Britain
Edmund Allenby
1861–1936 Commander, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, from June 1917
Allenby, a cavalryman, commanded the Cavalry Division in 1914 and the Third Army at Arras in 1917, where he earned a reputation as a mediocre general of the Western Front. Sent to Egypt in June, he proved a better commander of a mobile desert war: energetic, visible to his troops, demanding in preparation and bold in execution. His victory at Beersheba and the capture of Jerusalem, which he entered on foot, made him a national hero, and his battle of Megiddo in September 1918 destroyed the Ottoman armies in Palestine. He later served as High Commissioner in Egypt, where he secured Egyptian nominal independence in 1922.