Herman Landon

Major-General Herman James Shelley Landon, (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. he had one elder sister, Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1845–1915), and an older stepsister, Geraldine Amelia Leigh (1845–1940). The family was comfortably well off, living in the respectable area of Paddington, London.

James Landon was an Indian cotton merchant; Later in the decade he advised Ranchhodlal Chhotalal on the development of a similar mill in Ahmedabad. He died in March 1879, leaving a substantial estate of eight to nine thousand pounds.

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.

He was promoted to lieutenant in April 1881, although his seniority was backdated to 12 February, and captain on 11 February 1887, seniority dating back to 29 November 1886.

Promoted in December 1897 to major, 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.

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.

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. From February to October 1906 he was on half-pay, and in October was appointed Inspector of Gymnasia in India. In February 1907, he was promoted substantive colonel.

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. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1911 Coronation Honours.

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.

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. 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.

On his recovery in December, he was appointed inspector of infantry, and early in 1915 was appointed to command the 9th (Scottish) Division of the New Army. before finally retiring from the army on 19 August 1919.

During the war, he was mentioned in dispatches three more times. After the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). He also received the French Croix de Guerre, and was appointed a Commander of the Belgian Order of Leopold.

Family Landon married Christian Ethel Sharp (1876–1957) in 1903, and they had one daughter, Mary Christian Landon (1904–1968).

Landon died at the age of 89 in October 1948 at the family home in Scottow, Norfolk.