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  #1  
Old 07-05-18, 02:45 AM
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Default Major who?- 4 Hussars & SAS

I've attached a photo in case anyone can identify him.

He is a major, wearing the cap badge of 4 Hussars.

He wears a medal ribbon with 1st Army clasp. 'The institution of the Africa Star was announced on 8 July 1943 and in August it was announced that the first uniform ribbons would be issued to qualifying personnel later in that year. The medals themselves were not intended to be available until after the cessation of hostilities. Some ribbon issues to overseas troops were delayed, but many had been received by the end of 1943 and were worn by recipients throughout the remainder of the war.' [Wikipedia] he wears no other medal ribbons which suggests to me that this photo was taken between 1943 and 1945.

He also wears SAS parachute qualification wings, but on his left chest, not on the arm as authorised. I believe this was a quirk of the early SAS members. They are not stitched but probably broached.

Note the signet ring on his pinkie.

As yet I've done no research on him as I only just received the photo.

Stephen.
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File Type: jpg Major 4 Hussars & SAS Wings.jpg (41.8 KB, 147 views)
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Old 07-05-18, 06:06 AM
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Looks like Randolph Churchill son of Sir Winston.

Tim
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Old 07-05-18, 07:48 AM
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Default Major who

Tim,

Thank you. I believe you are correct. Randolph Churchill served in 4th Hussars and the SAS, although probably without distinction.

I've found the attached photo on-line for comparison.

Stephen.
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File Type: jpg Churchill,_Randolph_Frederick_Edward_Spencer.jpg (8.1 KB, 58 views)
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Old 07-05-18, 01:57 PM
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Default Randolph Churchill

Also this one

Tim
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Old 07-05-18, 03:08 PM
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Military service: Second World War;


Randolph Churchill joined his father's old regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, in August 1939. He was one of the oldest of the junior officers, and not popular with his peers. In order to win a bet, he walked the 106-mile round trip from their base in Hull to York and back in under 24 hours. He was followed by a car, both to witness the event and in case his blisters became too painful to walk further, and made it with around twenty minutes to spare. To his great annoyance, his brother officers did not pay up.

On the outbreak of war Randolph's father was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He sent Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, along with Lieutenant Randolph Churchill, aboard HMS Kelly (which was based at Plymouth at the time) to Cherbourg to bring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor back to England from their exile. Randolph was on board the destroyer untidily attired in his 4th Hussars uniform; he had attached the spurs to his boots upside down. The Duke was mildly shocked and insisted on bending down to fit Randolph's spurs correctly.

Randolph was in love with Laura Charteris (she did not reciprocate) but his mistress at the time was the American actress Claire Luce, who often visited him in camp. He appears to have decided that as Winston's only son it was his duty to marry and sire an heir in case he was killed, a common motivation among young men at the time. He quickly became engaged to Pamela Digby in late September 1939.It was rumoured that Randolph had proposed to eight women in the past few weeks and Pamela's friends and parents were not pleased about the match. She was charmed by Randolph's parents, both of whom warmed to her and felt she would be a good influence on him. They were married in October 1939. On their wedding night Randolph read her chunks of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Despite this she managed to become pregnant by the spring of 1940.

In May 1940 Randolph's father, to whom he remained close both politically and socially, became Prime Minister, just as the Battle of France was beginning. In the summer of 1940 Winston Churchill's secretary Jock Colville wrote (Fringes of Power p207) "I thought Randolph one of the most objectionable people I had ever met: noisy, self-assertive, whining and frankly unpleasant. He did not strike me as intelligent. At dinner he was anything but kind to Winston, who adores him". The polemic against appeasement Guilty Men (July 1940), in fact written anonymously by Michael Foot and others, was wrongly attributed to Randolph Churchill.

Randolph was elected unopposed to Parliament for Preston at a wartime by-election in September 1940. Soon afterwards his son Winston was born on 10 October 1940. During the first year of marriage Randolph had no home of his own until Brendan Bracken found them a vicarage at Ickleford near Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Pamela often had to ask Winston to pay Randolph's gambling debts.

North Africa;
It was widely suspected, including by Randolph himself, that secret orders had been given that the 4th Hussars were not to be sent into action (they were, as soon as Randolph transferred out). Randolph transferred to No. 8 (Guards) Commando. In February 1941 they were sent out, a six week journey via the Cape of Good Hope and the East Coast of Africa, avoiding the Central Mediterranean where the Italian navy and Axis air forces were strong. Randolph, who was still earning £1,500 per annum as a Lord Beaverbrook journalist, lost £3,000 gambling on the voyage. Pamela had to go to Beaverbrook, who refused her an advance on Randolph's salary. Declining his offer of an outright gift (it is unclear whether submitting to his sexual advances was a condition), she sold her wedding presents, including jewellery, took a job off Beaverbrook arranging accommodation for workers being redeployed around the country, sublet her home and moved into a cheap room on the top floor of The Dorchester (very risky during The Blitz). By accepting hospitality from others most evenings she was able to put her entire salary towards paying Randolph's debts. She may also have had a miscarriage at this time. The marriage was as good as over and she soon began an affair with her future husband Averell Harriman, who was also staying at the Dorchester at the time.

Once in Egypt, Randolph served as a General Staff (Intelligence) officer at Middle East HQ. Averell Harriman visited Randolph in Cairo in June 1941 to bring him news of his family. Randolph, who himself had a long-term mistress and several casual girlfriends at the time, had no idea yet that he was being cuckolded. He had recently been reduced to tears on being told to his face by a brother officer how deeply disliked he was, something of which he had previously had no idea. Later in 1941 he was promoted to the rank of Major and put in charge of Army information at GHQ. For a time he edited a newspaper Desert News for the troops. He lived at Shepheard's Hotel. Anita Leslie, then in an ambulance company, wrote that "he could not cease trumpeting his opinions and older men could be seen turning purple with anger" and that he was "insufferable".

On leave in January 1942, he criticised the Tories for exculpating Winston Churchill's decision to defend Greece and Crete. He was sensitive to the "co-operation and self-sacrifice" of parts of the Empire that in 1942 were in more immediate danger than the British Isles, mentioning Australia and Malaya which suffered under Japanese threats of invasion. He was scathing of Sir Herbert Williams' Official Report into the Conduct of the War.

His father, who was under great stress following recent Japanese victories in the Far East, visited him briefly in Cairo in spring 1942. Randolph had a row with his parents so violent that Clementine thought Winston might have a seizure. In April 1942 he volunteered for the newly formed SAS, to his mother's dismay because of the strain on his father. She contemplated cabling him forbidding him to go, but knew that Winston would want him to.He joined the SAS CO David Stirling and six SAS men on a mission behind enemy lines in the Libyan Desert to Benghazi in May 1942. The Benghazi Raid was a success but Randolph severely dislocated his back when his truck overturned in a road accident during the journey home. After a stay in Cairo he was invalided back to England. Randolph had sent few letters to Pamela, and many to Laura Charteris, with whom he was in love and who was in the process of getting divorced. Evelyn Waugh recorded that Pamela "hates him so much that she can't sit in a room with him". By November 1942 Randolph had formally left her; his parents, who adored their baby grandson Winston, sympathised with Pamela.

In November 1942 he visited Morocco to witness the American landings. Randolph encouraged the conversion of Vichy fighters to de Gaulle's army, submitting reports to Parliament on 23 February 1943. In May 1943 Randolph visited his father in Algiers, where he was celebrating the successful conclusion of the Tunisian Campaign. Randolph, along with his sister Sarah, accompanied his father to the Tehran Conference in November 1943. On the way back they quarrelled again about his failed marriage, which may have contributed to the serious heart attack which Winston Churchill suffered at Tunis. He visited his father, who was laid up with pneumonia, in Marrakesh in December 1943 (General Alexander gave him a lift on his plane).

Yugoslavia;
Randolph had encountered Fitzroy Maclean in the Western Desert Campaign. Winston Churchill agreed to Randolph accepting Maclean's offer to join his military and diplomatic mission (Macmis) to Tito's Partisans in Yugoslavia, warning him not to get captured in case the Gestapo sent him Randolph's fingers one by one. He returned to England for training then in January or February 1944 he parachuted into Yugoslavia. Tom Mitford was also present in the group.He was later joined in Yugoslavia by Evelyn Waugh and Freddie Birkenhead. Round about this time he lost a bet to read various books of the Bible without speaking, but never paid up.

After the German airdrop outside Tito's Drvar headquarters in June 1944 ("Operation Knight's Leap" Rosselsprung) Randolph was awarded the MBE, having been recommended for a Military Cross. Fitzroy Maclean reported highly of his abilities at this stage. However, Maclean wrote of their adventures together, and some of the problems Churchill caused him, in his memoir Eastern Approaches. Tito had barely managed to evade the Germans and Churchill and Evelyn Waugh arrived on the island of Vis and met him on 10 July. In July 1944 he and Waugh were among the ten survivors of a Dakota crash. He suffered spinal and knee injuries. He cried when he learned that his servant had been killed, but behaved with "his usual loud rudeness" as an invalid. After discharge from hospital in Bari (in the "heel" of Italy), he convalesced with Duff and Diana Cooper in Algiers. His father visited him in Algiers on his way to Italy – they discussed French and British politics.

Randolph was ordered by Maclean to take charge of the military mission in Croatia. By September he was back in Yugoslavia, where Waugh recorded that he was drunk most days, needed to have things repeated back to him when sober and behaved awfully even when sober. Waugh described him as "a flabby bully who rejoices in blustering and shouting down anyone weaker than himself and starts squealing as soon as he meets anyone as strong … he is a bore – with no intellectual invention or agility. He has a childlike retentive memory, and repetition takes the place of thought. He has set himself very low aims and has not the self-control to pursue them steadfastly." Lovell writes that every observer, including Duff Cooper and Anita Leslie, record frequent "drunken ranting" from him at this period. On good days he could be excellent company. With Waugh he established a military mission at Topusko on 16 September 1944. One outcome was a formidable report detailing Tito's persecution of the clergy. It was "buried" by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (who also attempted to discredit Waugh) to save diplomatic embarrassment, as Tito was then seen as a required ally of Britain and an official "friend".

Tom Mitford, one of Randolph's few close friends, was killed in Burma in March 1945 when it was clear that the war was in its final stages.



Although the enlisted ranks of the SAS were made up of picked men, some of the officers were appointed on the basis of social connections, e.g. membership of White's Club. The same was true of the Royal Marine Commandos, in which Churchill's colleague Evelyn Waugh served.


Churchill, Winston (1997). His Father's Son: The Life of Randolph Churchill. London: Orion.

Leslie, Anita (1985). Cousin Randolph–Life of Randolph Churchill.

Wikipedia
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Last edited by Voltigeur; 07-05-18 at 05:39 PM.
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Old 07-05-18, 04:22 PM
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Not exactly Mister Nice Guy then.
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Old 20-06-18, 02:46 AM
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Default Randolph Churchill

Having been assisted to identify the first photo as Churchill's son I have recontacted the vendor to see if he had any more photos of the same man. He did, so I have added it here for completeness.

Next I imagine someone will tell me that the two American soldiers Churchill is speaking with are also well known wartime personalities.

Stephen.
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