Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916

The Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 34) was set up to investigate the World War I operations in the Dardanelles Campaign and the Mesopotamian campaign.

The Walcheren Campaign of 1809 and the Crimean War had been investigated by parliamentary committees. The British Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, therefore initially proposed a select committee to inquire into the disasters at the Dardanelles (the Gallipoli Bridgeheads were finally evacuated in the winter of 1915-16) and in Mesopotamia (where the British and Indian force at Kut surrendered in April 1916). Instead, he was persuaded to agree to appoint a statutory special commission, because '"a Government may… prefer to… appoint… an outside element... less likely to be influenced by party bias."

The terms of the Act required that at least one naval and one military officer from the retired lists serve on each Commission.

Historian John Grigg writes that the inquiries were “an enormous waste of busy people’s time”. Maurice Hankey had to spend 174 hours preparing material for the Dardanelles Commission. Grigg argues that just the fact of setting up the inquiries was an unfortunate admission that mismanagement had occurred. Coming after the crisis over the extension of conscription to married men in May 1916, which had come close to bringing down the government, and against the backdrop of the costly Somme Offensive (whose results were obviously disappointing, contrary to unconvincing official claims of Allied victory), and the decline in Asquith’s physical stamina and “grip”, the inquiries contributed to the slow decline of the Asquith coalition ministry’s authority. By the end of the year many politicians – and General Robertson - had come to feel that a change was needed in the management of the war, causing the crisis of November-December 1916 which eventually led to Asquith’s replacement as Prime Minister by David Lloyd George.

Mesopotamia 1916-17
The Commission of Inquiry's remit was to inquire into the origins, inception and conduct of operations of war in Mesopotamia.

The following were appointed:
 * Lord George Hamilton, chairman
 * Earl of Donoughmore
 * Lord Hugh Cecil
 * Archibald Williamson, 1st Baron Forres
 * J. Hodge
 * J.C. Wedgwood
 * Admiral Cyprian Bridge, (retired Naval)
 * General Rt. Hon. Sir Neville Gerald Lyttelton

The Commission summoned over 100 witnesses. It was highly critical of many individuals and the administrative arrangements. William Babtie, responsible for medical provision on the Mesopotamia front, was heavily criticised.

Dardanelles 1916-19
See Dardanelles Commission

The following were appointed:
 * Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (initial chairman, died 29 Jan 1917)
 * William Pickford, 1st Baron Sterndale, Chairman
 * Andrew Fisher
 * Thomas Mackenzie
 * Frederick Cawley, 1st Baron Cawley
 * James Avon Clyde, Lord Clyde
 * Stephen Gwynn
 * Walter Francis Roch
 * Admiral Sir William Henry May
 * William Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson