- Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916
The Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916 was set up to investigate the
World War I operations in the Dardanelles Campaign and theMesopotamian campaign .Following the disasters in
Mesopotamia and theDardanelles in 1916, the recently ousted British Prime Minister,H. H. Asquith , demanded a select committee to inquire into the relevant military campaigns. Instead the new Government appointed a statutory Special Commission, because "a Government may…prefer to…appoint…an outside element...less likely to be influenced by party bias." [Anson, I, 400, op.cit ]The terms of the Act required that at least one naval and one military officer from the retired lists should serve on each Commission.
Mesopotamia 1916-17
The Commission of Inquiry's remit was "to inquire into the origins, inception and conduct of operations of war" in Mesopotamia.
The following were appointed
*Lord George Hamilton ; (Chairman)
*Earl of Donoughmore
*Lord Hugh Cecil
*Archibald Williamson, 1st Baron Forres
*J. Hodge
*J.C. Wedgwood
*Admiral Cyprian Bridge , (retired Naval)
*General Rt. Hon. Sir Neville Gerald LytteltonThe Commission The commission summonded over 100 witnesses. It was highly critical of many individuals and the administrative arrangements.
*
William Babtie , responsible for medical provision on the Mesopotamia front, was heavily criticisedDardanelles 1916-19
"See
Dardanelles Commission "The following were appointed
*William Pickford, 1st Baron Sterndale ; Chairman
*Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer ; (d. 29 Jan 1917)
*Andrew Fisher ;
*Thomas Mackenzie ;
*Frederick Cawley, 1st Baron Cawley ;
*James Avon Clyde, Lord Clyde ;
*Stephen Lucius Gwynn
*Walter Francis Roch ;
*Admiral Sir William Henry May
*William Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson References
*'Appendix 1', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 10: Officials of Royal Commissions of Inquiry 1870-1939 (1995), pp. 85-8. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16611. Date accessed: 12 August 2007.
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