Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart was born in 1880, the son of an aristocrat in Brussels, Belgium. He grew up in Cairo, where his father was a court magistrate and in charge of the Cairo Electric Railways. There he learned Arabic. At age 11, he was sent to a boarding school in England. He attended college in Oxford, quitting in 1899 to join the British military. On enlistment he claimed to be 25 years of age.
- Boer War: shot in the stomach and groin.
- WW1, Somaliland: shot in the face twice, losing his left eye and part of an ear.
- WW1, Western Front: he was shot in the left hand, bit off his own gangrenous fingers when field doctors refused to amputate.
- WW1, Battle of the Somme: shot through the skull and ankle.
- WW1, Battle of Paschendaele: shot through the hip.
- WW1, Cambrai: shot through the leg.
- WW1, Arras: shot through the ear.
- Poland, 1920: As Aide de Camp for the King, he was on an observation train outside Warsaw when it was attacked by Red Army cavalry. He fought them off with a pistol while on the running board of the railcar, even falling off once and jumping back aboard.
- Poland, 1939: Lost his hunting lodge and all his possessions to the invading Soviet Army. Evacuated to Romania, escaped there using a false passport.
- Norway, 1940: Failed to take Trondheim, evacuated by the British fleet under the cover of fog.
- Northern Ireland, 1940: In command of defense forces, by all reports, did a fine job, but was removed from command because he was too old to command a division (age 60).
- Yugoslavia 1941: Headed British-Yugoslavian Military Mission. Plane crashed when engines stalled, was captured by Italian forces.
- Italian POW, 1941-1943: Made 5 attempts at escape, including escaping after 7 months of tunneling, evading capture for 8 days in spite of not speaking Italian, being 61 years of age, and an eyepatch and an empty sleeve. He did not know that he had been scheduled for repatriation due to his infirmities. In 1943 he was sent to Rome, the Italian government sending him back to England with a message signaling their intent to quit the war.
- China, 1946-1947: Was onboard battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, which was firing its guns for the first time since 1915 on Sabang in the Netherlands East Indies. He was present at the signing of the Japanese surrender in Singapore. He once interrupted Mao Zedong at a dinner, admonishing the communist leader for not joining in the fight against the Japanese earlier.
- French Indochina (Vietnam), 1947, he slipped on a coconut mat, fell down stairs and broke several vertebra in his back.
- After rehab, he retired to Ireland, fishing and hunting.
- Died at 83.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by a fellow POW, Thomas Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ronfurley
Carton de Wiart was a delightful character... Must hold the world record for bad language.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Carton de Wiart, after the end of WW1
Frankly, I had enjoyed the war.
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Adrian Carton de Wiart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Now I feel bad about whining about my bum ankle and bad knee.