Montreuil-sur-Mer was considered to be an ideal hub from which to control and oversee the deployment of British and Empire Forces to the Front. Closer to the zone of operations on the Western Front than St Omer, it was also near enough to the coast to enable Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and his Generals to travel back to London at short notice for meetings with ministers and the King; it was also readily accessible by visitors from England and later the United States – politicians, war correspondents, artists and photographers.
GHQ was quickly organised around four main branches: administration and management of the headquarters; recruitment and training of personnel; intelligence (strategic development of offensives); and operations. By 1918, an estimated 1,700 soldiers were working directly for GHQ within the confines of the town, and over 3,000 in other departments – though there were never more than 5,000 military in total.
Foreign military missions attached to GHQ made Montreuil a cosmopolitan place between 1916 and 1919; the French, Americans, Italians and Portuguese established military embassies in the town in order to liaise better with GHQ.
Many journalists visited Montreuil. In the autumn of 1916, British High Command set up a Press Office at GHQ and the writer and MP John Buchan joined the Intelligence Section with a PR remit. Like the Commander-in-Chief, he was also a Scot and an alumnus of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Haig made his home and main office at the Château de Beaurepaire, just two miles outside Montreuil. During offensives, such as the Somme, Haig and his immediate staff had to move to Advanced Headquarters closer to the Front at Château du Valvion, near Beauquesnes, 15 miles north of Amiens.
Every Sunday, Haig attended the Presbyterian service led by the Reverend George Duncan, held in the specially constructed “Scottish Hut” within the Citadelle. Duncan later wrote a fascinating account of his time in Montreuil and the many visitors to Haig at GHQ and at the Château de Beaurepaire.
Also among his staff was his doctor, Col. Eugene (“Micky”) Ryan*. It was his sound advice that ensured that Haig never took a day off because of illness during his entire time in France. He escaped the Spanish ‘flu pandemic when one of the very first outbreaks infected 700 people in Montreuil during the summer of 1918.
Between 1916 and 1918, the Commander-in-Chief received countless statesmen and military counterparts from all over the world. On 7th August 1918 (his second visit to Haig that year), King George V joined the French President Raymond Poincaré and Marshals Foch and Joffre to reaffirm the allied commitment to defeating the enemy; after the ‘Hundred Days’ (from 8th August until 11th November) the German Army was as good as finished on the Western Front. Following the Armistice in November 1918, Haig remained in France until April 1919.
*Haig’s Medical Officer: The Papers of Colonel Eugene ‘Micky’ Ryan CMG DSO RAMC. Published by: Pen & Sword Military (October 8, 2013).