Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Viscount Allenby

.

V is for viscount, which is a nobleman ranking below an earl or count and above a baron.
As in  Viscount Allenby, of Megiddo and of Felixstowe.
Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861–1936)


The only thing left in Allenby Park in Beer Sheva is the bust of the Field Marshal who conquered the city from the Turks in 1917.


The bust is behind locked gates and hoarding now.
It says that the park will be developed and renewed as part of the "new Old City."
.
By December 11 (today!), 1917, Allenby was already way north of Beer Sheva, accepting the Ottoman surrender of Jerusalem.
See a funny story about that in my post
http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2008/12/keys-to-city-take-them-already.html
.
UPDATE, 2017: More about the Allenby statue:

"In the year 1923, the British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel unveiled a monument in Allenby's honor in Beersheba, with a sculpted bust of Allenby by sculptor Abraham Melnikov, set on a 15-meter high Turkish column. During the 1936-38 Arab Revolt, the monument was destroyed by rioting nationalists and the British Mandate government replaced it with a simple stone monument, without the figure of Allenby, and the inscription: "Allenby 1917-1918" in English and in Arabic (without Hebrew, as a gesture to the town's Arab residents). In 2005, the modern monument was unveiled with its restored bust of Allenby."
  -- Source: a good article about the ANZAC Trail in the Negev.
.

7 comments:

  1. That is so cool!

    Lots of people are ambivalent about British colonial rule in Palestine before the state of Israel was proclaimed, but Allenby seemed to be very well motivated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never could keep those titles straight!


    ROG, ABCW

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very stark shots.... I'm always intrigued reading your posts by how different the topography and vegetation is from my part of the world.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remembered you writing about this but had to go back to revisit the story. It really is an amazing story! I'm feeling sorry for that poor mayor though. Good grief!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fascinating. It all seems so long ago somehow.

    ReplyDelete
  6. nice info about the history. allenby was motivated.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I had read so much about him and his namesake bridge, that crossing it into Jordan was an unforgettable moment of one of my trips over there...

    ReplyDelete


Thanks for your comment!
Comment moderation is on so I will see any new comments even on older posts!