Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916
The Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. V) was set up to investigate the World War I operations in the Dardanelles Campaign and the Mesopotamian campaign.
Following the disasters in Mesopotamia and the Dardanelles 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."[1]
The terms of the Act required that at least one naval and one military officer from the retired lists to 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 Lyttelton
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 criticised.
Dardanelles 1916-19
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 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.
- ↑ Anson, I, 400, op.cit