Berkeley Vincent


Sir Berkeley Vincent, was a British Army officer and sportsman.

Military career

Born the son of Colonel Arthur Hare Vincent and Elizabeth Rose Manson and educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Vincent was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 24 July 1891. He was promoted to lieutenant on 24 July 1894 and to captain on 13 February 1900. He served with the China Expeditionary Force in late 1900 and then in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Following the end of the war, Vincent left Point Natal for India on the SS Ionian in October 1902 with other officers and men of the J Battery Royal Horse Artillery, and after arrival in Bombay, was stationed in Meerut, Bengal Presidency. In 1903, Vincent was sent to Tokyo to learn Japanese: he served as British military attaché with the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War and, from 1 March 1904, was attached to the 2nd Division of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria.
Vincent was a protégé of Ian Hamilton, also an observer in the Russo-Japanese War. Vincent attended Staff College, Camberley. The then Commandant, Wilson, was sceptical of Berkeley's claims that Japanese morale had enabled their infantry to overcome Russian defensive firepower. He was promoted to major in the 6th Dragoons in 1908. In 1911, when Vincent learned that he was to leave his job, and was shown General Haig's critical report on him, he availed himself of his right to Appeal to the King, under Section 42 of the Army Act, claiming unfair dismissal.
He served in World War I as a General Staff Officer at Headquarters Indian Corps and then transferred to the 37th Division. Appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1916, he took part in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Ancre. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel in January 1917, he became Commander of the 35th Infantry Brigade. He took part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917, when he was buried alive, and the subsequent retreat, when he was gassed. He also took part in the attack on the Hindenburg Line.
After the war, he became commanding officer of the 6th Dragoons. He went on to be Commander of the British Forces in Iraq in 1922 and retired in 1924.

Honours