52 Facts About Lashmer Whistler

Montgomery considered that Whistler "was about the best infantry brigade commander I knew".

Lashmer Whistler was the son of Colonel Albert Edward Lashmer Whistler of the British Indian Army and his wife Florence Annie Gordon Rivett-Carnac, daughter of Charles Forbes Rivett-Carnac.

Lashmer Whistler played cricket for Harrow, and was to remain a redoubtable batsman throughout his career.

Lashmer Whistler entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on 3 November 1916, during the First World War, just two months after his eighteenth birthday.

Lashmer Whistler was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Sussex Regiment of the British Army on 11 September 1917, eight days after his nineteenth birthday.

Lashmer Whistler was wounded twice, and, on the second occasion, during the Imperial German Army's Spring Offensive in late March 1918, he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans before he had recovered.

Lashmer Whistler was then held at Ulrich Gasse in Cologne where he lost five stone and could hardly walk by the end of the war.

In 1919, after the end of the First World War, Lashmer Whistler, after being released by the Germans, remained in the army and was promoted to lieutenant in March.

Lashmer Whistler volunteered to join the Relief Force being sent to support the British Garrison at Archangel.

Lashmer Whistler was posted to the 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and saw some action on the River Dvina until its withdrawal when the White Russian Army was defeated elsewhere.

Lashmer Whistler was posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex in October 1919.

Lashmer Whistler remained in Ireland for four years and then went as acting adjutant to the Regimental Depot at Chichester.

Lashmer Whistler was appointed adjutant of the 5th Battalion, Royal Sussex, a Territorial Army unit, as a temporary captain on 1 May 1929, this becoming a permanent rank on 30 September 1932.

Unlike a large number of British commanders who were to attain high rank in the upcoming war, Lashmer Whistler had not qualified for the staff colleges at either Camberley or Quetta, having twice failed the entrance examination for the former, and confided in his old Harrow and Sandhurst friend, Reginald Dorman-Smith, the younger brother of Eric Dorman-Smith, that he would end his military career in command of a battalion at most.

An officer, Peter Hadley, reported finding Lashmer Whistler "standing in the middle of the street with a positive hail of explosives coming down all around".

Lashmer Whistler was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership of the battalion in France.

Lashmer Whistler's battalion was assigned to the Alam el Halfa Ridge for the Battle of Alam el Halfa, although most of the action took place below.

Lashmer Whistler led the 131st Brigade, which, because of its role with armour, was often in the forefront of events, through the rest of the fighting in North Africa until the surrender of the Axis forces in Tunisia in May 1943.

Lashmer Whistler led his troops through the Battle of El Agheila in December 1942, the capture of Tripoli in mid-January 1943, where the division's GOC, Major-General Harding, was severely injured by shellfire and replaced by Major-General George "Bobby" Erskine, and along the coastal strip, capturing Msallata, Zuwara, Zaltan and Pisida.

Lashmer Whistler was awarded the first bar to his DSO in April 1943 for "gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East", and by 12 May 1943 all Axis resistance in Tunis had ended and the fighting in North Africa, after almost three years, was finished.

Lashmer Whistler then took the 131st Brigade to join Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks's British X Corps, in the Salerno landings in September 1943, although initially only Lashmer Whistler and a few of his brigade HQ staff accompanied him.

Lashmer Whistler maintained a diary to which he committed his private thoughts, often questioning his own courage and abilities.

In mid-January 1944 Lashmer Whistler was informed in a letter by his GOC, Major-General Erskine, that he was to be transferred to command the 160th Infantry Brigade, part of the 53rd Infantry Division, ahead of the operations in Normandy.

Lashmer Whistler commanded the division throughout the campaign in north-west Europe.

Lashmer Whistler was driving himself, flag flying and his hat, as usual, on the back of his head.

Lashmer Whistler returned from leave to find his division on the move under Operation Veritable, towards the end of which Private James Stokes of the 2nd Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry was posthumously awarded the VC, the second and last to be awarded to the division during the campaign.

Lashmer Whistler's headquarters were in Schloss Moyland, where he was visited by Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, wearing the uniform of Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment in tribute to Lashmer Whistler.

Lashmer Whistler had to look after some 260,000 displaced persons and restore some order.

Lashmer Whistler was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in March 1945, and mentioned in despatches in August 1945 and April 1946 for his services during the campaign.

Lashmer Whistler took the division to Egypt in November 1945 and was sent almost immediately to northern Palestine to police troubles between Israelis and Arabs during the Palestine Emergency.

In January 1947 Montgomery selected Lashmer Whistler to become General Officer Commanding British Troops in India.

Lashmer Whistler was amused to find himself on the governing body of the country, and Minister of Defence answerable to the Legislative Assembly.

Lashmer Whistler worked on Sudanising the Defence Force and within a year felt he had achieved what he had set out to do.

Lashmer Whistler was promoted to lieutenant general from that date.

Lashmer Whistler's headquarters were at Accra, where he commanded the troops in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Gambia.

Lashmer Whistler was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours in 1952.

In September 1953 Lashmer Whistler was offered Western Command in England from December 1953.

On 1 December 1953, Lashmer Whistler became the Colonel of the Royal Sussex Regiment and became GOC-in-C, Western Command.

Lashmer Whistler was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the New Years Honours of 1955, and was promoted to full general in July of that year.

Lashmer Whistler held the post of GOC Western Command until his retirement from the army in February 1957, following his promotion to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath the previous month.

Lashmer Whistler was appointed Deputy lieutenant for the County of Sussex in 1957.

In 1958 Lashmer Whistler was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Royal West African Frontier Force, being the last British officer to hold the post as it ceased to exist on 1 August 1960.

Lashmer Whistler was on very friendly terms with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who sought his advice and judgement.

Lashmer Whistler was very concerned about the future of the Nigerian Army because it was split with the officers coming from the south of the country and the soldiers from the north.

Lashmer Whistler became Vice-President of the National Smallbore Rifle Association in 1958 and chairman in 1959.

Lashmer Whistler led the British team which competed in the World Championships in Moscow, winning titles in the small-bore prone 40 shots.

Lashmer Whistler took great interest in the Chichester Rifle Club, opening its new range in 1961 and presented it with some of his medals.

Lashmer Whistler was elected to the Council of the Army Cadet Force Association on 21 October 1959 as the representative of the NSRA.

Lashmer Whistler was elected Chairman of the ACFA on 18 October 1961.

Lashmer Whistler married Esme Keighley, the sister of a naval officer who died as the result of the Russian campaign.

Kwame Nkrumah wrote "General Lashmer Whistler was not only a great soldier, but a great man; he was to me a most sincere friend, frank and understanding, jovial and abounding in energy".

In 1946 Lashmer Whistler became the patron of Overloon War Museum in the Dutch village of Overloon, that was liberated by Lashmer Whistler's 3rd Infantry Division in October 1944.