# Cameron Shute

General Sir Cameron Deane Shute, KCB, KCMG (15 March 1866 – 25 January 1936), was a senior British Army officer during the First World War.

## Early life and education

Shute was born in Dorking, Surrey, the son of Col. Deane Christian Shute of the British Indian Army, and his wife, Elizabeth Isabella Brownlow. He was educated at Marlborough College and abroad. He was the nephew of General Sir Charles Cameron Shute (1816–1904). Francis Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine married his sister Alice Emily Shute.

## Military career

After graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Shute was commissioned into the Welsh Regiment in August 1885. He transferred to the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) in September 1895, receiving a promotion to captain in his new regiment, and participated in the Nile Expedition and the Siege of Khartoum in 1898. He was deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) in Malta from 1899 and, a major from June 1904 onwards, a general staff officer (GSO) at Scottish Coast Defences from 1905. In March 1910 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade and, after being promoted to full colonel in June 1913, he then became a GSO at Aldershot Training Centre from 1914.
He served in the First World War in France and Belgium, becoming commander of the 59th Infantry Brigade, 20th (Light) Division, in France during the Guillemont actions in 1915. Upon being made a temporary major general in October 1916 he went on to be general officer commanding (GOC) of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, the same year in which he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

### A.P. Herbert poem

As GOC of the Royal Naval Division, Shute had an intense dislike of the division's unconventional "nautical" traditions and made numerous unpopular attempts to stamp them out. He was particularly critical of the poor management of the latrines which could have led to an outbreak of dysentery. Following a particularly critical inspection of the trenches by Shute, an officer of the division, Sub-Lieutenant A. P. Herbert, who later became a famous humorous writer, legal satirist and member of Parliament, wrote a popular poem that summed up the feelings of the men of the division:
   The General inspecting the trenches Exclaimed with a horrified shout 'I refuse to command a division Which leaves its excreta about.'
   But nobody took any notice No one was prepared to refute, That the presence of shit was congenial Compared to the presence of Shute.
   And certain responsible critics Made haste to reply to his words Observing that his staff advisors Consisted entirely of turds.
   For shit may be shot at odd corners And paper supplied there to suit, But a shit would be shot without mourners If somebody shot that shit Shute.
Although soldier songs hostile to superior officers were not rare, it is unusual to have a song aimed at a named officer.
He later became GOC of the 32nd Division in 1917 and of the 19th Division at the Battle of Messines (Flanders, Belgium) in 1917. In June 1917 he was promoted to the substantive rank of major general. In April 1918 he was promoted to temporary lieutenant general and took command of V Corps in place of the sacked Edward Fanshawe, which he commanded for the rest of the war.
After the war his CB was upgraded to a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KCB) and he was also awarded the French Legion of Honour, January 1919. and, having reverted to his permanent rank of major general in April 1919, and relinquished command of V Corps he became GOC of the 4th Division, a post he held from November 1919
to November 1923.
Finally, after being made a substantive lieutenant general in April 1926, and succeeding General Sir Francis Davies as lieutenant of the Tower of London, he was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1927; after being promoted to full general in March 1931, he retired from the army later that year.