Ruth Cecil Latter, 1869-1949 Portrait of Sir (Cecil Frederick) Nevil Macready 1st Bt, Kcb, Kcmg and Gcmg, 1862-1946

Ruth Cecil Latter, 1869-1949

Portrait of Sir (Cecil Frederick) Nevil Macready 1st Bt, KCB, KCMG and GCMG, 1862-1946

Signed/Inscribed:

"R.Latter"

oil on canvas

91.44 x 71.12 cm. (36 x 28in.)

Sir (Cecil Frederick) Nevil, Macready, first baronet (1862–1946), army officer, was born on 7 May 1862 at 6 Wellington Square, Cheltenham, youngest son of the actor William Charles Macready (1793–1873) and his second wife, Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer (d. 1908), a granddaughter of Sir William Beechey the painter. Nevil, as he was always known, was Cecile's only child, and only one son and one daughter from his father's first marriage survived infancy.

Macready was brought up in artistic and literary circles. In his memoirs he adjudged himself ‘far too lazy’ to follow a career in painting or drawing (Macready, 1.14), and his father resolutely opposed his going on the stage. After a series of schools he went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; and in October 1881 he was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders. He took part in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, including the battle of Tell al-Kebir. In the summer of 1884 he was appointed staff lieutenant of military police and garrison adjutant at Alexandria, thus establishing a career pattern which he was to follow for most of his professional life: adjutancy, staff duties, and police work. ‘It was not a bad thing’, recalled Macready ‘to have Staff experience when young … The great thing is always to have a ready answer on one's tongue. Even if it is not absolutely correct, there are many generals who will be none the wiser’ (Macready, 1.69–70). In 1886 he married Sophia Geraldine Atkin (d. 1931) from a co. Cork family. They had two daughters and one son.

After some five years as a military policeman Macready rejoined his regiment early in 1890 and served in Ceylon and India for two years. In 1892, as a captain, he was transferred to Dublin and in 1894 he became adjutant of a volunteer battalion of the regiment based in Aberdeenshire. In 1899 he returned to the 2nd battalion in India, which in September was sent to South Africa.

Macready, promoted major in 1899, saw active service during the South African War, including the defence of Ladysmith, where he was one of the besieged garrison from October 1899 to February 1900. Having been promoted lieutenant-colonel, he was in June 1901 selected to head a commission investigating cattle-raiding in Zululand. Following this he served in a series of staff jobs, including assistant provost-marshal at Port Elizabeth and assistant adjutant-general and chief staff officer of Cape Colony. For his work in South Africa he was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was promoted colonel in 1903.

In 1907 Macready became assistant adjutant-general at the War Office, in the directorate of personal services which was, among other matters, responsible for discipline and the use of troops in aid of the civil power. For a year from May 1909 he commanded the 2nd infantry brigade at Aldershot, but he returned to the War Office in 1910 as director of personal services. The same year he was promoted major-general. His position made him a crucial figure in the deployment of troops during a series of serious labour disputes in Great Britain and anticipated civil disturbance in Ireland. He earned the confidence of the government as a ‘safe pair of hands’ in circumstances where passions ran high and over-hasty action could have disastrous consequences. He certainly had liberal political sympathies. Writing in 1930 his close colleague Wyndham Childs recalled that they both ‘held views which nowadays I suppose would be called sane, though at that time they were thought ultra-democratic’ (Childs, 83). In particular, Macready conceded the right to strike and (unlike many fellow officers) favoured Irish home rule.

In November 1910 Macready was sen