Sir Hugh Stockwell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1903-06-16)16 June 1903 Jersey, Channel Islands |
| Died | 27 November 1986(1986-11-27) (aged 83) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1923–1964 |
| Rank | General |
| Service number | 23894 |
| Unit | Royal Welch Fusiliers |
| Commands | Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (1960–1964) I Corps (1954–1956) Malaya (1952–1954) 3rd Division (1950–1952) Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (1948–1950) 6th Airborne Division (1947–1948) 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division (1946–1947) 82nd (West Africa) Division (1945–1946) 29th Independent Infantry Brigade (1943–1945) 30th (East Africa) Infantry Brigade (1942–1943) 2nd Battalion,Royal Welch Fusiliers (1942) |
| Battles / wars | Second World War Palestine Emergency Suez Crisis |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order &Bar Mentioned in Despatches (4)[1][2][3][4] |
| Other work | Colonel Royal Welch Fusiliers Colonel Malay Regiment Colonel Commandant,Army Air Corps[5] |
GeneralSir Hugh Charles Stockwell,GCB, KBE, DSO &Bar (16 June 1903 – 27 November 1986) was a seniorBritish Army officer most remembered for commanding the Anglo-French ground forces during theSuez Crisis and his service asDeputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe ofNATO from 1960 to 1964.
Stockwell was born inJersey, but spent his childhood inIndia where his father (also Hugh Charles Stockwell) served as an officer in theHighland Light Infantry. Stockwell attendedCothill House school,[6]Marlborough College, and theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst.[7] On graduation from Sandhurst he was commissioned into theRoyal Welch Fusiliers on 1 February 1923.[8]
Stockwell was stationed in India until 1929,[7] where he was promoted tolieutenant on 1 February 1925.[9] He was thenseconded to theRoyal West African Frontier Force from 1 January 1930,[7][10] and promoted tocaptain on 25 June 1932.[11]
In 1935, he left the Frontier Force to join theSmall Arms School Corps as aVickers machine gun instructor inNetheravon,[7] taking up his post on 30 January 1936.[12] He served in that capacity until 1938.[7]
With the approach of theSecond World War, on 23 December 1938, Stockwell becamebrigade major of the158th Brigade,[13] which was known as the "Royal Welch Brigade" because it was composed entirely of threeTerritorial Army battalions of his regiment.[7][14] He was promotedmajor on 1 February 1940.[15] Unlikely to see action in Northern Ireland where his unit was based, Stockwell volunteered in March 1940 and was selected to command one of theindependent companies formed to serve in theNorwegian campaign.[16] The independent companies arrived in Norway in early May under the command ofColin Gubbins. Stockwell, commanding No. 2 Independent Company, was soon promoted tolieutenant-colonel to replace Gubbins who had been given command of 24th Guards Brigade. By late May it was clear that lacking air support the British force was outmatched and there was no alternative to evacuation. As the British withdrew from Norway, Stockwell was assigned to the rearguard and commanding a force of two independent companies and a battalion of the Irish Guards successfully held a defensive position for two days, before being ordered to withdraw.[16] After withdrawing, he assembled two platoons and attacked the German positions to stop their assault. For his "great courage and determination" in this action, he was appointed to theDistinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1940.[17] The citation for this award read:
STOCKWELL. MAJOR (LOCAL LIEUTENANT-COLONEL)
HUGH CHARLES. The Royal Welch Fusiliers.
When Placed in command of a mixed force of all arms at a difficult moment in the Rognan Valley operation, he showed great skill and energy in organizing a defensive Position within a short period, and by his energy and determination inspiring all ranks. He held the position successfully for 48 hours until ordered to withdraw. During the withdrawal towards a small and congested harbour, close behind where troops were embarking, he showed great courage and determination when part of his rearguard went astray. He immediately came back, collected two platoons, and went forward again with them, and put them into action to stem the German advance. This officer's military capacity and soldierly qualities were displayed at a time when the situation was most difficult.[18]
After the Norwegian Campaign, the independent companies were disbanded but many individuals involved moved to the newly formedBritish Commandos. Stockwell was selected to head the commando training centre atLochailort.[16] In 1942, he returned to the Royal Welch to command the 2nd battalion, part of29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group which was training in amphibious operations to take part in OperationIronclad, the seizure of the natural port ofDiego Suarez inMadagascar which was occupied by theVichy French. The brigade left Scotland in late March 1942 and after a brief pause in South Africa, sailed for Madagascar to land unopposed on 5 May. After a day's fighting the British force achieved its objectives.[16] The brigade group took part in further fighting in September when it was decided to take control of the whole of the island and establishFree French control.[19]
After his success in the battle, Stockwell was promoted tobrigadier in late October and given command of the30th (East Africa) Infantry Brigade. After a tenure of only just over a month he was posted to South Africa to take command of the 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group which was preparing to ship to India as part of36th Infantry Division. Arriving in India in late January 1943, Stockwell remained the brigade's commander until January 1945 seeing action in theSecond Arakan Campaign in early 1944 and then in northern India andBurma from mid 1944 onwards.[19][20]
In January 1945, Stockwell was granted the acting rank ofmajor-general and still in Burma, was at short notice given command of the82nd (West Africa) Division.[21] George Bruce, its existing commander, had displayed erratic behaviour which had resulted inPhilip Christison, the commander ofXV Indian Corps and a party of senior officers being placed in jeopardy when visiting the division's front. Christison placed Bruce on the sick list and called for Stockwell.[22] Stockwell was not without his own eccentricities. He selected a WO 1 (RSM) as a sort of adviser on the Africans. This man, who Stockwell described as 'tremendous', had fought for the Germans in the First World War and won the Iron Cross. Stockwell got him a DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal). "He must have been the only soldier to wear an Iron Cross and a DCM."[23]
ButLouis Mountbatten, the theatre supreme commander, wrote in his diary:
...so Hugh Stockwell has taken over and it is possible to visit his front in greater safety! I can hardly imagine a better Divisional Commander than the latter.[24]
His promotion from major to acting major general had taken less than five years[7] although on taking command of the division his permanent rank was still only lieutenant-colonel (war substantive colonel) and he became a substantive colonel only in July 1946.[25] 82nd Division saw heavy fighting and suffered the highest casualties of any formation in XV Indian Corps. April 1945 saw the end of the division's active service but it remained in Burma until October 1946.[24] Stockwell's major-general's rank was made permanent in May 1947.[26] For his services in Burma he was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire[27] in 1945 and aCompanion of the Order of the Bath in 1946.[28] He was also mentioned in despatches in 1945.
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At the end of the war, Stockwell remained in the army, commanding the44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division until 1947. He then took command of the6th Airborne Division, stationed inPalestine. In that capacity, "he was responsible for the evacuation" of all British troops from Palestine in 1948, as the result of theIsraeli declaration of independence.[7] In April 1948, during theBattle of Haifa, Stockwell was able to arrange a truce in Haifa between the Jewish and Arab sides.[29] As Stockwell wrote in his report afterwards, the Arab leaders told him "that they were not in a position to sign the truce, as they had no control over the Arab military elements in the town and that, in all sincerity, they could not fulfil the terms of the truce, even if they were to sign".[30] Instead, the Arab leaders offered "as an alternative, that the Arab population wished to evacuate Haifa and that they would be grateful for military assistance".[31] Stockwell told the Arab leaders:
"You have made a foolish decision...Think it over, as you'll regret it afterward. You must accept the conditions of the Jews. They are fair enough. Don't permit life to be destroyed senselessly. After all, it was you who began the fighting and the Jews have won."[31]
Despite Stockwell's advice, the Arab leaders insisted upon evacuation, and Stockwell oversaw the evacuation of 30,000 Arabs from Haifa.[31] For his services in Palestine between March and September 1947 Stockwell wasmentioned in dispatches and for his "gallant and distinguished services" in Palestine between March and June 1948 he was knighted as aKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire,[32] an unusual honour for an officer of major general rank.
After leaving Palestine, he was appointedCommandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he served until the end of 1950.[33] Stockwell then served as General Officer CommandingEast Anglian District from January to May 1951[34] before commanding the3rd Division for a year.[7]
In June 1952, Stockwell was made GOCMalaya[35] with responsibility for the British forces fighting in theMalayan Emergency.[36] He was raised to the temporary rank of lieutenant-general and this rank was made permanent in September 1953.[37] In 1954, Stockwell left Malaya to take command of theI Corps and was appointed aKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath inthat year's Queen's Birthday Honours,[38][39] before leaving in 1956 to take command ofII Corps and attached French ground forces atPort Said during theSuez Crisis.[7][40] In his planning for the war against Egypt, Stockwell as ground commander for the Allied Task Force preferred slow, low-risk, methodical operations centered around the Centurion battle tank.[41] In the summer of 1956, Stockwell rejected the Contingency Plan prepared by the British Chiefs of Staff, and instead submittedOperation Musketeer, which called for the British to take Alexandria and then for British armoured forces to engage in a decisive battle of annihilation with the Egyptians north of Cairo.[42] Together with his deputy, the French GeneralAndre Beaufre, Stockwell was highly opposed to the change imposed on Musketeer in September 1956 when Port Said replaced Alexandria as the main target.[43] Stockwell was not popular with the officers who served under him. One French officer recalled that Stockwell was:
Extremely excitable, gesticulating, keeping no part of him still, his hands, his feet, and even his head and shoulders perpetually on the go, he starts off by sweeping objects off the table with a swish of his swagger cane or in his room by using it to make golf-strokes with the flower vases and ash-trays. Those are the good moments. You will see him pass in an instant from the most cheerfully expressed optimism to a dejection that amounts to nervous depression. He is a cyclothymic. By turns courteous and brutal, refined and coarse, headstrong in some circumstances, hesitant and indecisive in others, he disconcerts by his unpredictable responses and the contradictions of which he is made up. One only of his qualities remains constant: his courage under fire".[44]
When Beaufre suggested on 3 November 1956 that the Allies launch Telescope, namely Anglo-French paratroop landings in the Canal Zone ahead of schedule, Stockwell reluctantly agreed to the change.[45] Stockwell was always in favour of rigidly following already agreed to plans, and was most reluctant to see any changes, whereas Beaufre was all for changing plans to match with changed circumstances.[46] The differences between Stockwell and Beaufre were summarized by the American historian Derek Varble as: "Stockwell favored existing plans; their methodical construction and underlying staff work reduced risks. Beaufre, by contrast an opportunist, saw plans merely a means to an end, without much inherent value. For him, altered circumstances or assumptions provided adequate justification to jettison part or all of the original plan".[46]
For this service in the Suez War, he was awarded aBar to his DSO in the1957 Birthday Honours.[47] In the recommendation for the award, Stockwell's commander,GeneralSir Charles Keightley wrote, "[Stockwell's] skill, energy and courage throughout [the Suez campaign] were of the highest order."[48]
In February 1957 Stockwell becameMilitary Secretary to theSecretary of State for War,[49] and was promoted to full general that August.[50] He served as Military Secretary until 1959[36] when he was appointedAdjutant-General to the Forces.[7][51] He was advanced toKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the1959 Birthday Honours.[52]
In 1960, on the advice ofViscount Montgomery of Alamein, Stockwell was appointedDeputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe ofNATO,[53] a post which he held until his retirement in 1964.[54] Stockwell was described as a "surprise choice" for the position because he had never attendedStaff College, Camberley, and had "spent his whole career as a fighting soldier."[55] As Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, he worked to promote the creation of strong conventional forces, and advocated "the use oftactical nuclear weapons only as a last resort."[54]
After retiring from the military, Stockwell became the chairman of theKennet and Avon Canal Trust and served in a variety of other positions for corporate and charitable organizations.[54] He died on 27 November 1986 ofleukemia at thePrincess Alexandra Hospital at the Royal Air Force base at Wroughton near Swindon.[56]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | GOC 82nd (West Africa) Division 1945–1946 | Division disbanded |
| New title | GOC 44th (Home Counties) Division 1946–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC 6th Airborne Division 1947–1948 | Division disbanded |
| Preceded by | Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst 1948–1950 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC East Anglian District January 1951 – May 1951 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC 3rd Division 1951–1952 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC Malaya 1952–1954 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC 1st (British) Corps 1954–1956 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Military Secretary 1957–1959 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Adjutant General 1959–1960 | Succeeded by |
