Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Henderson, David
HENDERSON, Sir DAVID (1862–1921), lieutenant-general, the youngest son of David Henderson, shipbuilder, of Glasgow, by his wife, Jane Pitcairn, was born at Glasgow 11 August 1862. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, and passed into the army by way of Sandhurst in 1883. He served with his regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, in South Africa, Ceylon, and China, returning to Edinburgh in 1892. High-minded and single of purpose, he applied himself to the study of his profession. He served in 1898 in the Sudan campaign and was promoted brevet major, and in 1899–1902 in South Africa. He was wounded at Ladysmith, promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in November 1900, and spent two valuable years (October 1900–September 1902) as director of military intelligence under Lord Kitchener. A short period with the civil government of the Transvaal followed. When Henderson returned to England he set down the lessons which he had learned in Africa, and these were published as an official text-book, Field Intelligence: its Principles and Practice (1904). At home he filled various staff appointments, always with distinction, but found time to write The Art of Reconnaissance (1907) which went into many editions.
When the American inventor, Wilbur Wright, startled Europe with his flights in France (1908) Henderson turned his mind to the air as a new element in warfare; but it was only in 1911, at the age of forty-nine, that he learned to fly at Brooklands. The committee of imperial defence was at this time deeply concerned with the question of a national air service. Henderson served on a sub-committee appointed to consider the problem, and its report bears the mark of his wide and practical experience. It recommended the formation of a flying corps, which came into being as the Royal Flying Corps in May 1912.
In July 1912 Henderson went to the War Office as director of military training, an appointment which he held for fourteen months. During that time the expansion of the Royal Flying Corps was his special interest. In September 1913 he was given the new post of director-general of military aeronautics. He brought a keen, sympathetic, well-disciplined mind to the moulding of the new service, which, in training and spirit, was second to none at the outbreak of the European War. On 13 August 1914 he took the force to France, and six days later its aeroplanes were flying over the enemy. The air reconnaissance reports did much to help the British army to escape the enveloping movements of the German advance.
In November 1914, when the main burden of the War lay on the infantry, Henderson, who had been promoted major-general in October, took command of the first division, but a month later he was back as general officer commanding the Royal Flying Corps, and he held this command until October 1917. He remained in France until October 1915, when he handed over to Brigadier-General H. M. Trenchard and went to the War Office. There were difficulties at home which taxed all his enthusiasm and energy, and he did not escape criticism. But a sufficient answer lies in the fact that England emerged from the War with the largest and best equipped air force in the world.
Henderson was promoted lieutenant-general in 1917, and in the autumn of that year he worked hard on the plans for the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service into the Royal Air Force. In January 1918 he became vice-president of the newly-formed Air Council; shortly afterwards both he and the chief of the air staff, Major-General Trenchard, found themselves strongly opposed to the policy of Lord Rothermere, the first air minister. The chief of the staff resigned in April; Henderson followed suit, and the air service knew him no more. After a spell as area-commandant in France (August to October 1918) and as military counsellor at the embassy, Paris (October 1918 to June 1919), he went to Geneva to organize and direct the League of Red Cross societies. In this work his tact and the charm of his personality were of conspicuous service. He died at Geneva 17 August 1921.
Henderson was created K.C.B. in 1914 and K.C.V.O. in 1919. He married in 1895 Henrietta Caroline, second daughter of Henry Robert Dundas, and granddaughter of the first Baron Napier of Magdala. He left one daughter, his only son having been killed in a flying accident in 1918.
[W. A. Raleigh, The War in the Air vol. i, 1922; official records; private information.]