| 词条 | John Norton-Griffiths |
| 释义 |
|honorific_prefix= Lieutenant-Colonel Sir |name=John Norton-Griffiths |honorific_suffix= Bt |birth_date={{birth date|1871|7|13|df=y}} |death_date={{death date and age|1930|9|27|1871|7|13|df=y}} |birth_place=Somerset, England, UK |death_place= near Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt |placeofburial=Mickleham Church, Surrey |image=SirJohnNortonGriffiths.jpg |image_size=200 |caption=John Norton-Griffiths |nickname= "Empire Jack" or "Hell-fire Jack" |allegiance={{flag|United Kingdom}} |serviceyears= |rank= Lieutenant Colonel |branch= |commands= |unit= |battles={{unbulleted list | Second Matabele War | Second Boer War | First World War}} |awards={{unbulleted list| Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath | Distinguished Service Order}} |laterwork=Member of Parliament, Director of Arsenal Football Club, founding member of the Royal British Legion }}Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Norton-Griffiths, 1st Baronet, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|DSO}} (13 July 1871 – 27 September 1930) was an engineer, British Army officer during the Second Boer War and the First World War, and a Member of Parliament. A colourful figure in his day, known as "Empire Jack", he was also the grandfather of Jeremy Thorpe, a leading British politician. [1] Early lifeJohn Norton-Griffiths was born John Griffiths in Somerset on 13 July 1871. He was the son of John Griffiths (1825-1891), a building contractor initially of Brecon (later of London),[1] at the time of his son's birth clerk of works at St Audries Manor Estate, West Quantoxhead.[3] He had an unsettled youth and left home at the age of 17.[2] After a generally wasted education he spent a year, in 1887–1888, as a trooper with the Life Guards.[3] before travelling to the colony of Natal[4] and shortly on to Transvaal, where he worked as a 'sub-manager' at a gold mine at the age of 17.[4] Military career in AfricaIn 1896 on the outbreak of the Second Matabele War he joined Lieut.-Colonel Edwin Alderson's Mashonaland Field Force, then in 1897 was commissioned into the British South Africa Police.[4][3] In the Second Boer War, he served briefly with Brabant's Horse, then as Captain Adjutant to Lord Roberts' bodyguard. Marriage and familyIn 1901, Norton-Griffiths married Gwladys, daughter of Thomas Wood, a distillery owner (Browning, Wood & Fox).[1][5] Together they had four children:
Sir John was a keen supporter of Liverpool F.C. and was a director of Arsenal F.C. between 1928 and 1930.[2] Engineer and MPNorton-Griffiths was awarded contracts to carry out major engineering projects in Africa and South America.[8] These included work on the first 197 km of the Benguela Railway in Angola between 1903 and 1908. He was elected to Parliament in 1910 and was until 1918 the Conservative Party's MP for Wednesbury in Staffordshire. From 1918 until 1924 he was the Conservative MP for Wandsworth Central in London. First World WarIn 1914 at the start of the First World War, Norton-Griffiths raised the 2nd King Edward's Horse at his own expense and was commissioned major in the regiment.[9] Using the experience from a successful engineering career, Norton-Griffiths built many fortifications for the Entente on the Western Front. An enigmatic figure, Norton-Griffiths took to touring the trenches in a battered Rolls-Royce loaded with crates of fine wines. Tunneling companiesIn early December 1914, Norton-Griffiths wrote to the War Office that his tunnelling workers could be useful for the war effort, but his letter was not acted upon.[10] However, on 20 December 1914, German sappers placed eight mines beneath the positions of an Indian Brigade in Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée. The detonation and follow-up attack led to the loss of 800 men,[11][12] and following further attacks, it was evident by January 1915 that the Germans were mining to a planned system. Lord Kitchener, contacted Norton-Griffiths on Friday, 12 February 1915, and by the end of the month eighteen "Manchester Moles" sewer men were in France as founding members of 170 (Tunnelling) Company, Royal Engineers.[13] Oilfield sabotageIn late 1916 he was sent to sabotage the Romanian oil fields ahead of a German advance.[9] Colonel Norton-Griffiths used such techniques as dumping cement down the wells, filling tanks with nails, and emptying storage wells and then setting them on fire. He was able, almost single-handedly, to destroy seventy refineries and 800,000 tons of crude oil.[14][4][15] General Ludendorff of the German army was later quoted as saying, We must attribute our shortages in part to him.[16] German efforts later got some of the Romanian fields back online for the war effort, but they were never able to recover fully. A more sceptical view of his activities was expressed by career diplomat Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. He wrote: "[In 1916] we had sent a special mission to Roumania under Col. Norton-Griffiths M.P. to destroy both the oil wells and the supplies of grain. Whether the mission succeeded may be judged by the fact that within six months all of the wells that had been destroyed were in working order and large supplies of oil and grain dispatched to Germany and Austria. But the head of the special mission received a K.C.B. for his efforts!".[17] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1916. He changed his name by deed poll in 1917, taking the additional surname "Norton". He was knighted in 1917 and promoted lieutenant colonel in 1918 (although he had temporarily also held the rank in 1916), and made a baronet in 1922.[18] Last years in EgyptAfter the First World War, his business and engineering career faltered, and his health began to deteriorate. His construction firm took on a contract to carry out the heightening of the Aswan Low Dam at an unrealistically low price. He was facing the possibility of financial ruin and perhaps even criminal prosecution.[1] On 27 September 1930, while in Egypt dealing with some problems which had arisen with this dam project,[19] Sir John took a rowboat from the beach of the Casino Hotel near Alexandria, Egypt. Sometime later, the boat was found empty, and a search party was launched. They soon retrieved Sir John's body, floating in the water, with a bullet wound through the temple. No weapon was found, but the coroner's court gave a verdict of suicide.[19] His body was brought back to England and he was buried at Mickleham, Surrey, on 18 October 1930. He was 59 years old. His widow Gwladys survived him, dying in 1974 at the age of 101. See also
References1. ^1 2 3 {{cite book|authorlink= Michael Bloch|last= Bloch|first= Michael|title= Jeremy Thorpe|publisher= Little Brown|location= London|year= 2014|isbn= 978-0-00-257221-7|ref=harv}} pp. 11-20 2. ^1 Obituary: Sir John Norton-Griffiths. The Times, Monday, 29 September 1930 (p. 14, Issue 45630, col B). 3. ^1 2 {{citation| publisher=Society for Army Historical Research |journal=Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research |volume=83 |issue=333–336 |pages=1–2}} 4. ^1 2 3 "John-Norton Griffiths: A Rhodesian Pioneer", July 1969, "Rhodesiana" magazine, vol 20 5. ^Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Debrett's, 1931, p. 354 6. ^Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1973, p. 1605 7. ^Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2951 8. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.mining-journal.com/HTML/12-10-07.html |title=Mineral Wealth of the Congo Free State |accessdate=2007-10-31 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615041829/http://www.mining-journal.com/HTML/12-10-07.html |archivedate=15 June 2008 |df= }}. The Mining Journal, 12 October 1907. 9. ^1 Tony Bridgland and Anne Morgan 2003). Tunnelmaster and Arsonist of the Great War: The Norton-Griffiths Story. Pen & Sword Books Ltd. {{ISBN|0-85052-995-6}} 10. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.remuseum.org.uk/biography/rem_bio_Norton-Griffiths.htm |title=Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Norton-Griffiths (1871–1930) |publisher=Royal Engineers Museum |accessdate=2010-06-21 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501120136/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/biography/rem_bio_Norton-Griffiths.htm |archivedate=1 May 2010 }} 11. ^{{cite web|url=http://tunnellersmemorial.com/Tunnelling.htm|title=Tunnelling in the First World War|publisher=tunnellersmemorial.com|accessdate=20 June 2010|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100823081917/http://tunnellersmemorial.com/Tunnelling.htm|archivedate=23 August 2010|df=dmy-all}} 12. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.1914-1918.net/tunnelcoyre.htm |title=The Tunnelling Companies RE |publisher=1914-1918.net |accessdate=2010-06-21 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510184955/http://www.1914-1918.net/tunnelcoyre.htm |archivedate=10 May 2015 |df= }} 13. ^[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36685270 "The 18 sewer men who changed the war"], 2 July 2016, Vanessa Barford, BBC 14. ^The Prize (1990), by Daniel Yergin 15. ^{{cite book| last = Burg| first = David F.| others = L. Edward Purcell| title = Almanac of World War I| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=p-NwX2siCJMC| accessdate = 2012-10-29| year = 2010| publisher = University Press of Kentucky| isbn = 9780813137711| pages = 336| quote = 7 December 1916 [...] Falkenhayn's Ninth Army turns to the north in hopes of capturing the oil fields and refineries at Ploesti, but Falkenhayn is too late: John Norton-Griffiths has done his work. The oil fields at Ploesti, Targoviste, and elsewhere are aflame and their refining facilities in ruins - a severe loss to the German war effort, as it will be months before production can be restored.}} 16. ^Yergin, D (2010). The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. Russia: Simon & Schuster. 17. ^"Old Diplomacy" (1947), memoirs of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, p. 200 18. ^[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/32733/page/5593/data.pdf "...conferring the dignity of a Baronet of the said United Kingdom upon each of the undermentioned gentlemen and the heirs male of their respective bodies lawfully begotten..."], 28 July 1922, "The London Gazette" 19. ^1 [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19300929&id=SPFUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2pEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7254,884448&hl=en "Famous Contractor's Death: Suicide in Egypt"], Sep 29, 1930, Page 10, "The Sydney Morning Herald" External links
| title = Member of Parliament for Wednesbury | years = Jan. 1910–1918 | before = Clarendon Hyde | after = Alfred Short }}{{s-new | constituency}}{{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Wandsworth Central | years = 1918–1924 }}{{s-aft | after = Sir Henry Jackson, Bt }}{{s-reg|uk-bt}}{{s-new | creation}}{{s-ttl | title = Baronet (of Wonham) | years = 1922–1930 }}{{s-aft | after = Peter Norton-Griffiths }}{{s-end}}{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton-Griffiths, John}} 20 : People from West Somerset (district)|Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom|British Militia officers|British military personnel of the Second Boer War|British Army personnel of World War I|Companions of the Distinguished Service Order|Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath|Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|UK MPs 1910|UK MPs 1910–18|UK MPs 1918–22|UK MPs 1922–23|UK MPs 1923–24|Arsenal F.C. directors and chairmen|Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir|1871 births|1930 deaths|Tunnel warfare in World War I|British politicians who committed suicide|Suicides by firearm in Egypt |
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