British war hero Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart survived both the trenches of World War I and PoW camps of World War II. During battles he was shot in the face, losing an eye, and shot through the skull, stomach, groin, ankle and ear. In WW I, he was severely wounded no less than eight times, including losing his left hand to German shrapnel.
Not all British generals were ‘Chateau Generals,’ issuing orders from safety and luxury. Sir Adrian was in the thick of battle with his men. For most, the loss of an eye and hand would be enough to make one leave the military. Not so for Sir Adrian. He also survived two plane crashes, made multiple escape attempts from an Italian POW camp, and broke his back travelling home. In his memoir, it’s clear that Adrian Carton de Wiart lived for battle. Who was this unkillable soldier?
Adrian Ghislain Carton de Wiart was born on May 5th, 1880, to a Belgian aristocratic family in Brussels. Growing up relatively well-off, his parents sent him to boarding school in England. He eventually studied law at Oxford University. Itching for something more adventurous than law books, he shocked his family by boldly dropping out and enrolling in the British Army.
Carton de Wiart was underaged, not a British subject (he was Belgian-Irish) and did not have his father’s consent. That didn’t stop him from his goal. Carton de Wiart pretended to be 25 (he was 20) and signed up under the assumed name of “Trooper Carton.”
In 1899, he got to experience his first taste of war.
He left for South Africa with the 19th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry for the Second Boer War. He was wounded in battle, having been shot in the stomach and groin. This meant a return to England to recover. In his memoir, he recalled his thoughts, “At that moment, I knew once and for all that war was in my blood. If the British didn’t fancy me, I would have offered myself to the Boers.”
Carton de Wiart’s father was furious on his return, but allowed him to remain in the army. Although wounded, Sir Adrian was eager to get back in action. In 1901, he returned to South Africa. This time around he became a British citizen and enlisted under his real name. He served as a second lieutenant with the 4th Dragoon Guards until the war ended a year later.
In 1907, he returned to Belgium and played the dutiful role of bored aristocrat – shooting fowl, fox hunting, and attending society parties. He was described as ‘a delightful character who must hold the world record for bad language in male company.’ In 1908, he married Countess Friederike Fugger von Babenhausen, the eldest daughter of an Austrian Prince. They would go on to have two daughters together.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Carton de Wiart was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting the forces of the Dervish state of the ‘Mad Mullah’ Mohammed Hassan. During an attack on an enemy stronghold, he was shot in the arm and face, losing his left eye and part of his ear. He received the Distinguished Service Order for his exploits.
Lord Ismay, who served alongside Carton de Wiart described the incident: “He didn’t check his stride, but the bullet must have stung him up as his language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye. He must have been in agony.“
While recuperating in England, his doctors gave Carton de Wiart a glass eye.
He despised the thing, but needed one to be declared medically cleared and fit for service. Upon discharge however, he threw it from a taxi window, instead choosing his trademark black eye patch. He soon got his wish to fight on the Western Front when he was sent to Ypres, France in May 1915.
During the Second Battle of Ypres, shrapnel from a heavy German artillery barrage shattered Carton de Wiart’s left hand. When a field doctor refused to amputate two useless, dangling fingers, the Sir Adrian ripped them off himself! Later that year, a surgeon amputated the entire hand.
He returned to England to recover at a nursing hospital in Park Lane. He would return to this same place after each of his many injuries. It became so regular that they even kept his own pajamas ready for his next inevitable visit.
Despite having lost both his left eye and hand, Carton de Wiart once again managed to convince a medical board he was fit for battle. In 1916, at age 36, he took command of the 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment as a lieutenant-colonel. While commanding them at the Battle of the Somme, he forever cemented his legend.
In the trenches, he inspired awe in his men by pulling grenade pins with his teeth and hurling them at the enemy with his good arm. The eye patch, empty sleeve, tailored moustache and wild bravery made him famous. Men described his mere presence as helping to ease their fears before going ‘over the top’ into No Man’s Land. Carton de Wiart lead his men with the simple words, ‘Follow me men!’
Military historians have labelled Carton de Wiart as reckless.
During fierce fighting, at the village of La Boiselle, three other commanding officers were killed. Carton de Wiart took charge of all 3 units himself, holding off advancing German counterattacks. He received the Victoria Cross for his gallantry at La Boiselle, Britain’s highest honor. In typical fashion, he later declined to even mention the medal in his memoirs saying, “It had been won by the 8th Glosters, for every man had done as much as me.”
Carton de Wiart’s “batman” (personal servant) noted his commanding officer seemed to have a lucky streak during the Somme offensive. “At Devil’s Wood, that’s where the old man got shot through the back of the head. But fortunately, it missed his spinal cord.” He received what would normally be a kill shot— but somehow survived yet again.
During three subsequent battles, he was shot in the ankle, hip, leg, and ear, but soon regained full mobility after convalescing back in England. Despite his losses of various body parts, he said later, “Frankly, I had enjoyed the war.”
After WWI, he led the British effort to aid Poland, which was engaged in multiple conflicts with the Soviet Bolsheviks. In 1920, Cossacks attempted to hijack his train. He took them on single-handedly (pun intended) armed only with a pistol. Carton de Wiart became quite taken with Poland and decided to remain there. He retired as a major-general in 1923 and spent the next 15 years shooting fowl at the Polish estate of a friend.
When World War II broke out, peace was short-lived for the Poles, who were decimated by attacks from both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Carton de Wiart was forced to escape and headed back to Great Britain. There, he re-enlisted once again, stationed in Northern Ireland with the 61st division.
Back in the fight once again, he was sent to Norway in 1940 to command an Anglo-French force. His seaplane crashed landed on a fjord when it was attacked by a German fighter plane. In true Carton de Wiart style, he refused to get into a lift raft because it would be a sitting duck. Instead, he waited in the wreckage until the enemy plane ran out of ammunition and flew off.
His men were outgunned and undersupplied. Still, his forces managed to traverse mountains and get to Trondheim Fjord, while avoiding German ski troops and being bombarded by the German Luftwaffe. Ultimately, the Royal Navy had to ferry the men out of Norway to safely. Carton de Wiart arrived in Great Britain on his 60th birthday.
In April 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed Carton de Wiart to lead a British mission in Yugoslavia. He never got there though. Flying out of Malta, his Wellington bomber was fired upon and took a nosedive into the Mediterranean Sea. He and the British RAF crew took refuge on the wings until the fuselage started to sink beneath them. Adrian Carton de Wiart helped an injured, struggling airman swim the mile to shore.
On coastline, Italian soldiers quickly captured them.
Carton de Wiart was sent to a POW camp in Vincigliata Castle outside Florence. Being a prisoner didn’t slow down Sir Adrian though. He and five other British officers made five escape attempts over the next two years. They escaped in 1943 through a 60 foot tunnel they’d managed to dig through bedrock for seven months. He spent 18 days disguised as an Italian peasant before he was recaptured. Quite a feat given his distinctive appearance and inability to speak Italian. A one-handed man with a black eye patch proved too conspicuous.
The Italians then decided they wanted to switch sides in the war and took Carton de Wiart to Rome to help negotiate with the British-American Allies. Sir Adrian was brought to Lisbon and his release from captivity was ultimately negotiated.
In 1943, he returned to England but was only back a month before given a new assignment. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made him his special military representative to Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek. Churchill was a firm admirer of Carton de Wiart, describing him as “a model of chivalry and honour,” and later writing the foreword to his autobiography. After the war ended, Carton de Wiart remained in China at this assignment until 1946. There he managed to survive yet another plane crash!
In October 1947, Carton de Wiart officially retired from the British Army with the honorary rank of lieutenant general. Even then, he sustaining yet another serious injury. On his way back to England from China, he stopped off in Rangoon and slipped down a flight of wet stairs, breaking his back and knocking himself unconscious. During his recovery, the doctors removed a huge amount of shrapnel from his war-torn body.
Along with the Victoria Cross, he was presented with the French Croix de Guerre, the Polish Cross of Valour and the British War Medal. Upon receiving the Victoria Cross, the London Times newspaper posted the following notice in 1916. “For the most conspicuous bravery, coolness and determination during severe operations of a prolonged nature. It was owing in a great measure to his dauntless courage and inspiring example. He displayed the utmost energy and courage. His gallantry was inspiring to all.”
In contrast to life in the wars and battlefields, Adrian Carton de Wiart lived a peaceful life following his retirement. His wife died in 1949. Two years later, at the age of 71, he married Ruth Myrtle McKechnie, a divorcee 23 years his junior. They settled at Aghinagh House, Killinardrish, County Cork, Ireland where he finally spent his time relaxing – fishing and hunting daily.
He wrote a memoir with the ironic title, Happy Odyssey, that Churchill himself wrote the foreword for. Not surprisingly, he humbly made no mention of earning the Victoria Cross. Depending on your viewpoint, Adrian Carton de Wiart was either courageous or reckless – the luckiest or unluckiest person to have ever lived. Having proved indestructible on the battlefield over three wars, he died peacefully at his home on June 5th, 1963, at the age of 83.