Brig 1941, Maj Gen 1946, A/Lt Gen 1945, Lt Gen 1947, Gen 1952. Raised and commanded 1 Parachute Bde; commanded 6 Airborne Div. Depy Cdr 1st Allied Airborne Army 1945, Cdr 1st British Airbornew Corps 1945, 1st Inf Div 1946-47. GOC Brit troops Egypt & Med Cmd 1949-9; c-in-c Northern Army Group, Allied Land Forces Europe & British Army of the Rhine 1952-57. Retired 1957. Re-employed NATO 1958. Depy Supreme Allied Cdr, Europe 1958-60. ADC to the Queen 1954-7; Colonel Worcs Regt 1950-61, Cdr Legion of Merit (USA) Cdr L of H (Fr), Croix de G w Palmes (Fr).

From http://www.ornebridgehead.org/richard_gale.htm
RICHARD GALE
With the call to arms in August 1914, Gale was only too delighted to abandon the day job and apply to join the London Territorials. He was, however, rejected on the grounds that City living had taken a toll on his fitness. Such was the sense of patriotic duty that flooded the nation at the outbreak of war, Gale was bitterly disappointed to be denied a chance to join in. A young lady, not pausing to consider Gale's predicament, passed him in the street and pinned a white feather to him, the symbol of cowardice. He was not so easily disuaded, however, and took it upon himself to attend physical training classes after work. This paid dividends, and by the summer of 1915 he was attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Such was the desperate shortage of manpower on the Western Front, the training regime was necessarily brief, and on the 22nd December of that year, Gale was commissioned, as he had requested, into the Worcestershire Regiment. Gale's boyish enthusiasm, however, was soon dented when he found that the half-hearted training regime of the holding battalion that he had joined was not at all to his liking. He had taken an interest in the machine-gun, the new weapon of war, and in March 1916 was posted to the Machine Gun Training Centre, Grantham. Gale had assumed that he was attending a mere course, but instead he found himself seconded to the Machine Gun Corps.
Eager to get into the War, Gale was posted to France in the summer of 1916 and joined the 164th Machine Gun Company of the 55th West Lancashire Division. With this unit he was soon involved in the terrible fighting on the Battle of the Somme and later served on the Ypres Salient, where he and his men endured gas attacks and the terrible winter of early 1917. Here he took part in the highly successful attack on Wytschaete Ridge on the 7th June 1917, but was not involved in the subsequent Passchendaele massacre due to being on leave, during which he was diagnosed with pyorrhoea and spent a short time in hospital. Suffering from mental and physical exhaustion, he was sent on a month's sick leave. Upon his return to France, on the 1st January 1918, Gale was posted to the 42nd East Lancashire Division and commanded a section of the 126th Machine Gun Company. With this unit he took part in defending against the German offensive along the Somme River in March 1918. Here, Gale and his men were almost cut off when German infantry infiltrated all around them during the dark, but silently they were able to withdraw to a second line of defence from where their guns helped to cut down the German attacks on the following day. In the final months of the War, Gale was promoted to Captain and he played his part in the advance towards, and over, the Hindenburg Line.

General Sir Richard GaleGale emerged from the Great War unscathed, though there had been numerous instances which he had been fortunate to survive. On the Somme in 1916, soon after his arrival at the front, a shell had exploded amongst his party, killing several people and leaving the young Lieutenant Gale uninjured but spattered with blood and human remains. He had, earlier, been slightly unnerved at the sight and smell of a German corpse, the first dead body that he had ever seen, but this explosion in his trench curiously removed any fear of the enemy shells from his shoulders. At Ypres, a German machine-gunner opened fire on Gale and his batman as he was in the process of setting up firing positions for the night. A bullet struck Gale's webbing but did not inflict an injury, however his batman was wounded. Later, Gale's replacement batman was killed by a shell as he was in the process of cooking a meal for his officer. Once again, Gale miraculously escaped, but the shock of seeing the horrendously mutilated remains of his faithful batman proved too much for him and he wept as he tried to wrap the body in a blanket. His company commander noted the fragile state that Gale was in and took him out of the line for a period of rest, a comfort which returned him to his original self. Gale later wrote, "I really think he saved me from completely going off my rocker."

See "The Times" 30/07/1982
See "Boy David" Sept 1982

Arrives in 164 Coy Sept 1916 - War Diary
OCA Member: Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, KT18 9AU;

Other Notes: MC: LG 26/7/1918;

END OF RECORD.

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