Spencer Ewart

Lieutenant-General Sir John Spencer Ewart (22 March 1861 – 19 September 1930) was a British Army officer who became Adjutant-General to the Forces, but was forced to resign over the Curragh Incident.

Early life and education

Ewart was born in Tatenhill near Burton-on-Trent into a distinguished Scottish family of military officers, the second son of General Sir John Alexander Ewart and Frances Stone. His father was aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria and a veteran of the Crimean War and Siege of Lucknow who lost his left arm at Cawnpore. His father was the son of Lieutenant-General John Frederick Ewart and grandson of diplomat Joseph Ewart and Sir Charles Brisbane. His uncles included Lieutenant-General Charles Brisbane Ewart and Vice-Admiral Charles Joseph Frederic Ewart, and his younger brother was Admiral Arthur Wartensleben Ewart.

He served with his regiment in Egypt and fought at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in 1882. He was also involved in the Nile Expedition in 1884 and served with the Sudan Frontier Field Force from 1885 to 1886. The commander-in-chief in South Africa, Major General Lord Kitchener, wrote in a despatch in June 1902 how Ewart was "a Staff officer of considerable ability. He has rendered good service in connection with the distribution and movements of troops." For his service he was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the October 1902 South Africa Honours list.

After his return from South Africa, he was appointed assistant military secretary and received the substantive rank of colonel on 15 October 1902, then was appointed deputy military secretary on 20 January 1903. In 1904 he was appointed as military secretary and in October 1906, after being promoted to major general, moved on to be director of military operations (DMO) at the War Office, taking over from Major General James Grierson. Winston Churchill, president of the board of trade, was willing to help him with economic intelligence on Germany. However, in 1909 Ewart wrote in his private diary:

He thought that they produced “Torrents of scurrilous and socialist oratory”.

In August 1910, Ewart, who the month before was made aide-de-camp general to King George V, was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces, in succession to General Sir Ian Hamilton. In June 1911 he was promoted to lieutenant general. In March 1914, with the Ulster Protestants on the verge of armed rebellion against planned Irish Home Rule, he was one of those who drew up the proposals that officers with personal links to Ulster would be permitted to absent themselves from planned troop deployments into Ulster, but that other officers who refused to go would be dismissed. Although no direct orders had yet been issued, when told of the plans officers of Hubert Gough's cavalry brigade stationed at the Curragh Camp near Dublin threatened to resign their commissions or accept dismissal rather than obey (the Curragh Incident). Along with the Secretary of State for War J.E.B. Seely and the CIGS Sir John French (who had then promised Gough in writing that the Army would not be used against Ulster) Ewart was forced to resign, both for having helped to create the situation in which officers were allowed to discuss which hypothetical (but lawful) orders they would choose to obey, and for being involved with the subsequent promises made to Gough in London. He had in October 1914 succeeded Hamilton as colonel of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.

Ewart retired from the army, after almost forty years of service, in March 1920.

Personal life In 1891, Ewart married Susan Frances Platt, the daughter of Major George William Platt, formerly of Dunallan House, Bridge of Allan. They had one daughter, Marion Frances Ewart, who in 1919 married Captain Ian Munro of the Cameron Highlanders.

He died at his seat, Craigeleuch, in Langholm, Dumfriesshire.