Major Francis Duncan Irvine, R.E.

Major
FRANCIS DUNCAN IRVINE
Royal Engineers
(1^st Infantry Brigade, Australian Expeditionary Force)

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, P.E., MinstRE
(October 2023)

Figure 1. Major Francis Duncan Irvine, R.E.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

Headquarters, 1^st Australian Brigade
Who died on 27 April 1915
Remembered with Honour
Lone Pine Memorial

2. FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Francis Duncan Irvine was born on 20 January 1875 in Waltain, Madras Presidency, India. He was the son of George Duncan Irvine, Indian Civil Service (Retired) of 45 Cathcart Road, South Kensington, London, S.W. and Emily Gertrudes Irvine, née Maguire.

Young Francis was thought to have attended Colvin School in Lucknow, India for 2 terms when it opened in 1888 and then entered Clifton College in Bristol in January 1889. His education then continued at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he graduated in 1895 to take a commission in the Royal Engineers.[2]

Francis Duncan Irvine was gazetted a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers from the Royal Military Academy on 15 March 1895. Following his commissioning he attended the School of Military Engineering (S.M.E.) at Chatham for further training as an engineer officer.

At the S.M.E. he continued his military training with courses in field fortifications, construction, surveying, telegraphy, electric lighting, submarine mining, photography, chemistry, military law and tactics. On 15 March 1898 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, while at Chatham.

In 1899, following his training at Chatham, he was posted to India to join the 2^nd (Queen Victoria’s Own) Madras Sappers and Miners. Military engineering in India was the responsibility of the Royal Engineers, the Indian Sappers and Miners and the Indian Pioneer Regiments. Units of these establishments were responsible for assisting the movement of friendly forces and impeding that of enemy forces, mostly in rugged terrain and under the most trying conditions of heat and cold. Their duties included road and bridge construction, water supply, construction of fortifications, camp construction, and the demolition of enemy defensive works, as well as other general engineering works. They marched and fought side by side with the infantry, cavalry and artillery, and suffered wounds and death at the hands of fanatical tribesmen on the frontiers of India. Their story is one of building and fighting under a blistering sun or on freezing mountain tops in order to help the Soldiers of the Queen maintain England's control over the far flung corners of the Empire.[3] Irvine would spend 13 years performing these duties.

The unit to which he was posted, the Corps of Madras Sappers and Miners, had been raised at Madras in 1780 as two companies. It was formed into a battalion known as the Madras Pioneer Battalion in 1793 and expanded to form the 1^st and 2^nd Battalions of Madras Pioneers in 1803. In 1831 the unit became the Corps of Madras Sappers and Miners and was redesignated the Queen's Own Corps of Madras Sappers and Miners in 1876. In 1903 while Lieutenant Irvine was serving with the unit it was redesignated the 2^nd Queen's Own Sappers and Miners and again redesignated the 2^nd Queen Victoria's Own Sappers and Miners before he left India.[4]

Lieutenant Irvine’s first action in the field took place in Waziristan in 1901. After the Waziristan campaign of 1894-1895, there were repeated Mahsud raids into British territory and a frustrated government, which seems to have exhausted the possibilities of negotiation and fines, decided to impose a full blockade of Mahsud territory in December 1900, stopping all trade and movement in an out of their tribal lands. Reinforcements were sent to frontier garrisons and two “moveable columns” were formed at Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan to enforce the blockade. Since the area is so devoid of resources, it was hoped that this would inflict major economic damage and would bring the Mahsuds to submission – but it failed to have any effect and raids continued. The government therefore decided on military action to enforce compliance and to exact fines and compensation for misbehaviour. For his participation in these actions, Irvine was awarded the India General Service Medal 1895 with clasp [WAZIRISTAN 1901-2].[5]

Figure 2. Uniforms (winter and summer) of the Madras Sappers and Miners, c. 1897.

On 1 April 1904, while still serving in India, Irvine was promoted to the rank of Captain.[6] He was on home leave in England on 23 October 1906 when he married Emily Marion McGann, daughter of Colonel Terrence McGann, Indian Medical Service, at The Oratory in Brompton, London. The actual name of the church is the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. Popularly but incorrectly known as "Brompton Oratory" it is the second-largest Catholic church in London, with a nave exceeding in width even that of St Paul's Cathedral (Anglican).[7] Irvine and his wife returned to India following their marriage and on 14 February 1910 they had a son born, Ian Robert Irvine, in Bangalore.

Irvine attended the Staff College at Quetta from 1910 to 1911 and successfully passed out to return to his unit in India. In the photograph below he is shown wearing his India General Service Medal.

By 2 April 1911 Captain Irvine was back with his unit in India.[8] He served with the 2^nd Madras Sappers and Miners at Bangalore and elsewhere in India until his posting to Australia in July 1913.[9] Although he was not aware of it at this time, this posting would ultimately result in his death within the next two years.

Why Irvine was sent to serve with the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) has not been discovered during this research. His British service papers were not found, but his Australian service papers have been located (see REFERENCES). He may have volunteered to serve with the A.I.F. or the British War Office may have decided that the Australians could use a man with his rank and experience on active service in India to assist the A.I.F. in preparing for service in the Great War.

On 8 July 1913 Captain Irvine was appointed for duty with the Australian Forces as a General Staff Officer (3^rd Grade). He initially served as a G.S.O. of the 2^nd Military District at Victoria Barracks in Sydney, New South Wales. On 15 August 1914 he was posted to the Headquarters of the 1^st Brigade, A.I.F. This appointment required him to submit to a medical examination to determine if he was fit for active service.[10] His medical record, dated 9 September 1914, shows that he was a man of small stature measuring 5 feet 7 inches in height and weighing only 146 pounds. Despite his small size he appeared to have a well-developed upper body with a normal chest measurement of 34 inches that he could fully expand to as much as 37 inches. His eyesight was rated 6/6 by the Snellen Visual Acuity Test.[11]

On 16 September 1914 Captain Irvine was recommended for posting to the 1^st Brigade Headquarters as the Brigade Major. This recommendation was approved by the District Commander on 19 September and he was appointed Brigade Major of the 1^st Infantry Brigade, A.I.F. under the command of Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin on 5 October.[12]

As the Brigade Major he acted as the Chief of Staff of the brigade. The position was most commonly held by a major, although the appointment was also held by captains. He was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section directly, and oversaw the two other branches, "A – Administration" and "Q – Quartermaster". Intentionally ranked lower than the lieutenant colonels commanding the brigade's combat battalions, his role was to expand on, detail and execute the intentions of the commanding brigadier. He also was the key personality who affected the health and happiness of the battalions. On active service he would be in most frequent contact with the front-line troops and was responsible for planning brigade operations.[13]

Figure 4. Original Officer Commanding and Staff of the 1^st Infantry Brigade.

The photograph above shows (left to right) Major Francis Duncan Irvine, Royal Engineers, Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin, 1^st Australian Infantry Brigade and Captain D.M. King, King’s Liverpool Regiment. This photograph was sourced by Julianne T. Ryan, courtesy of the Australian War Museum. Two of these men would be killed in action before the end of April 1915.

The 1^st Infantry Brigade Headquarters left Australia aboard H.M.A.T. 14 Euripides bound for Egypt where the brigade would undergo rigorous training for deployment at Gallipoli.

On 30 October 1914, perhaps while still out to sea en route to Egypt, Francis Duncan Irvine was appointed to the acting rank of Major in the Royal Engineers. Following about six months of training the 1^st Infantry Brigade, Irvine and his brigade headed for the Dardanelles.

At dawn on 25 April 1915 Australian soldiers landed at what is now called Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. For the vast majority of the 16,000 Australians and New Zealanders who landed on that day, it was their first experience of combat. By that evening, 2,000 of them had been killed or wounded.

The British had been trying to force their way through the narrow straits known as the Dardanelles to capture Constantinople and so relieve pressure on their Russian allies engaged with Ottoman forces in the Caucasus. Minefields and on-shore artillery batteries thwarted the early naval attempts to seize the strait and it was decided that troops would have to be landed on the peninsula to overcome Turkish defences.

British and French forces landed at Cape Helles on the southern tip of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), which included the 1^st 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th Australian Brigades along with the 1st New Zealand Brigade as well as artillery units from the British Indian Army, landed on the west coast in a series of waves. However, in the early morning darkness it is possible that they were beached one kilometer or so north of their planned objective in an area of steep, rugged terrain.

Once on the beach, many units became separated from one another as they began moving up the tangle of complex spurs and ravines in the darkness. Turkish resistance remained strong, and the Anzacs were subjected to devastating artillery bombardments.

By mid-morning Turkish reinforcements had arrived under Mustapha Kemal (later Kemal Ataturk, president of Turkey). Kemal’s orders to his men are said to have been: ‘I don’t order you to fight, I order you to die. In the time it takes us to die, other troops and commanders can come and take our places.’

The Anzac position became progressively more precarious as the Anzacs failed to secure their high-ground objectives. The Turks mounted a fierce counter-attack regaining much of the ground the Anzacs had taken.

That evening, Major-General William Bridges, commander of the 1st Australian Division, and Lieutenant-General Sir William Birdwood, commander of ANZAC, both advised General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, that the Allied force be withdrawn from the peninsula. After consultation with the Royal Navy, Hamilton decided against an evacuation, and ordered the troops to dig in. Falling back on improvised and shallow entrenchments, the Anzacs held on for a crucial first night. By that first evening 16,000 men had been landed but more than 2,000 had been killed or wounded.[14] Among the dead were Colonel MacLaurin and Major Irvine.

MacLaurin was the youngest of the three original brigade commanders of the 1st Division, and more than ten years younger than any of his four battalion commanders. As noted above, for a brigade major, he was given a British regular officer, Major Irvine of the Royal Engineers. MacLaurin's brigade was the last to come ashore at Anzac Cove. By this time a crisis was developing and Major General William Bridges was ordering units to fill gaps almost as soon as they arrived ashore.

During the afternoon of 27 April 1915, when a Turkish counterattack threatened, Major Irvine collected 200 stray men in Monash Valley and was about to send them forward when the news arrived that the need for them had passed. Irvine went up to Steele's Post, where he observed the positions. He was warned about Turkish snipers, but brushed off the warnings and was quoted as saying "It's my business to be shot at". A rather gallant thing to say, and perhaps said to impress the troops, but his business really was to act as Chief of Staff for the brigade commander and to do all possible to advance the brigade’s mission. Being too close to the front line was not his business and soon after saying what he did he was fatally wounded by a sniper.

Less than ten minutes later, MacLaurin was standing on the slopes of the ridge that now bears his name. Unaware of Irvine's fate, MacLaurin was in the act of warning soldiers to keep under cover when he too was shot dead, from the same point, possibly by the same Turkish sniper. Again, a case of a high ranking officer leading from the front instead of coordinating the actions of his troops. He in effect, left the brigade leaderless for some time, especially with his Brigade Major already dead.

MacLaurin was buried by his men near where he fell in a grave marked with a simple wooden cross. In 1919, his remains were moved to the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery, on the slopes of Braund's Hill. For his services at Gallipoli he was Mentioned in Despatches. He was also posthumously awarded the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Some weeks after his death, brigade commanders were upgraded from colonels to brigadier generals and MacLaurin was posthumously promoted to brigadier general.[15]

Major Irvine’s actions at Steel’s Post, which resulted in his death, received no Mention in Despatches or any other award. There also appears to have been some confusion regarding Irvine’s place and date of death. De Ruvigny names his place of death as Gaba Tepe, indicating that he was shot by a sniper in the firing line. A.I.F. Forms initially show his date of death as sometime between 25 and 28 April, perhaps indicating that he first was reported as missing in action or that his body could not be found and recovered. He supposedly was buried where he fell and his date of death was finally given as 27 April 1915, perhaps base on the testimony of an Australian soldier who saw him fall. He actually has no known grave, but his death is commemorated on the monument, Panel 12, at the Lone Pine Cemetery at Gallipoli, Turkey. Irvine was 40 years old when he died.

Figure 7. Panel 12 at the Lone Pine Memorial.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

Probate of Francis Duncan Irvine’s will took place in London on 17 July 1915 with his effects going to his father, George Duncan Irvine, I.C.S. (retired) in the amount of £1200, 6 shillings and 2 pence or about $146,000 US in 2023 currency. His personal effects were inventoried on 16 September 1915 and consisted of “1 leather trunk, locked, contents not known” and “1 tin trunk, contents not known.” No keys were initially available for either truck. One arm chair also was included in his effects. On 13 August 1915 the trunks were subsequently opened and the contents wrapped in parcels to be sent to Mrs. Irvine along with a detailed inventory.[16]

On 1 October 1915 the new Commanding Officer of the 1^st Infantry Brigade finally reported that Major Irvine had been killed in action on 27 April 1915.[17] The final cause of his death was reported to his wife on 9 March 1916, changing his status from missing to killed in action. What followed this information appears to be a claim by Mrs. Irvine that her husband was a Major at the time of this death, presumably for reasons of death benefits owed to her. The British War Office apparently contested this. The following letter was sent to Mrs. Irvine explaining the government’s position:

It is my painful duty to transmit herewith one form of Commission which had been issued by the British War Office covering the appointment of your husband the late Major F.F. Irvine, 1^st Infantry Brigade, as a temporary Captain in the Regular Forces of the British Army. This refers to his first appointment to Commission, and not to the later rank of Major. Will you kindly let me know whether same comes safely to hand by signing and returning the enclosed receipt form.

Apparently Mrs. Irvine continued to dispute this with the help of her father, Colonel McGann in Bangalore, India. Each time she received the same reply written above and apparently never received satisfaction.

On 27 February 1922 Mrs. Irvine received her husband’s campaign medals from the Australian government consisting of the 1914-15 Star (No. 24831), the British War Medal (No. 27999) and the Victory Medal (No. 2800).[18]

Figure 8. The Great War Medal Index Card of Major Francis Duncan Irvine, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

The British War Office Medal Index Card above shows clearly that Irvine was carried as a Major on the R.E. rolls and that he was authorized the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. What is not known is whether he received a double issue of these medals, one from the British and one from the Australians. He is shown as having served at Gallipoli, but his date of death is incorrectly shown as 1 May 1915 and not 27 April 1915.

Figure 9. Irvine’s Australian M.I.C.
(Image from Irvine’s A.I.F. Transfer Papers)

The image above was extracted from Irvine’s A.I.F. Transfer Papers and show the issuing of the numbered medals by the Australian government.

Would Major Irvine have survived the war if he had remained serving with the Royal Engineers on the Western Front? Obviously there is no way to answer that question with any certainty. Senior engineer officers in Field Companies normally did survive, but many did not. However, posting him to an Infantry unit, and certainly to an Australian unit going to Gallipoli, vastly increased the possibility of his being severely wounded or killed, as was the case. In addition, his personality seemed to indicate that he might have been a risk-taker; hence, his comment about being in the forward line “to be shot at.” His rather dashing handle-bar mustache appears to be another sign of his desire to stand out.

Additionally, having to serve under some of the less-than competent general officers of the A.I.F. did not bode well for his survival. The ANZAC performance at Gallipoli, although executed by very brave Australians and New Zealanders, has become to be recognized as a complete disaster based on decisions made by senior commanders with little combat experience. The story of the Light Horse at Gallipoli immediately comes to mind.

But Irvine was brave, maybe too brave, and he did his best as he saw his duty. His memory certainly should be honored and I hope that this story of his service does just that.

Figure 12. Major Francis Duncan Irvine, Royal Engineers.
As the Brigade Major of the 1^st Australian Infantry Brigade.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

Irvine is in the fourth row up, far left side.
(Image courtesy of the Great War Forum and K. Lindsay)

4.Duckers, P. Waziristan 1901-02 : the Tonnochy Raid.

[1] Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial.

[2] De Ruvigny Roll of Honour.

[3] De Santis, 2000.

[6] Although from future correspondence in his Australia records it appears that this promotion was to Temporary Captain.

[7] The London Oratory.

[8] 1911 Census of England and Wales.

[9] De Ruvigny Roll of Honour.

[10] C.M. Form A. 22.

[11] Visual acuity is measured using the Snellen scale. A Snellen test usually consists of a number of rows of letters which get smaller as one reads down the chart. On the Snellen scale, normal visual acuity is called 6 / 6, which corresponds to the bottom or second bottom line of the chart.

[12] De Ruvigny Roll of Honour and C.M. Form A. 22.

[13] Wikipedia: Brigade Major.

[16] Probate Calendar and Inventory Forms.

[17] Field Service Report.

[18] Apparently the Australian-issued medals were numbered.


Figure 10. Major Irvine’sIndia General Service Medal, 1895.(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)	Figure 11. The 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal(Image from the author’s collection)NOTE: These three medals are not Major Irvine’s. They are included here for illustrative purposes only.