Ridge: “Plumer had now shown what he and his staff
could arrange and his troops carry out; and he and Sir
Hubert Gough were told to continue as soon as possible
the attack on the high ground running from near Mes-
sines to the far side of Passchendaele, beyond which the
Fourth Army under Sir Henry Rawlinson had been col-
lected. The great series of operations which began on 21
July cannot be described here, but the two commanders,
acting in perfect unison, fought eight great battles with
immense results despite the foulest weather.”
Although Plumer had a difficult relationship with
Sir Douglas haig, the British commander, he nonethe-
less remained loyal to Haig’s every command, and for a
time he was considered to be a replacement for Sir John
French. On 9 November 1917, he was sent with British
troops to Italy to encourage the Italian government to
continue fighting the Austrians. Plumer returned to the
Second Army on the western front in March 1918 and
thereafter commanded a series of offensives that led to
the liberation of northern Belgium.
World War I ended in November 1918, and
Plumer was created Baron Plumer of Messines and Bil-
ton and promoted to field marshal in 1918. Six months
later, he was named as commander of the Army of Oc-
cupation on the Rhine River. He was then appointed as
governor and commander in chief of Malta, an office
he held until May 1924. During his tenure, the first
representative government in Malta was established,
and the Prince of Wales inaugurated the first legislative
assembly. Plumer also served as the British high com-
missioner in Palestine (now modern Israel) in 1925–28.
Created Viscount Plumer of Messines in 1929, he also
served in the House of Lords. He died in London on
16 July 1932 and was buried with full military honors
in Westminster Abbey. Although he is largely forgot-
ten today, Lord Plumer’s services during the First World
War assured the Allied victory, especially the triumph at
Messines Ridge.
References: Powell, Geoffrey, Plumer: The Soldiers’ Gen-
eral: A Biography of Field-Marshal Viscount Plumer of Mes-
sines (London: Leo Cooper, 1990); Harington, General
Sir Charles, Plumer of Messines (London: John Murray,
1935); MacMunn, George, “Plumer, Herbert Charles
Onslow, First Viscount Plumer,“ in The Dictionary of Na-
tional Biography, 22 vols., 8 supps., edited by Sir Leslie
Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, et al. (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1921–22), XV:702–706.
Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius, Pompey the Great)
(106–48 b.c.) Roman general
Pompey was born Gnaeus Pompeius in Rome on 29
September 106 b.c. into an important Roman family
whose members had included consuls, including his fa-
ther, Pompeius Strabo. Strabo sided against the Roman
general Cornelius Sulla during the Roman Civil War
(88–87 b.c.) between Sulla and his enemy, Gaius Mar-
ius. However, following Strabo’s death, Pompey turned
against the Marians and their ally, Cinna. While Cinna
was marching to the Balkans to fight Sulla, he was killed
by his own disaffected troops. Historians do not believe
that Pompey led the mutiny against Cinna, although he
may have been one of its instigators.
In an attempt to retake Rome from the Marians,
Pompey offered his and his army’s services to Sulla, who
married his stepdaughter, Aemilia, to Pompey, although
she was pregnant by another man; she died in child-
birth soon after the marriage. Sulla demanded that the
Roman Senate send Pompey to defeat the Marians in
both Sicily and Africa, and in two quick battles (82–81
b.c.) he accomplished these tasks. Pompey showed his
merciless side when he ordered the execution of Marian
commanders who had surrendered to his forces. But he
also saw himself as a future leader of Rome, and when
he returned to that city in 81 b.c. and Sulla demanded
that he disband his army, Pompey refused, forcing Sulla
to back down. Disgraced, Sulla resigned as consul in
79 b.c., and Pompey became a dictator in effect. He
backed the candidacy of Sullan Marcus Lepidus to be-
come consul, but when Lepidus took control of Rome,
Pompey turned against him as well and fought to have
him removed.
Once again, Pompey refused to disperse his army,
and he demanded that he be allowed to fight the Mar-
ian commander Sertorius in Spain. The Roman Sen-
ate, cowed into accepting all of his demands, acceded,
and he marched his army to Spain. Once he had Spain
under his control (76–71 b.c.), Pompey returned to
Rome, where he assisted the new Roman leader, Marcus
Licinius crassus, to put down a rebellion led by the
slave Spartacus, known as the Servile War. Once this was
completed, Pompey and Crassus were elected as consuls
in 70 b.c. He continued his military conquests, defeat-
ing pirates in the Mediterranean Sea in just three months
and conquering ports of Armenia, Pontus, and Syria.
In 67 b.c., the Roman Senate appointed Pompey
as the commander of forces to fight Mithradates, start- pompey