Eric Archibald ("Fuzzy" at Charterhouse) McNair, VC

• Matriculated: 1913

• Born: 16 June 1894

• Died: 12 August 1918

• Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment attached to GHQ General Staff

• Grave/Memorial: Staglieno Cemetery: I.B.32

Family background

b. 16 June 1894, the youngest of the five children of George Burgh McNair (b. 1852 in Mohnghyr, Bengal, d. 1932 in Calcutta (now Kolkata)) and Isabella Frederica McNair (née Gow-Smith) (b. 1852 in Jessore, West Bengal, d. 1940 in Calcutta) (m. in Kensington in 1882). Although married in London, his parents lived at 5 Harington Street, Calcutta (now Ho Chi Min Sarani, Kolkata), India, where it seems likely the children were born. When in the Army he gave his permanent address as 17 St Matthew’s Gardens, St Leonards, Sussex. This was the home of Grace Caroline Nunn (née Clayton; 1844–1925), the widow of a solicitor and the daughter of Major General Henry Clayton (c.1806–1869), Bengal Cavalry. Grace Clayton was born in Mussoorie, Bengal, and was presumably a friend of the McNair family.

Parents and antecedents

McNair’s paternal great-grandfather Robert McNair (b. 1803 in Glasgow, d. 1857 in Madras, India) was a member of the Star of Hope Masonic Lodge in Agra and gave his profession as military. Robert McNair married twice. His first wife, Catherine, née More (1814–35; m. 1834) died the year after their marriage, having given birth to a daughter. He married his second wife, Harriet Caroline Garstin (1818–86), in Calcutta in 1837, at which time he was a Captain in the 73rd Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry. They had seven children. However, McNair’s grandfather, William Nathaniel McNair (1826–59), was apparently born in Futtehghur on 9 January 1826, before Robert McNair was married, and there is a suggestion that his mother may have been Indian. Robert McNair was obviously proficient in at least one Indian language, as in 1836 he was appointed quartermaster and interpreter of the 73rd Regiment. From the Indian Army List he was promoted Major in the 73rd Regiment c.1850 and by 1855 Lieutenant-Colonel. The Regiment was stationed in Dacca at the time of India’s First War of Independence and was one of the native regiments that mutinied.

We have found little about McNair’s grandfather except that he married Ann Smith (b. 1830) in Calcutta in 1848; they had two children. The younger was John Ward McNair (b. 1855 in Mohnghyr, Bengal, d. 1878 in Lahore). The older son was McNair’s father, who became a prominent solicitor practising in Calcutta. In his book The Sheriffs of Fort William (a Raj-era building in the centre of Calcutta; in 1756 its guardroom became the Black Hole of Calcutta), Charles Moore wrote:

If the character and the abilities of a man’s clients be taken as a test of his own then [George Burgh] McNair cannot be refused a place at the top of his profession for, besides such men as heads of firms and managers and agents of banks, his clients include that astute and commercially versatile gentleman, Mr. J.C. Galstaun […] engaged in a hundred commercial schemes and projects, he employs many attorneys in many suits. But when the cause is sufficiently important and its issue doubtful, it is always to the subject of our present discussion that he goes to have his doubts resolved and his interests safeguarded by the undoubted ability and legal acumen of McNair.

He goes on to say that he was a Colonel in the Calcutta Light Horse and legal adviser to half the men in his command. George McNair was also prominent in the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. Galstaun was a larger than life character and is described thus:

Johannes Carapiet Galstaun, O.B.E. This flamboyant Armenian multimillionaire’s career as a racer, racehorse owner, rider, real estate tycoon, builder, exporter and philanthropist had made him a living legend in Calcutta. At one time, he owned as many as a hundred racehorses. He is credited with having built about three hundred and fifty houses and having developed and beautified large areas of central and south Calcutta. Harrington Mansions, Galstaun Mansions (renamed Queen’s Mansions), Galstaun Park (the Nizam’s Palace) were all his.

McNair’s maternal grandfather was George Macallan Gow-Smith (1817–57), who in 1843 married the widowed Sarah Grace Hornett (née Driver) (1814–75); they had six children. He was an indigo planter at Ramnaghur Factory, Jessore, and filed for bankruptcy on 18 February 1856.

Siblings and their families

Brother of:

(1) Robert Arthur George (born 1883, died in infancy);

(2) Frederica Annie Lillian (1884–1973); married (1906) Oswald Alan Geoghegan (1879–1961); two children;

(3) Violet Isabel (1885–86);

(4) George Douglas 1887–1968; married (1914) Primrose Garth (1891–1968); at least two children.

Oswald Alan Geoghegan was born in Dublin, the son of an officer in the Indian Army. He was first commissioned in the South Staffordshire Regiment but was transferred to the Indian Staff Corps and finally to the Indian Army Supply and Transport Corps. In 1912 he was awarded the India General Service Medal 1908 with clasp, inscribed “Arbor 1911–12”, and during World War One he served in Aden. He retired in 1933 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the family moved to England.

George Douglas McNair took his Law finals from Middle Temple in 1909. In 1916 he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers and promoted Lieutenant the following year. He returned to India and practised as a barrister in Calcutta, where in 1934 he was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Judicature of Calcutta. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1943 New Year Honours. He retired as a High Court Judge in 1945 and left India, settling in Devon. In 1954 he was made Deputy Chairman of the Court of Quarter Sessions in the County of Devon, and in 1956 Chairman. He retired in 1958.

Education

McNair followed his brother to Branksome Preparatory School in Godalming, Surrey, from c.1903 to 1907 (now a leading independent school for girls in Ontario, Canada, that was founded in 1903). The school received a half-day holiday when his VC was announced. From there he went to school at nearby Charterhouse from 1907 to 1913, again where his brother had preceded him and where he was a contemporary of L.L. de B. Smith. He was a member of Lockites House, he played in the 1st football XI and 3rd XI in cricket, was a member of the Officers’ Training Corps for three-and-a-half years, and became Head of School in his final year. He was Vice-President of the Debating Society, Athletics Editor of the Carthusian (the school magazine), Treasurer of the Athletics Committee, and a member of the Lawn Tennis Committee and of the Fire Brigade.

He matriculated at Magdalen as a Classical Demy on 14 October 1913, having taken Responsions in Hilary Term 1910. He took his First Public Examination in Hilary Term 1914, but sat no more examinations after that and left without a degree. When he was awarded the VC on 31 March 1916 “for a most gallant action”, President Warren wrote of him:

Mr McNair is a modest and popular fellow with a good sense of humour, who probably would be amused to see himself described, as he has been in the papers, not only as conspicuously brave, but as a “prominent classical man at Oxford.” He will, however, perhaps admit that a well-known classical quotation which he may have heard from Mr. Fletcher [probably C.R.L. Fletcher, Tutor in Modern History, who resigned his Fellowship in 1906, several years before McNair arrived at Magdalen, but may still have been teaching], or learnt from Mr. Page’s [the classicist Thomas Ethelbert Page, CH (1850–1936), a master at Charterhouse during McNair’s time] well-known Horace [Odes III.3], is not inappropriate to his situation. Perhaps he repeated it to himself as he went up, or came down [see the VC citation] –

Si fractus illabatur orbis

Impavidum ferient ruinae.

Anyhow we will repeat it for him.

War service

While at Oxford McNair (at 5 foot 8 inches tall) was in the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps. He applied for a Temporary Commission on 5 September 1914 and was made a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment (London Gazette, no. 28,932, 9 October 1914, p. 8,044). In December 1915 he was gazetted Temporary Lieutenant from a Reserve Battalion, with seniority from 22 December 1914.

Before McNair joined it in France, the 9th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment crossed to France on the paddle steamer SS La Marguerite (1894; broken up in 1925) on 31 August 1915, landing at Le Havre the following day and then making its way slowly to Beuvry, arriving at 02.00 hours on 25 September, the first day of the Battle of Loos. At 10.00 the men marched to Sailly Les Bourses, where they were informed that they had been transferred to the 9th Division and were to proceed via Vermelles to the trenches, arriving at 12.30. An attack had been carried out by the Highland Brigade and at 21.30 they were ordered to advance on Fosse 8, part of the Hohenzollern Redoubt taken by the Highlanders, and occupy the trenches there. During the night of the 25th September 1915 and the whole of the 26th, and until the evening of the 27th when they were relieved by the 85th Brigade, they were under constant enemy attack. This was the Regiment’s first experience of the trenches and of active warfare and the War Diary of the Regiment complains: “It is regretted that before being launched into such a desperate action steps had not been taken to accustom the men to war conditions”. The Batallion lost 19 officers and 362 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. It rested for several days at Herzeele, then moved north-east to Proven near Ypres.

According to his Service Medal and Award Roll, McNair landed in France on 8 October 1915, and it is likely that he was one of the eight officers who joined the 9th (Service) Battalion, the Royal Sussex Regiment, from the 10th Battalion on 14 October to replace the losses incurred at the Battle of Loos. On the same day the Battalion moved into the “Canal Bank” trenches on the Ypres canal. When they were relieved they went to Rosenhill Camp, west-south-west of Ypres. For the next six weeks they alternated five days in the trenches around Ypres and five days at Rosenhill Camp. Nothing significant happened but on each tour one or two men were killed or wounded by sniper fire or shells. On 24 November they set off for “Divisional Rest” at Houlle, where they cleaned up, re-equipped, trained, route-marched and went on Voluntary Church Parades. This lasted until 7 January, when they went first by train and then marching to Camp C near Poperinghe, and from there they moved closer to the front to the “Belgian Chateau”. On 18 January they were again in the Ypres trenches, near Sanctuary Wood with their headquarters at Zouave Wood just south of Hooge. Again they alternated days in the trenches with days at camp until they moved a short distance to Camp F, where they had baths before being billeted in “Ypres Cellars” and spending further periods in the trenches near Hooge.

In February 1916, in order to divert attention from the impending attack at Verdun, the German army started a diversionary offensive in the north. On 14 February when the 9th Battalion was in the trenches between Sanctuary Wood and Hooge they were subjected to a heavy bombardment and to the blowing of several small mines before the infantry attacked. The Battalion War Diary described the action thus:

Wet. A considerable amount of shelling took place all through the day and at 5.45 p.m. the enemy blew up two mines on our front line. These were immediately seized by B and D Coys. And a German attack was repulsed. A platoon of D Company was completely buried alive with 2nd Lt. Hill. B Coy also suffered heavily. The C.O. showed remarkable gallantry and coolness and gave 3 cheers for the Germans when they attacked. The night was spent digging themselves in on the craters. 2nd Lt De Wolf was killed, 2nd Lts. Shaw and Goad were wounded. Capt. Cerely wounded at duty.

There is a hand-written note in the margin of the copy of the diary typed after the event: “NOTE; The day McNair got his V.C. Hooghe [sic]”. This is the first mention of McNair in the War Diary. The Battalion was relieved the following day, having suffered two officers killed, three wounded and 134 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. McNair’s role in this engagement is spelt out better in the citation for his VC:

For most conspicuous bravery. When the enemy exploded a mine, Lieutenant McNair and many men of two platoons were hoisted into the air, and many men were buried. But, though much shaken, he at once organized a party with a machine-gun to man the near edge of the crater and opened rapid fire on a large party of the enemy, who were advancing. The enemy were driven back, leaving many dead. Lieutenant McNair then ran back for reinforcements, sent to another unit for bombs, ammunition, and tools, to replace those buried. The communication trench being blocked, he went across the open under heavy fire and led up the reinforcements the same way. Prompt and plucky action and example undoubtedly saved the battalion. (London Gazette, no. 29,527, 30 March 1916, p. 3,409)

On 7 March 1916 McNair was promoted to Temporary Captain (London Gazette, no. 29,499, 7 March 1916, p. 2,465) and at about the same time the Battalion moved south to the trenches at Red Lodge near Ploegsteert Wood and was then in and out of the trenches until 17 June, when it moved in “motor lorries” to St Jans Cappel. On 15 April the War Diary mentions McNair for the first time; there was an alarm, which turned out not to be serious, but all leave was stopped and “Capt. McNair V.C. who was to have gone to England to be decorated could not go.” (His VC was eventually conferred by the King at Buckingham Palace on 20 May 1916.) The Battalion moved a few miles south to Locre (Loker) and were again in and out of the trenches, with no major engagements, although concerned over gas attacks, both from the Germans and those they delivered themselves. From 20 to 24 July with brief intervals for training en route the Battalion moved by bus, train and on the march to Montagne, about seven miles south of Amiens, and after some days training the men marched to Sailly le Sec on the Somme east of Amiens and from there to Happy Valley, where on 3 August they were in Reserve.

On 8 August they moved to the Citadel in Amiens, and for the next week they were in a defensive position in this area carrying out salvage work and training. They lost some men to shells. On the night of 17 August they moved up to Briquetterie in preparation for the attack on Guillemont. Piecemeal attacks on Guillemont had failed and so a major attack involving both British and French troops was planned for 18 August. The 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment led that attack at 2.45 p.m. and the 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex, were to follow up at 5 a.m. on 19 August. Some units of the Northamptonshire Regiment gained a foothold in the German trenches and were later reinforced by men from A and B Companies of 9th Royal Sussex. But the attack was brought to a halt and Guillemont was not taken until early September. Both commanders of the companies which reinforced the Northamptons, McIvor and McNair, were wounded in the attack and both McNair’s subalterns, Prince and Bright, were killed. The Battalion lost three officers killed and four wounded and 179 other ranks killed, wounded or missing.

McNair’s wounds at Guillemont were caused by a bullet in the shoulder and back: the bullet struck 2 inches below the collar-bone, passed through the lung, and emerged out of his back. The shock made him jumpy and intolerant of noise. He was treated at No. 2 Stationary Hospital at Abbeville on 22 August 1916, and he embarked from Le Havre for Southampton on 3 September 1916 and from there to the London Hospital, Whitechapel. On 27 September 1916 he was given six months’ leave until March 1917, some of which he spent with his family in India. See A.C.P. Mackworth’s letter to Warren of 12 October 1916 which says that McNair is “just off to India for a month’s leave” (PR 32/C/3/828). His wounds were such that he was unfit for further active service but, seemingly under the influence of Edward, Prince of Wales, who was a contemporary of McNair’s at Magdalen, he was deemed fit on 30 April 1917 to serve as a staff officer. While on a staff course at Clare College, Cambridge, he was admitted to hospital at the 1st Eastern General Hospital, Cambridge, with ulceration of the rectum, but returned to his unit on 29 June 1917.

In September 1917 he was appointed General Staff Officer (Grade 3) on the General Staff (London Gazette, no. 30,279, 11 September 1917, p. 9,413) and on 18 April 1918 he was appointed to the General Staff of the British Expeditionary Force, as part of the joint Franco-British Italian Expeditionary Force sent to Italy in October 1917 to prevent further collapse of the Italian front after the Battle of Caporetto (24 October–19 November 1917). This was commanded by Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal) Lord Cavan (Frederick Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan, KP, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DL (1865–1946), from 10 March 1918. On 23 June 1918 McNair fell seriously ill with chronic dysentery and was taken to 24 Casualty Clearing Station at Montecchio Precalcino, near Vincenza. On 25 June he was transferred to No. 11 General Hospital and died on 12 August 1918 of amoebic dysentery contracted while on active service, aged 24.

McNair’s death “by wounds” reached C.C.J. Webb on 20 August 1918 – who noted the “sad news” in his diary. He is buried in Staglieno Cemetery, Genoa, Grave I.B.32, and is commemorated on the memorial in St Columba’s Church, Albert Street, Oxford (originally the Presbyterian Chaplaincy that was founded in 1908; the Church was dedicated in 1915); on the World War One panels of the Royal Sussex Regiment, Chapel of St George, Chichester Cathedral, Sussex; in St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Godalming, Surrey (name on choir stall); on the War Memorial, Charterhouse, Godalming, Surrey; on the Masonic roll of honour, Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London; and on the Victoria Cross Commemorative Paving Stone, National Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire. He left £510 11s.

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

Special acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Sue Fisher Pascall, who has covered similar ground, for amplifying some of the material presented in her monograph on McNair (see below), and for reading our first draft and making helpful comments.

Printed sources: 

[Thomas Herbert Warren], The Oxford Magazine, reprinted in ‘Editorial’, The Carthusian, 11, no. 333 (June 1916), pp. 601–2.

[Anon.], ‘The Roll of Honour. Fallen Officers. Biographical Notes’, The Morning Post, no. 45,641 (29 August 1918), p. 2.

[Anon.], ‘The Late Capt. Eric Archibald McNair (V.C.), Royal Sussex Regt.’, The Carthusian, 12, no. 404 (October 1918), p. 232.

Roger Hutchins, ‘Capt. Eric Archibald McNair, V.C. (1916)’, Magdalen College Record (2004), pp. 112–18.

Charles Moore, The Sheriffs of Fort William, 2nd edition (Calcutta and Simla: Thacker, Spinks and Co., 1926), pp. 267–8.

Archival sources:

OUA: UR 2/1/84.

OUA(DWM): C.C.J. Webb, Diaries, MS. Eng. misc. e. 1163.

WO339/24602.

Online sources: 

Wikipedia, ‘Batle of Loos’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Loos (accessed 12 September 2018).

Wikipedia, ‘Battle of Guillemont’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guillemont (accessed 12 September 2018).

Sue Fisher-Pascall, ‘Captain Eric Archibald McNair, VC 1894–1918’, published online by West Sussex County Council (2013) in West Sussex & the Great War Project, West Sussex Past: http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/learning-resources/LR/eric_archibald_mcnair_vc_29882.pdf?docid=1756ddc4-429f-4d5e-8a03-88092d415afc&version=-1 (accessed 9 March 2020).