Sir James Marshall-Cornwall | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1887-05-27)27 May 1887 India |
| Died | 25 December 1985(1985-12-25) (aged 98) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Service years | 1907–1943 |
| Rank | General |
| Service number | 1094 |
| Unit | Royal Artillery |
| Commands | Western Command (1941–42) British Troops in Egypt (1941) III Corps (1940) |
| Conflicts | First World War Second World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Mentioned in Despatches (7) Knight of the Legion of Honour (France) Officer of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Croix de Guerre (Belgium) Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States) Grand Officer of the Order of the Nile (Egypt) |
GeneralSir James Handyside Marshall-Cornwall,KCB, CBE, DSO, MC, FRGS, FRSGS (27 May 1887 – 25 December 1985) was a seniorBritish Army officer and military historian.
Cornwall went toRugby School and theRoyal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned into theRoyal Field Artillery in 1907, during his first spell of annual leave he travelled to Germany to study German. He later passed the Civil Service Commission examination as a first-class German interpreter, the first of the eleven interpreterships he was to gain. He passed as a first-class interpreter in French, Norwegian, Swedish, Hollander Dutch, and Italian.
On the outbreak of theFirst World War, Cornwall joined theIntelligence Corps atLe Havre. In 1915 he was appointed to the rank of captain at 2nd Corps Headquarters in theSecond Army. In 1916 he was promoted to temporary major at the General Headquarters of theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF), under GeneralSir Douglas Haig. In 1918, Cornwall was posted to theWar Office as head of theMI3 section of the military intelligence directorate, where he remained until the armistice.
Cornwall was decorated with theMilitary Cross in 1915,[1] theDistinguished Service Order and the FrenchLegion of Honour in 1917,[2] the BelgianOrder of the Crown andCroix de Guerre in 1918,[3] and the United StatesDistinguished Service Medal in 1919.[4]
In 1919, after attending the first postwar course at theStaff College, Camberley,[5] Cornwall was sent to thepeace conference inParis, where he worked withReginald Leeper andHarold Nicolson on the new boundaries of Europe. Several jobs in the Middle East in the 1920s gave him the opportunity to study the Turkish and modern Greek languages. In 1927 he was sent to China with theRoyal Artillery (Shanghai Defence Force), to protect British life and property in theShanghai International Settlement. This enabled him to acquireMandarin and to travel extensively in theFar East with his wife.
From 1928 to 1932 Marshall-Cornwall (as he was now known) held the post of military attaché inBerlin.[6] In 1934, after two years as commander of the 51st Highland Division,[6] Royal Artillery, based atPerth, Scotland, Marshall-Cornwall was promoted the rank of major-general. He spent the next four years travelling in Europe, India, and the United States, then two years in Cairo as head of the British military mission to Egypt.[6] Here he qualified as an interpreter in colloquial Arabic.
In 1938, Marshall-Cornwall was promoted to lieutenant-general, in charge of the air defences of Great Britain.[6] In May 1940 he went to France to help evacuate British troops from Cherbourg, commanding an ad hoc formation dubbedNorman Force, boarding the last ship to leave the port. He took over command ofIII Corps in England in June 1940 holding the post until November.[6] In April 1941 he becameGeneral Officer Commanding theBritish Troops in Egypt.[6] Later that year he was sent byWinston Churchill to Turkey in an attempt to persuade the Turks to enter the war on the Allied side, a mission which failed.[6]
Marshall-Cornwall took overWestern Command in November 1941,[6] but was dismissed in 1942 for going outside the proper channels to secure the safety of theLiverpool docks. He spent the rest of the war with theSpecial Operations Executive andMI6, attempting to promote better relations between them.[7] He retired from the army in 1943.[6]
Between 1948 and 1951, Marshall-Cornwall was editor-in-chief of theGerman archives at theForeign Office captured by the British Army in 1945, and wrote military history. He was president of theRoyal Geographical Society (1954–58).[8]
In 1985, one of his last articles was a book review ofColonel Z, a book about the life ofClaude Dansey, a man that he knew well. In his review, he only made three minor revisions.[9]
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Cornwall met Marjorie Coralie Scott Owen, who was driving an ambulance for a Red Cross mission toWhite Russian refugees, while encamped in theIzmit peninsula. They were married in Wales in April 1921. In 1927 he inherited a small estate in Scotland from his uncle William Marshall, on condition that he should assume the surname of Marshall. As Marshall was one of his forenames, this was achieved by the insertion of a hyphen. The Marshall-Cornwalls had a son and two daughters. Their elder daughter died aged fourteen in 1938 after an operation for appendicitis in Switzerland. Their son was killed in France in 1944. He is buried on the spot where he fell, in an orchard near Cahaignes, Normandy. After the war, the landowner presented the site of the grave to the casualty's father, who in turn, requested that the grave remain undisturbed. His other daughter, Janet, marriedMichael Willoughby, 12th Baron Middleton on 14 October 1947.
Marshall-Cornwall died, aged 98, on Christmas Day 1985.[citation needed]
| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by | GOC III Corps June–November 1940 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC British Troops in Egypt April–November 1941 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC-in-C Western Command 1941–1942 | Succeeded by |
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