In April 1917, on the Western Front of the Great War, the Third Army, under the command of General Edmund Allenby, fought an increasingly bloody and inconclusive offensive against German positions at Arras, northern France. Field Marshal Haig’s battle plan for Arras was ambitious, but the expected gains were never achieved, and by the end of the month the positions were once more entrenched and little progress had been made. Allenby had made several risky miscalculations along the way, and lost many men unnecessarily. By early May, the Third Army was too weak to effect Haig’s shifting plans for battle in the area, and an uncharacteristic show of displeasure with his superiors saw Allenby removed from his post and re-assigned to the Middle East as commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) (Hughes ed., 2004, 5-6; James, 1993, 98-107).

The importance of success in the Eastern theatre was far from inconsequential. Lloyd George, convinced that a victory over the Turks might prove decisive in undermining Germany, was also mindful of the need to protect both British oil interests in Mesopotamia and the immensely important Suez Canal. Victory there would also have a significant symbolic value, and the Prime Minister personally charged Allenby with delivering Jerusalem as a morale-boosting ‘Christmas present for the British nation’ (Grigg, 2002, 339). Victory in the provinces of the ailing Ottoman Empire also held out the inviting promise of healthy annexations after the war, as the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 had already anticipated.

Arriving in Cairo in late June to replace the ineffectual General Murray, Allenby found the EEF demoralised by two successive defeats at Gaza. His manner and approach re-vitalised his forces, and he spent the summer significantly strengthening, restructuring and re-equipping his army for a third assault on the Turkish defences in southern Palestine.

Fighting began on 27 October. A heavy artillery bombardment at Gaza was followed three days later by a surprise attack at the end of the Turkish line near Beersheba, in which the use of cavalry was prominent – the battle saw a ‘spectacular, full scale cavalry charge, almost the last of its kind’ as the Desert Mounted Corps took the city (James, op. cit., 134-5). With Beersheba taken and the enemy line penetrated, Gaza could not be held for long, and German and Turkish forces began their retreat after a week of punishing shelling. Jerusalem itself was well defended, and was taken only after nearly a fortnight of tough fighting. Superior numbers and equipment eventually told against the Turkish forces, and a final push on 8 December saw them abandon the city overnight. At first light, the mayor himself surrendered the city to the first British soldiers he could find (ibid., 132-40; see also Hughes, 1999, 43-59; McKernan, 1993, 170).

The manner of Allenby’s entry into the Holy City and exactly what he was to announce once inside had been considered at the highest levels of government, and he had been telegraphed precise instructions from London on 21 November, before the battle for the city began. William Robertson, the Chief of Imperial General Staff, had advised Allenby of the need to enter the city on foot and cited the example of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had entered on horseback: ‘the saying went round “a better man than he walked.” Advantage of contrast in conduct will be obvious’ (WO 33/946).

On the same day, telegrams from Robertson also reached Allenby providing him with the exact text, devised by the War Cabinet, of the proclamation that was to be read and posted in Jerusalem on his entry, and a checklist of nine items demanded by the Prime Minister himself in order that he could make an announcement to the House of Commons in precise terms (‘1. Manner in which you were received by the population. 2. That you entered Jerusalem on foot. 3. Precautions taken to guard Holy Places. […]’, etc.). A further telegram instructed Allenby not to speak to any foreign powers or to the press of any country until the announcement had been made in Parliament (WO 33/946). 

The General entered Jerusalem on 11 December, accompanied by his staff (T. E. Lawrence among them), French and Italian officers, and various other international representatives. At the Jaffa gate he was greeted by a guard of Commonwealth and Allied troops; dismounting, he and his comrades entered the city on foot, as instructed. The proclamation of martial law, worded exactly as it had been wired to him (though with the addition of a short paragraph indicating that several holy places had been put under specifically Muslim guard, as per instructions in the Prime Minister’s checklist), was ‘read…to the population in Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, Greek and Russian from the steps of the Citadel’ (Allenby, telegram to CIGS, 11 Dec 1917, WO 33/946). After 400 years of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem had passed into British hands.