Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Carton de Wiart

nobody@flickr.com (IWM Collections) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:00:58 -0700

4th Dragoon Guards, attd as commanding officer 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Lieutenant Colonel Carton de Wiart was awarded the Victoria Cross for the following action:

"On 2 July - 3 July 1916, at La Boisselle, France, Lieutenant-Colonel Carton de Wiart's dauntless courage and inspiration averted what could have been a serious reverse. He displayed the utmost energy in forcing the attack home and after three other battalion commanders had become casualties, he controlled their commands and made sure that the ground was held at all costs. In organising the positions to be held, he exposed himself fearlessly to enemy fire."

Carton de Wiart was born in Belgium. He joined the British Army and fought during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, sustaining a serious chest wound. On the outbreak of the First World War, Carton de Wiart was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps and engaged in suppressing a rebellion by Mohammed bin Abdullah's Muslim forces.

In an attack upon an enemy fort at Shimber Berris, Carton de Wiart was shot in the face, losing his left eye. He served on the Western Front from 1915, commanding three infantry battalions and a brigade. He was also seriously wounded seven times, losing his left hand in 1915.

Carton de Wiart spent the interwar years in Poland, serving with the British Military Mission and escaping the country as it was overrun by German and Soviet forces in 1939. He then served in Norway and was en route to take up a command in Yugoslavia when his aircraft was shot down.

Carton de Wiart was taken prisoner by the Italians by whom he was released in 1943. He spent the remaining war years in the Far East, witnessing the Japanese surrender at Singapore. Carton de Wiart died in 1963.

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Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Carton de Wiart