General Sir Edmund Allenby spent his early years soldiering in Africa. After the South African War he went on to fight in the First World War in France and Belgium before taking charge of the British-led expeditionary force in Palestine in June 1917. In Palestine Allenby faced a number of challenges, ones which stretched his abilities as a field commander. Militarily, he took charge of a demoralised force facing determined, entrenched Turkish forces. Having boosted morale among his troops Allenby captured Jerusalem before conquering all of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Politically, Allenby liaised with allied Hashemite Arab forces and dealt with the delicate matter of the conflicting claims of Arabs, Zionists, French and Italians to occupied enemy territory. In 1919, in recognition of his services in Palestine, he was made a field marshal and viscount, and became High Commissioner in Egypt. This volume examines Allenby's Middle-Eastern military and political correspondence as he made the shift from general to colonial administrator.
It covers an immensely significant twenty-eight month period during which British-led forces under Allenby conquered the Levant and then established the basic political framework for the contemporary Middle East.