FREMONT'S PEAK 



3340 



FRENCH 



slavery sentiments angered the 

 Southern states and he was de- 

 feated by Buchanan. In the Civil 

 War, 1861, he was major-general in 

 command of the W. division at St. 

 Louis. The rly. crisis of 1873 

 ruined him financially, but he was 

 governor of the territory of Arizona, 

 1878-82. He died in* New York, 

 July 13, 1890. 



Fremont's Peak. Mountain of 

 the Rocky Mts., U.S.A. In Wyo- 

 ming, it is the highest point in the 



Wind River Mts., being 13,790 ft. 

 high. It was ascended in 1842 by 

 John C. Fremont, hence its name. 

 Fremont's Pass is in Colorado in 

 the Rocky Mts. It is 11,300 ft. high. 

 French. River of Ontario, 

 Canada. It has its source in Lake 

 Nipissing, and flows nearly due W. 

 to Georgian Bay, Huron Lake. Its 

 length is 60 m., and it forms part 

 of a projected scheme to connect 

 this lake with the St. Lawrence 

 river. See Georgian Bay Canal. 



J. D. P. FRENCH: EARL OF YPRES 



Sir W. Beach Thomas. K.B.E., Special Correspondent of The Daily Mail 



This is one of the biographies of the military leaders in the Great 



War. See also Foch , Haig ; Joffre ; Pttain ; Raivlinson ; Mons ; 



Ypres, and others of French's battles ; also War, Great 



John Denton Pinkstone French 

 was born at Ripple, Kent, Sept. 28, 

 1852, the only son of Captain 

 French, R.N., member of a well- 

 known Irish family, and of Mar- 

 garet, daughter of William Eccles. 

 At the age of 14 he entered the 

 Britannia, but the navy did not 

 appeal to him, and after four 

 years as cadet and midshipman 

 he left to join the militia ; and in 

 1874 obtained a commission in 

 the 8th Hussars, but soon trans- 

 ferred to the 19th. He became cap- 

 tain in 1880, in which year he mar- 

 ried Eleanora AnnaSelby-Lowndcs. 

 He received his majority in 1883. 



In 1884 French saw active ser- 

 vice for the first time. Proceeding 

 to Egypt, he was attached to the 

 force that was to relieve Gordon, 

 started with the desert column in 

 Dec., 1884, fought at Abu Klea, 

 pushed through the Dervish army 

 at Metemma ; and after the death 

 of Gordon endured the painful re- 

 treat across the Bayuda desert, 

 Feb. -Mar., 1885. Promotion came 

 steadily. He was lieutenant-col- 

 onel in 1885, and in 1889 obtained 

 command of the 19th Hussars, 

 which he left after four years to 

 take up duties as assistant adju- 

 tant-general of cavalry. In 1897 

 he was given command of the 2nd 

 cavalry brigade at Aldershot and 

 was transferred in 1899 as tem- 

 porary major-general to the com- 

 mand of the first cavalry brigade. 

 , In the South African War French 

 was given the command of the 

 cavalry division in Natal with the 

 full rank of major-general, and was 

 one of the few officers who made a 

 name in the war. In one of the 

 earliest actions he drove the Boers 

 from the station at Elandslaagte 

 and fought the successful battle of 

 that name. After several cavalry 

 actions he saw that Ladysmith 

 would be surrounded, and escaped 

 by the last train. Thr6ugh a great 

 part of the war he kept the Orange 

 Free State troops at bay in their 



attempt to invade Cape Colony, 

 and did wonders with a handful of 

 troops and a few guns. As soon as 



Lord Roberts came out he gave 

 French 5,000 men for the relief 

 of Kimberley, which the force 

 entered, after perhaps the most 

 romantic gallop of the war. From 

 Kimberley he galloped again with a 

 tired remnant to cut off Cronje as 

 he escaped from Paardeberg. He 

 commanded the cavalry in the 

 operations that ended in the cap- 

 ture of Bloemfontein and Pretoria, 



and the left whig in the battles east 

 of Pretoria, June 10-12, 1900, and 

 was in charge of the operations in 

 the eastern Transvaal until the 

 war ended in 1902. 



French received a K.C.B. and 

 K.C.M.G., and in Sept., 1902, was 

 promoted to the rank of lieutenant- 

 general with the Aldershot com- 

 mand, which he retained till 1907. 

 He became known as a worker who 

 spared neither himself nor his men. 

 At the age of 55 he became full 

 general, and in Dec., 1907, suc- 

 ceeded the duke of Connaught as 

 inspector-general. He became 

 A.D.C. to the king in 1911, and in 

 March, 1912, succeeded Sir William 

 Nicholson as chief of the imperial 

 general staff, an appointment that 

 caused some comment on the 

 ground that General French, like 

 his predecessor, had not been 

 through the staff college. In 1913 

 ho was made field-marshal. His 

 reputation had grown even on the 

 Continent, where he had repeatedly 

 studied military operations. 

 The Expeditionary Force 



French's career seemed to end in 

 1914, when he resigned, in conse- 

 quence of the Government's action 

 over the resignation of British 

 officers at the Curragh Camp in 

 connexion with the trouble in 

 Ulster. On the first hint of the 

 German threat, however, he was 

 selected to lead the expeditionary 

 force. Embarking with his staff on 

 Aug. 14, he reached his own H.Q. j 

 at Le Gateau on Aug. 17. On Aug. 

 23 he was in contact with the 

 enemy, the battle of Mons was 

 fought, and the famous retreat 

 began. It ceased on Sept. 5, and on 

 Sept. 7 French ordered the advance 

 across the Grand Morin river. The 

 pursuit to the Aisne began and the 

 armies there became static. 



On Sept. 16 French deliberately 

 came to the decision that frontal 

 attack was hopeless, and began 

 to urge the march to Belgium, 

 as he wanted to prevent the 

 Germans from capturing the 

 Channel ports. His views slowly 

 prevailed, though not in their 

 entirety, and the terrible battle 

 of Ypres opened on Oct. 10, 

 ending successfully on Nov. 21. 

 when the British troops defeated 

 the German attempt to capture 

 the salient. All this time and 

 up to the close of the battle of 

 Festubert in May, 1915, French 

 had urged the supply of more and 

 more ammunition, especially high 

 explosive shells. He recorded the 

 facts in his rather controversial 

 autobiographical book entitled 

 " 1914." He saw the battle from a 

 ruined tower, and was so over- 

 whelmed by the contrast of ammu- 

 nition supply of the contending 



