Adrian Carton de Wiart Military person

Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963) was a British Army officer. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a POW camp; and bit off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. Describing his experiences in World War I, he wrote, "Frankly I had enjoyed the war."After returning home from service in the Second World War, he was sent to China as Winston Churchill's personal representative. While en route he attended the Cairo Conference.In his memoirs, Carton de Wiart wrote, "Governments may think and say as they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose." Carton de Wiart was thought to be a model for the character of Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in Evelyn Waugh's trilogy Sword of Honour. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described him thus: "With his black eyepatch and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart looked like an elegant pirate, and became a figure of legend."

Personal facts

Adrian Carton de Wiart
Birth dateMay 05, 1880
Birth place
Belgium , Brussels
Date of deathJune 05, 1963
Resting place
Republic of Ireland , County Cork

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Military person

award
Order of the Bath
Virtuti Militari
Victoria Cross
Croix de guerre (Belgium)
Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order
Order of St Michael and St George
military operations
Invasion of Poland
Battle of Passchendaele
Battle of the Somme
Second Boer War
World War II
Second Sino-Japanese War
World War I
Battle of Cambrai (1917)
Polish–Soviet War
Hundred Days' Offensive
Polish–Ukrainian War
Polish–Lithuanian War
Norwegian Campaign
Somaliland Campaign
military command
134th (2/1st Hampshire) Brigade
61st Infantry Division
service start1899
service end1899

Adrian Carton de Wiart on Wikipedia

External resources

  1. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7745614
  2. http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/cocork.htm
  3. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32316
  4. http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_C01.html#Carton_de_Wiart_A