Lieutenant Colonel
Charles à Court Repington (1858 – May 25, 1925),
CMGThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, was a British Army officer and
war correspondentA war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
.
Biography
Charles Repington was born at
HeytesburyHeytesbury is a village in Wiltshire, England, in the Wylye Valley, about three miles south of Warminster.-History:...
,
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
in 1858, where his father was a
Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament. His family name was à Court; in his memoirs, Repington wrote: "The à Courts are Wiltshire folk, and in old days represented
HeytesburyHeytesbury is a village in Wiltshire, England, in the Wylye Valley, about three miles south of Warminster.-History:...
in Parliament... The name of Repington, under the terms of an old will, was assumed by all the à Courts in turn as they succeeded to the
Amington HallAmington Hall is an early 19th century former country house at Amington, Tamworth. Staffordshire which has been converted into residential apartments. It is a Grade II* listed building.The manor of Amington was anciently owned by the Clinton family...
Estate, and I followed the rule when my father died in 1903."
Educated at
EtonEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and
SandhurstThe Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
, his military career began with service in the Rifle Brigade of the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in 1878. After serving in
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Burma, and
SudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, he entered the
Staff CollegeStaff colleges train military officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career...
at
CamberleyCamberley is a town in Surrey, England, situated 31 miles southwest of central London, in the corridor between the M3 and M4 motorways. The town lies close to the borders of both Hampshire and Berkshire; the boundaries intersect on the western edge of the town where all three counties...
, where his classmates included Herbert Plumer and
Horace Smith-DorrienGeneral Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien GCB, GCMG, DSO, ADC was a British soldier and commander of the British II Corps and Second Army of the BEF during World War I.-Early life and career:...
. On graduation, he served as a
military attachéA military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and
the HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, following which he served as a staff officer during the
Boer WarThe Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. What appeared to be a promising career was cut short during a posting to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1902.
Repington had an affair with the wife of a British official, which became public, and he was reprimanded by senior military authorities. However, during the divorce proceedings, it was revealed that Repington had ignored warnings about his behaviour and had continued the affair. Repington was forced to resign his commission.
On returning to London, he took a position as a military correspondent with the
Morning PostThe Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...
from 1902–1904, and
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
from 1904-1918. His coverage as a
war correspondentA war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
in the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904-1905 later appeared in book form as
The War in the Far East. "Repington was a firm advocate of a strong national army (at the expense of the navy, much to the annoyance of Admiral Fisher). His journalism therefore tended to be geared towards propounding his belief in a firm national defensive policy."
During
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he relied on his contacts in the British Army and the
War OfficeThe War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
for his information, and through his friendship with the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir
John FrenchField Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, ADC, PC , known as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a British and Anglo-Irish officer...
, Repington was able visit the
Western FrontWestern Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the east and the Allies to the west...
in November 1914, at a time when most rival war correspondents were banned from France. During this visit, which occurred near the time of a major offensive at
ArtoisArtois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...
, Sir John French, meantioned a shortage of artillery ammunition as the reason for the failure of the previous British attack at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. Repington made the most of his private conversation, and the appearance his article in
The Daily Mail, resulted in a political scandal leading to the forced resignation of both Sir John French and the
War MinisterThe position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
,
Lord KitchenerField Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
. Repington now had growing influence over military policy through the newspapers, but was banned from visiting the Western Front again until March 1916.
Repington resigned from
The Times in January 1918 due to a dispute with its owner, Lord Radcliffe over the conduct of the war, and returned to
The Morning Post; not long afterwards, he was found guilty under the Defence of the Realm Act of disclosing secret information in one of
The Morning Post articles and was fined.
After the end of World War I, Repington joined the staff of the
Daily Telegraph and subsequently published numerous books. These works, including
The First World War in 1920 and
After the War in 1922 were bestsellers, but cost Repington friendships for his apparent willingness to report what they considered to be private conversations.
Repington died on May 25, 1925 in
HoveHove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Honours
- Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, Companion
- Order of Leopold (Belgium), Commander
- Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(France), Officer
Selected works
Repington wrote several books, including