Adrian Carton de Wiart Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC , KBE , CB , CMG , DSO ( 5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963 ) was a British Army officer of Belgian and Irish descent . 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 pulled 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 he 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 . " Early life . Carton de Wiart was born into an aristocratic family in Brussels , on 5 May 1880 , eldest son of Leon Constant Ghislain Carton de Wiart ( 1854 – 1915 ) . By his contemporaries , he was widely believed to be an illegitimate son of the King of the Belgians , Leopold II . He spent his early days in Belgium and in England . The death of his Irish mother when he was six prompted his father to move the family to Cairo so his father could practise international law . His father was a court magistrate , well connected in Egyptian governmental circles , and was a director of the " Cairo Electric Railways " . Carton de Wiart was a Roman Catholic . He learned to speak Arabic . In 1891 his English stepmother sent him to a boarding school in England , the Roman Catholic Oratory School , founded by Cardinal John Henry Newman . From there he went to Balliol College , Oxford , but left to join the British Army at the time of the Boer War around 1899 , where he entered under the false name of " Trooper Carton " , and claimed to be 25 years old . Boer War . Carton de Wiart was wounded in the stomach and groin in South Africa early on in the War and invalided home , and his father found out about him leaving college . His father was furious but allowed his son to remain in the army . After another brief period at Oxford , where Aubrey Herbert was among his friends , he was given a commission in the Second Imperial Light Horse . He saw action in South Africa again and on 14 September 1901 was given a regular commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards . Carton de Wiart was transferred to India in 1902 . He enjoyed sports , especially shooting and pig sticking . Character , interests and life in the Edwardian army . Carton de Wiart ' s serious wound in the Boer War instilled in him a strong desire for physical fitness and he ran , jogged , walked , and played sports on a regular basis . In male company he was ' a delightful character and must hold the world record for bad language . ' After his regiment was transferred to South Africa he was promoted to supernumerary lieutenant in July 1904 and appointed an aide - de - camp to the Commander - in - Chief , Sir Henry Hildyard the following July . He describes this period lasting up to 1914 as his " heyday " . His light duties as aide - de - camp gave him time for polo , another of his interests . By 1907 , although Carton de Wiart had now served in the British Army for eight years , he had remained a Belgian subject . On 13 September , he took the oath of allegiance to Edward VII and was formally naturalised as a British subject . Carton de Wiart was well connected in European circles , his two closest cousins being Count Henri Carton de Wiart , Prime Minister of Belgium from 1920 to 1921 , and Baron Edmond Carton de Wiart , political secretary to the King of Belgium and director of La Société Générale de Belgique . While on leave , he travelled extensively throughout central Europe , using his Catholic aristocratic connections to shoot at country estates in Bohemia , Austria , Hungary and Bavaria . Following his return to England , he rode with the famous Duke of Beaufort ' s Hunt where he met , among others , the future field marshal , Sir Henry Maitland Wilson , and the future air marshal , Sir Edward Leonard Ellington . He was promoted to captain in February 1910 . In 1908 he married Countess Friederike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Fugger von Babenhausen ( 1887 Klagenfurt – 1949 Vienna ) , eldest daughter of Karl Ludwig , 4th Fürst ( Prince ) Fugger - Babenhausen and Princess Eleonora Fugger von Babenhausen of Klagenfurt , Austria . They had two daughters , the elder of whom Anita ( born 1909 , deceased ) was the maternal grandmother of the war correspondent Anthony Loyd ( born 1966 ) . In his memoirs , " Happy Odyssey " , Carton de Wiart makes no reference to his wife or to his daughters . First World War . Somaliland Campaign . When the First World War broke out , Carton de Wiart was en route to British Somaliland where a low level war was underway against the followers of Mohammed bin Abdullah , called the " Mad Mullah " by the British . Carton de Wiart had been seconded to the Somaliland Camel Corps . A staff officer with the corps was Hastings Ismay , later Lord Ismay , Churchill ' s military advisor . In an attack upon an enemy fort at Shimber Berris , Carton de Wiart was shot twice in the face , losing his eye and also a portion of his ear . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) in May 1915 . Western Front . In February 1915 , he embarked on a steamer for France . Carton de Wiart took part in the fighting on the Western Front , commanding successively three infantry battalions and a brigade . He was wounded seven more times in the war , losing his left hand in 1915 and pulling off his fingers when a doctor declined to remove them . He was shot through the skull and ankle at the Battle of the Somme , through the hip at the Battle of Passchendaele , through the leg at Cambrai , and through the ear at Arras . He went to the Sir Douglas Shield ' s Nursing Home to recover from his injuries . Carton de Wiart was promoted to temporary major in March 1916 , from 15 February to 25 March . He subsequently attained the rank of temporary lieutenant - colonel , and was promoted to brevet major in January 1917 . He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in early 1917 . In June , now a temporary brigadier - general , Carton de Wiart was promoted to brevet lieutenant - colonel . In July , he was promoted to the permanent rank of major in the Dragoon Guards . He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre in March 1918 , and was appointed a CMG ( Order of St Michael and St George ) in the King ' s Birthday Honours List in June . Just before the end of the war , on 8 November , Carton de Wiart was given command of a brigade with the rank of temporary brigadier - general . Victoria Cross . Carton de Wiart received the Victoria Cross ( VC ) , the highest award for gallantry in combat that can be awarded to British Empire forces , in 1916 . He was 36 years old , and a temporary lieutenant - colonel in the 4th Dragoon Guards ( Royal Irish ) , British Army , attached to the Gloucestershire Regiment , commanding the 8th Battalion , when the following events took place on 2 / 3 July 1916 at La Boiselle , France : His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum , Chelsea . In his autobiography , " Happy Odyssey " , there is no mention of his VC and it fell to the publishers to add a special section covering the award . This section does not appear in the Fifth Impression ( London : Jonathan Cape 1951 . ) Despite all his wounds in the war , Carton de Wiart said at the end : " Frankly , I had enjoyed the war . . . " Post - war and the Polish mission . At the end of the war Carton de Wiart was sent to Poland as second in command of the British - Poland Military Mission under General Louis Botha . Carton de Wiart was appointed a CB ( Companion of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath ) in the 1919 King ' s Birthday Honours List . After a brief period , he replaced General Botha in the mission to Poland . Poland desperately needed support , as it was engaged with the Bolshevik Russia ( Polish - Soviet War ) , the Ukrainians ( Polish - Ukrainian War ) , the Lithuanians ( Polish - Lithuanian War ) and the Czechs ( Czech - Polish border conflicts ) . There he met Ignacy Jan Paderewski , the pianist and premier , Marshal Józef Piłsudski , the Chief of State and military commander , and General Maxime Weygand , head of the French military mission in mid - 1920 . Charles de Gaulle was attached to the French military mission . One of his tasks soon after his arrival was to attempt to make peace between the Poles and the Ukrainian nationalists under Simon Petlyura . The Ukrainians were besieging the city of Lwów ( ; ) . He was unsuccessful and formed a negative view of Petlyura , especially after Ukrainian forces machine gunned his train , killing two Polish officers aboard . From there he went on to Paris to report on Polish conditions to the British prime minister , David Lloyd George and to General Sir Henry Hughes Wilson . Lloyd George was not sympathetic to Poland and , much to Carton de Wiart ' s annoyance , Britain sent next to no military supplies . Then he went back to Poland and many more front line adventures , this time in the Bolshevik zone , where the situation was grave with Warsaw threatened . During this time he had significant interaction with the nuntius ( dean of the diplomatic corps ) Cardinal Achille Ratti , later Pius XI , who wanted Carton de Wiart ' s advice as to whether to evacuate the diplomatic corps from Warsaw . The diplomats moved to Poznań , but the Italians remained in Warsaw along with Ratti . From all these affairs , Carton de Wiart developed a sympathy with the Poles and supported their claims to the eastern Galicia . This caused disagreement with Lloyd George at their next meeting , but was appreciated by the Poles . At one time during his Warsaw stay he was a second in a duel between Polish members of the Mysliwski Club , the other second being Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , later commander - in - chief of Finnish armies in World War II and President of Finland . Norman Davies reports that he was " . . . compromised in a gun - running operation from Budapest using stolen wagon - lits " . He became rather close to the Polish leader , Marshal Piłsudski . After an aircraft crash occasioning a brief period in Lithuanian captivity , he went back to England to report , this time to the Secretary of State for War , Winston Churchill . He passed on to Churchill Piłsudski ' s prediction that the White Russian offensive under General Anton Denikin directed at Moscow would fail . It did shortly thereafter . Churchill was more sympathetic to Polish needs than Lloyd George and succeeded , over Lloyd George ' s objections , in sending some materiel to Poland . In July 1920 , Carton de Wiart was appointed an Aide - de - camp ( ADC ) to the King , and promoted to brevet colonel . He was active in August 1920 , when the Red Army was at the gates of Warsaw . While out on his observation train , he was attacked by a group of Red cavalry , and fought them off with his revolver from the running board of his train , at one point falling on the track and reboarding quickly . When the Poles had won the war by 1921 , the British Military Mission was wound up . Carton de Wiart was appointed to the local rank of major - general in January of that year . He was promoted to the permanent rank of colonel in June 1922 , with seniority from July 1920 and resigned his commission in April 1923 . He formally retired from the army in December , with the honorary rank of major - general . Polish gentleman ( 1924 – 1939 ) . His last Polish aide de camp was Prince Karol Radziwiłł , who inherited a large 500 , 000 acre ( 2 , 000 km² ) estate in eastern Poland when the Communists killed his uncle . They became friends and Carton de Wiart was given the use of a large estate called Prostyń , in the Pripet Marshes , a large wetland area larger than Ireland and well known for waterfowl . Since borders have changed , it is now at the border between Belarus and Ukraine . Carton de Wiart ' s home was a converted hunting lodge on an island , only a few miles from the Soviet border . In this location Carton de Wiart spent the rest of the interwar years . In his memoirs he said " I think I shot every day of those 15 years I spent in the marshes and the pleasure never palled " . He returned to England for three months each year during the winter , returning in time for the breaking up of the ice on the frozen lakes and rivers . German invasion ( 1939 ) . After 15 years , Carton de Wiart ' s Polish peaceful life was interrupted by the oncoming war in July 1939 when he was recalled and appointed to his old job , as head of the British Military Mission to Poland . Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany on 1 September and on 17 September the Soviets allied with Germany attacked Poland from the east . Soon Soviet forces overran Prostyń and Carton de Wiart lost all his guns , rods , clothes , and furniture . They were packed up by the Soviets and stored in the Minsk Museum , but destroyed by the Germans in later fighting . He never saw the area again , but as he said " . . . they could not take my memories " . Second World War . Polish campaign ( 1939 ) . Carton de Wiart met with the Polish commander - in - chief , Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz - Śmigły in late August 1939 and formed a rather low opinion of his capabilities . He strongly urged Rydz - Śmigły to pull Polish forces back beyond the Vistula River , but was unsuccessful . The other advice he offered , to have the seagoing units of the Polish fleet leave the Baltic Sea , was , after much argument , finally adopted . This fleet made a significant contribution to the Allied cause , especially the several modern destroyers and submarines . As Polish resistance weakened , Carton de Wiart evacuated his mission from Warsaw along with the Polish government . Together with the Polish commander Rydz - Śmigły , Carton de Wiart made his way with the rest of the British Mission to the Romanian border with both the Germans and the Soviets in pursuit . His car convoy was attacked by the Luftwaffe on the road , and the wife of one of his aides was killed . He was in danger of arrest in Romania and got out by aircraft on 21 September with a false passport , just in time as the pro Allied Romanian prime minister , Armand Calinescu , was assassinated that day . Norwegian campaign ( 1940 ) . Recalled to a special appointment in the army in the autumn of 1939 , Carton de Wiart reverted to his permanent army rank of Colonel . He was promoted to acting major - general in November . After a brief stint in command of the 61st Division in the Midlands of England , Carton de Wiart was summoned in April 1940 to take charge of a hastily drawn together Anglo - French force to occupy Namsos , a small town in middle Norway . His orders were to take the city of Trondheim , 125 miles ( 200 km ) to the south , in conjunction with a naval attack and an advance from the south by troops landed at Åndalsnes . He flew to Namsos to review the location before the troops arrived . When his Short Sunderland flying boat came in for a landing , it was attacked by a German fighter and his aide was wounded and had to be evacuated . After the French Alpine troops landed ( without their transport mules and missing straps for their skis ) , the Luftwaffe bombed and destroyed the town of Namsos . The British landed without transport , skis , artillery , or air cover . The French stayed put in Namsos for the remainder of the short campaign . Despite these handicaps , Carton de Wiart managed to move his forces over the mountains and down to Trondheimsfjord , where they were shelled by German destroyers . They had no artillery to challenge the German ships . It soon became apparent that the whole Norwegian campaign was fast becoming a failure . The naval attack on Trondheim , the reason for the Namsos landing , did not happen and his troops were exposed without guns , transport , air cover or skis in a foot and a half of snow . They were being attacked by German ski troops , machine gunned and bombed from the air , and the German Navy was landing troops to his rear . He recommended withdrawal but was asked to hold his position for political reasons , which he did . After orders and counterorders from London , the decision to evacuate was made . However , on the date set to evacuate the troops , the ships did not show . The next night a naval force finally arrived , led through the fog by Lord Louis Mountbatten . The transports successfully evacuated the entire force amid heavy bombardment by the Germans , resulting in the sinking of two destroyers , the French and British . Carton de Wiart arrived back at the British naval base of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on 5 May 1940 – his 60th birthday . Ireland . Carton de Wiart was posted back to the command of the 61st Division , which was soon transferred to Northern Ireland as a defence against invasion . Carton de Wiart brought the 61st up to a high standard of efficiency . However , following the arrival of Lieutenant - General Sir Henry Royds Pownall as Commander - in - Chief in Northern Ireland , Carton de Wiart was told that he was too old to command a division on active duty . British military mission to Yugoslavia ( 1941 ) . Advanced to temporary major - general in November 1940 , he remained inactive very briefly , as he was appointed as head of the British - Yugoslavian Military Mission on 5 April 1941 . Hitler was preparing to invade the country and the Yugoslavs asked for British help . Carton de Wiart traveled in a Wellington Bomber to Belgrade , Serbia to negotiate with the Yugoslavian government . After refueling in Malta , the aircraft left for Cairo with enemy territory to the north and south . Both engines failed off the coast of Italian - controlled Libya , and the plane crash landed in the sea about a mile from land . Carton de Wiart was knocked unconscious , but the cold water brought him to . When the plane broke up and sank , he and the rest aboard were forced to swim to shore . They were captured by the Italian authorities . Prisoner of war in Italy ( 1941 – 1943 ) . Carton de Wiart was a high profile prisoner . After four months at the Villa Orsini at Sulmona , he was transferred to a special prison for senior officers at Castello di Vincigliata . There were a number of senior officer prisoners here because of the successes made by Rommel in North Africa early in 1941 . Carton de Wiart made friends , especially with General Sir Richard O ' Connor , Thomas Daniel Knox , 6th Earl of Ranfurly and Lieutenant - General Philip Neame VC . The four were committed to escaping . He made five attempts including seven months tunneling . Once Carton de Wiart evaded capture for eight days disguised as an Italian peasant ( which is surprising considering that he was in northern Italy , couldn ' t speak Italian , and was 61 years old , with an eye patch , one empty sleeve and multiple injuries and scars ) . Ironically , Carton de Wiart had been approved for repatriation due to his disablement , but notification arrived after his escape . As the repatriation would have required that he promise not to take any further part in the war , it is probable that he would have declined anyway . In letters to his wife , Hermione , Countess of Ranfurly , Ranfurly described Carton de Wiart in captivity as " . . . a delightful character " and said he " . . . must hold the record for bad language . " Ranfurly was " . . . endlessly amused by him . He really is a nice person – superbly outspoken . " Then , in a surprising development , Carton de Wiart was taken from his prison in August 1943 , and driven to Rome , where the Italian government secretly planned to leave the war and wanted Carton de Wiart to send the message to the British Army negotiating about a peace treaty with the UK . Carton de Wiart was to accompany an Italian negotiator , General Giacomo Zanussi , to Lisbon to meet Allied contacts to facilitate the surrender . But to keep the cover , Carton de Wiart was told he needed civilian clothes . Distrusting Italian tailors , he stated that " [ he ] had no objection provided [ he ] did not resemble a gigolo . " In " Happy Odyssey " , he described the resultant suit as being " as good as anything that ever came out of Savile Row . " When they reached Lisbon , Carton de Wiart was released and made his way to England , reaching there on 28 August 1943 . China mission ( 1943 – 1947 ) . Within a month of his arrival back in England , Carton de Wiart was summoned to spend a night at the Prime Minister ' s country home at Chequers . Churchill informed him that he was to be sent to China as his personal representative . He was promoted to acting lieutenant - general on 9 October , and left by air for India on 18 October 1943 . As his accommodation in China was not ready , Carton de Wiart spent time in India getting an understanding of the situation in China , especially being briefed by a genuine " tai - pan " , John Keswick , head of the great China trading empire Jardine Matheson . He met the Viceroy , Field Marshal Viscount Wavell and General Sir Claude Auchinleck , the Commander - in - Chief in India . He also met Orde Wingate . Before arriving in China , Carton de Wiart attended the 1943 Cairo Conference organized by Churchill , U . S President Roosevelt and Chinese General Chiang Kai Shek . There is a famous picture of these leaders gathered in a Cairo garden , with Carton de Wiart standing behind them in company . When in Cairo , he took the opportunity to renew his acquaintance with Hermione , Countess of Ranfurly , the wife of his friend from prisoner of war days , Dan Ranfurly . Carton de Wiart was one of the few to be able to work with the notoriously difficult commander of US forces in the China - Burma - India Theatre , U . S Army General Joseph Stilwell . He arrived in the headquarters of the Nationalist Chinese Government , Chungking ( Chongqing ) , in early December 1943 . For the next three years , he was to be involved in a host of reporting , diplomatic and administrative duties in the remote war time capital . He worked with Chiang kai - Shek and when he finally retired he was offered a job by Chiang . He regularly flew out to India to liaise with British officials . His old friend , Richard O ' Connor , had escaped from the Italian prisoner of war camp and was now in command of British troops in eastern India . The Governor of Bengal , the Australian Richard Casey , became a good friend , his wife having nursed Carton de Wiart on one of his many hospital visits in World War I . On 9 October 1944 , Carton de Wiart was promoted to temporary lieutenant - general and to the war substantive rank of major - general . Carton de Wiart returned home in December 1944 to report to the War Cabinet on the Chinese situation . He was knighted with the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ( KBE ) , an Order of the British Empire in the 1945 New Year Honours List . Clement Attlee , when he became head of the Labour Government in June 1945 , asked Carton de Wiart to stay on in China . South East Asia . Carton de Wiart was assigned to a tour of the Burma Front , and after meeting Admiral Sir James Somerville , Commander - in - Chief of the British Eastern Fleet , he was given a front seat on the bridge of the battleship for the bombardment of Sabang in the Netherlands East Indies in 1945 , including air battles between Japanese fighters and British carrier aircraft . It was the first time HMS " Queen Elizabeth " had fired her guns in anger since the Dardanelles in 1915 . A good part of Carton de Wiart ' s reporting had to do with the increasing power of the Chinese Communists . The historian Max Hastings writes : " De Wiart despised all Communists on principle , denounced Mao Zedong as ' a fanatic ' , and added : ' I cannot believe he means business ' . He told the British cabinet that there was no conceivable alternative to Chiang as ruler of China . " He met Mao Zedong at dinner and had a memorable exchange with him , interrupting his propaganda speech to criticise him for holding back from fighting the Japanese for domestic political reasons . Mao was briefly stunned , and then laughed . After the Japanese surrender in August 1945 , Carton de Wiart flew to Singapore to participate in the formal surrender . After a visit to Peking , he moved to Nanking , the now liberated Nationalist capital , accompanied by Julian Amery , the British Prime Minister ' s Personal Representative to Chiang . A visit to Tokyo to meet General Douglas MacArthur came at the end of his tenure . He was now 66 and ready to retire , despite the offer of a job by Chiang . Carton de Wiart retired in October 1947 , with the honorary rank of lieutenant - general . Retirement . En route home via French Indochina , Carton de Wiart stopped in Rangoon as a guest of the army commander . Coming down stairs , he slipped on coconut matting , fell down , broke his back and several vertebrae , and knocked himself unconscious . He eventually made it to England and into a hospital where he slowly recovered . The doctors succeeded in extracting an incredible amount of shrapnel from his old wounds . He recovered and then went to Belgium to visit relatives . His wife died in 1949 and in 1951 , at the age of 71 , he married Ruth Myrtle Muriel Joan McKechnie , a divorcee known as Joan Sutherland , a woman 23 years his junior ( born in late 1903 , she died 13 January 2006 at the age of 102 ) , and settled at Aghinagh House , Killinardish , County Cork , Ireland , taking up a life pursuing salmon and snipe . Carton de Wiart died at the age of 83 on 5 June 1963 . He left no writings . He and his wife , Joan , are buried in Caum Churchyard just off the main Macroom road . The grave site is just outside the actual graveyard wall on the grounds of his own home Aghinagh House . Carton de Wiart ' s will was probated in Ireland at 4 , 158 pounds sterling and in England at 3 , 496 pounds sterling .