Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby GCB, GCMG, GCVO (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a British soldier and administrator most famous for his role during the First World War, in which he led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918.
Allenby, nicknamed the "Bloody Bull", was characterized by Lord Wavell, a British field marshal during the Second World War who had served under Allenby, as an intelligent, caring man and a consummate professional soldier. T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), whose efforts with the Arab Revolt were greatly aided by Allenby, thought similarly of him: "(He was) physically large and confident, and morally so great that the comprehension of our littleness came slow to him".[2] Allenby was arguably one of the most successful British commanders of the war, utilising strategies he developed from his experiences in the Boer War and on the Western Front towards his Palestinian Campaigns of 1917–18. His management of the Battle of Megiddo in particular, with its brilliant use of aeroplanes, infantry, and mobile cavalry, is considered by many to be a precursor to the Blitzkrieg tactics so widely employed by Germany during the Second World War.
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Born in Brackenhurst, Nottinghamshire, Allenby was educated at Haileybury College. He had no great desire to be a soldier, and tried to enter the Indian Civil Service, failing the entry exam twice. In 1880, he sat the exam for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and came fifth out of one-hundred and ten applicants. After ten months at Sandhurst, he passed out twelfth and was commissioned into the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons in 1881.
In 1882, he joined his regiment in South Africa, and served in the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-1885 on patrol duties, and then in Zululand in 1888. In 1889, as a captain, he was made the adjutant of the regiment, responsible for the turnout, discipline and routine of the unit and soon gained a reputation for strictness. He returned to Britain in 1890 with his unit, which was posted to Brighton, during which time the regiment was confined to training and other routine duties. In 1893, Allenby’s time as adjutant came to an end, and in 1894 he sat – and failed – the entry exam for the Staff College in Camberley. Not deterred, he sat the exam again the next year and passed in twenty-first place, being the only cavalryman to enter the college by competition and the first officer from his regiment ever to do so. On the same day, Captain Douglas Haig of the 7th Hussars also entered the Staff College, albeit not by taking an exam, thus beginning a rivalry between the two that was to run until the First World War. Different in character, Haig and Allenby both worked hard at Staff College, although the latter was more popular with fellow officers, even being made Master of the Draghounds in preference to Haig who was the better rider. Whereas Haig had few interests outside military affairs, Allenby had already developed a passion for poetry, ornithology, travel and botany. James Edmonds, a contemporary, later claimed that the staff at Staff College thought Allenby dull and stupid but were impressed by a speech he gave to the Farmers’ Dinner, which had in fact been written for him by Edmonds and another.[3]
Allenby's Staff College assessment read as follows:
"This officer has sufficiently good abilities and much practical common sense. In all his work the practical bearing of the subject dealt with is always kept in view; and so long as the subject or situation falls within his knowledge, it is rapidly and thoroughly dealt with. In matters with which he is not so conversant he is not very good at working into details. He has energy, good judgement and rapid decision, and is a clear thinker and writer. He is active and a good soldier, and has the power of exerting influence on others and getting good work out of them."[citation needed]Before leaving Staff College in 1897, he was promoted to Major and had also married Miss Mabel Chapman, the daughter of a Wiltshire landowner. In 1898, Allenby joined the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, then serving in Ireland as the Brigade-Major.

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