Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Capper, Thompson
CAPPER, Sir THOMPSON (1868-1915), major-general, the third son of William Copeland Capper, Bengal civil service, by his wife, Sarah, daughter of W. T. Copeland, M.P., owner of the Copeland potteries, was born at Lucknow 20 October 1863. He was gazetted lieutenant in the East Lancashire regiment in 1882, and was promoted captain in 1891. He saw his first war service in Chitral in 1895, and distinguished himself in the Sudan campaigns of 1898-1899, when serving with the Egyptian army; he was present at the battles of the Atbara and Omdurman and received a brevet majority.
In the South African War he served on the staff of the Natal army at the relief of Ladysmith (January-February 1900) and in the subsequent operations in northern Natal and in the south-eastern Transvaal. In 1901-2 he was employed in Cape Colony, commanding a mobile column with conspicuous success. For his services in South Africa he received the D.S.O., was mentioned in dispatches four times, and promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel, receiving substantive rank in November 1900.
Capper’s next important employment was as professor at the Staff College, where his teaching made such a mark that he was selected to be the first commandant of the Indian Staff College at Quetta. In 1910 he received the C.B., and from 1911 to 1914 he commanded the 138th infantry brigade at Dublin. As a trainer of troops he made a great impression on those who served in his brigade, and they profited greatly by his lucid, practical, and suggestive instruction. In 1914 he was promoted to major-general and appointed Inspector of Infantry.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in August 1914 Capper was appointed to command the 7th division, the first addition to the original six, which was mainly composed of units from South Africa and the Mediterranean. It was an improvised formation, staff and units were strangers to each other, though the proportion of serving soldiers to reservists was much higher than in the Expeditionary Force. The division was dispatched to Belgium at the beginning of October, being intended to relieve Antwerp; instead of which, after covering the Belgian retreat to the Yser, it took a leading part in the defence of Ypres against the German effort to reach the Channel ports, holding a line out of all proportion to its numbers and bearing the brunt of the earlier attacks. When, after nearly three weeks’ fighting, it was relieved on 7 November, its 14,000 infantry had been reduced to 4,000, and if it had more than once lost ground it had re-formed its line and had beaten back repeated attacks by greatly superior forces. Of Capper’s share in the division’s splendid achievement it has been well said ‘no one but Capper himself could, night after night, by the sheer force of his personality have reconstituted from the shattered fragments of battalions a fighting line that could last through to-morrow’ (The Times, 1 October 1915).
Capper, whose services at Ypres were rewarded by a K.C.M.G., retained command of the 7th division until April 1915 when he was accidentally wounded at some experiments with hand-grenades. In this period the division was in the line facing the Aubers Ridge, and took part in the battle of Neuve Chapelle (10-13 March). Capper was at home most of the summer, but recovered in time to resume command of his old division shortly before the battle of Loos (25 September). In this the 7th division captured its first objectives between Hulluch and the Hohenzollern redoubt, but lost too severely to achieve anything against the German second line position, and was itself heavily counter-attacked. Capper, who had gone forward to investigate the exact situation, was badly wounded, 26 September, and died next day. In him the army lost a commander of real achievement and promise, an original and inspiring teacher, a man of high standards and high attainments.
Capper married in 1908 Winifride Mary, eldest daughter of the Hon. Robert Joseph Gerard-Dicconson, of Wrightington Hall, near Wigan, who survived him. They had one son.
[Army Lists; ‘The Times’ History of the War in South Africa, 1900-1909; J. E. Edmonds, (Official) History of the Great War. Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914, vol. ii, 1925.]