Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend
| Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 21 February 1861 London, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 18 May 1924 (age 63) Paris, France |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom / British Empire
|
| Service/branch |
|
| Rank | Major-General |
| Unit | 6th (Poona) Division |
| Commands held | 12th Sudanese Battalion Orange River Colony District East Anglian Division Jhanzi Brigade Rawal Pindi Brigade 6th (Poona) Division |
| Battles/wars | First World War |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order |
| Relations | Charles Townshend, 1st Marquess of Townshend |
Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, KCB, DSO (21 February 1861 –18 May 1924) was a British Imperial soldier who led an overreaching military campaign in Mesopotamia during the First World War, which led to the defeat and destruction of his command.
The son of a railroad clerk and of an Australian woman who brought no dowry, Townshend grew up poor, but as a member of the famous Townshend family, he was very ambitious and nourished high hopes of inheriting one day the family title and the family estate at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, as the son of the marquess had no children. A descendant of Field Marshal George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend (his great great grandfather) and of families of clergyman and school-masters, Charles Townshend was educated at Cranleigh School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. On graduation from Sandhurst, he was granted a commission with the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1881.
Townshend was a well-known "playboy" officer in his youth, famous for his womanizing, drinking, for playing the banjo while singing very bawdy songs and for spending an excessive amount of his time in the music halls. He was often described by those who knew him as a "ladies man" who was very popular with the opposite sex owing to his dashing personality and good looks. He was also known for his theatrical style, and he liked to associate with actors.
In 1884, Townshend was part of the relief expedition to rescue the besieged army of General Charles Gordon, better known to the British public as "Chinese Gordon", at Khartoum. As a Royal Marine officer, he strictly speaking should not had been part of an Army expedition, but he wrote to Field Marshal Garnet Wolsely asking if he could go, and his request was granted. The way that Gordon had defied the orders of the government to leave Khartoum, knowing full well that the government could not abandon a national hero like himself and would have to send out a relief expedition to save him made a great impression on Townshend. Even through Gordon had flagrantly and repeatedly ignored orders to evacuate Khartoum, the British press had generally portrayed "Chinese Gordon" as a Christian hero and martyr who had died heroically resisting the Islamic army of the Mahdi, and attacked the government of William Gladstone as abject cowards whose efforts to save Gordon were too little, too late. The power of the press and its ability to rouse public opinion in favour of heroic generals besieged by Islamic fanatics was noted by Townshend at the time. In January 1885, he fought at the Battle of Abu Klea, which was his first battle and the first time he killed a man. In 1886, he transferred from the Royal Marines to the British Army, largely because he felt it offered better prospects of promotion. The American historian John Semple Galbraith wrote that "Townshend was an inveterate self-advertiser, constantly and actively promoting his own brilliance in the hope of recognition by a grateful country, preferably in the form of a KCB."
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