The Father of the “Mad Minute”

The Life of the “Musketry Maniac”, Norman McMahon

By Nick Harlow

Brigadier-General Norman Reginald McMahon D.S.O.

General Sir Thomas Westropp McMahon, Bart., CB

(1813-1892)

Colonel Sir Horace Westropp McMahon, Bart., D.S.O.

(1863-1932)

Personal History

• Born 24th January 1866• Fourth Son of Sir Thomas and Lady Frances• Educated at Eton, 1879-1884• Entered Royal Military College, Sandhurst in

September 1884

Sandhurst Cadet Register, 1884

Early Career pt.1

• “One of 72 Specially Commissioned”• Gazetted to the Royal Fusiliers, 23rd May 1885• Joins the 2nd Battalion, then stationed in India• First saw service in the 3rd Anglo-Burma War

(1885-7)• Returned to England with his battalion in 1889

Early Career, pt.2

• Attends the School of Musketry, 1889• Battalion Adjutant, 1890-4• Promoted to Captain, 1896• Dispatched to fight in the Second Anglo-Boer

War• Appointed ADC to Major-General Geoffrey

Barton, OC 6th (Fusiliers) Brigade

McMahon with the other officers of 2nd Battalion, Aldershot, 1899

Courtesy of the Trustees of the Fusilier Museum London

War Service, 1899-1902

• Part of the Natal Field Force• Appointed Brigade Major, April 1900• Severely wounded whilst in Cape Colony• Upon recovery, appointed DAAG and awarded

the DSO• Promoted to Major, December 1901• Returned to England, October 1902

Winners of the Aldershot Senior Cup, 1903Courtesy of the Trustees of the Fusilier Museum London

School of Musketry

• With 2nd Battalion until January 1905, when it returns to India. He takes up the post of Chief Instructor, School of Musketry in June

• Earns a reputation as an expert on machine guns, as well as fire tactics in general

• Involved in the creation of Musketry Regulations, 1909

Officers and Students of Hythe

“Fire Fighting”, as published by the Aldershot Military Society in 1908

“Fire Fighting”

• Given to the Aldershot Military Society, Wednesday December 18th 1907

• Synopsis of current European fire tactics and developments

• Favours increased use of machine guns, but not without caveats

• Merits debated at the time

The Lecture Room at Hythe, C.1904

• There is only one alternative left to us. We must train every soldier in our Army to become a ‘human machine-gun.’ Every man must receive intensive training with his rifle, until he can fire – with reasonable accuracy – fifteen rounds a minute.

• Maj. C.H.B. Pridham, Superiority of Fire (London, 1945), p.56

The “Mad Minute”

• Developed in light of resistance to issuing more machine guns

• Had precedents going back to the 1880’s• First demonstrated at Hythe in 1908 by Jesse

Wallingford• Stated as achieving 36 hits in a timed minute

from 300 yards

Sergeant-Major Jesse Wallingford

Sergeant-Instructor Snoxall

• Record listed by Major Pridham in Superiority of Fire (1945)

• Stated to have achieved 38 hits at 300 yards• Small Arms School Corps list Wallingford as

the record holder• References to earlier sources have (so far)

remained untraced

Post-Hythe

• Term of appointment ends formally in June 1909

• Army Lists suggest he worked at the War Office until 21st January 1910

• Appears at the Staff Conference, January 1910, to speak about machine guns

• Continues to lecture at Hythe until 1911

Later Career

• Passed Staff College in December 1910• Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and

appointed CO, 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers in May 1911, based at Aldershot

• Moved to Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, January 1913, where they remained until the outbreak of the First World War

Officers of 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers11th August 1914

World War One

• Mobilised to France, 13th August 1914• Reach Mons by 22nd August, where the

regiment win two of the first VC’s of the war, both with machine guns

• McMahon commands 3rd Division’s rearguard in the retreat from Le Cateau

• Promoted to Brigadier-General, succeeding Aylmer Haldane in command of 10th Brigade

“A” Company, 4th Battalion, resting at Mons, 22nd August 1914

First Battle of Ypres

• Fought several actions around Herlies and Neuve Chapelle, before being withdrawn from the line

• Commended by Sir Horace Smith-Dorien while out of the line

• Took over trenches east of Hooge on 6th November

The Line around Ypres, 2-11 November

11th November 1914

• A serious assault, anticipated by the British, was launched in the morning

• Heavy shelling destroyed the front lines• McMahon attempted to organise the battalion

reserves, but was seen to be killed by a shell bursting nearby

Courtesy of the Trustees of the Fusilier Museum London

Commemoration

• Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing , Panel 1• Captain E.J. Solano’s Musketry (1915)• In 1931 a memorial window was unveiled in

the baptistry of St. George’s Chapel, Ypres• Major C.H.B. Pridham’s Superiority of Fire

(1945)

Courtesy of the Trustees of the Fusilier Museum London

Legacy

Bernard McMahon Jesse Wallingford