Carton De Wiart, Adrian, born on 05-05-1880 in Brussel, Belgium,

the eldest son of the Belgian magistrate Léon Constant Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1854–1915) and his Irish wife Ernestine Wenzig (1860–1886). After his mother’s death, the family moved to Egypt, where his father worked for the Egyptian government. By his contemporaries, he was widely believed to be an illegitimate son of King Leopold II
At the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, he enlisted in the British Army. The
Second Boer War 11-10-1899 – 31-05-1902), also known as the
Boer War, the
Anglo–Boer War, or the
South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire’s influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.

In South Africa Adrian suffered the first of his many war wounds, after which he was sent back home. He was promoted to second lieutenant in the cavalry. In 1908 he married the Austrian countess Frederika Fugger von Babenhausen (1887-1949),

with whom he had two daughters.
Carton De Wiart’s military career in the British Army

was probably one of the most prestigious in its history. Upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, saw him in Somaliland fighting Dervish Forces where he lost an eye and was awarded a Distinguished Service Order.

With his black eye patch and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart looked like an elegant pirate,

popular with the ladies and became a figure of legend. During world War II he met with the Polish Marshal of Poland,
Edward Rydz-Smigly 
in late August 1939 and formed a rather low opinion of his capabilities. He strongly urged Rydz-Śmigły to pull Polish forces back beyond the Vistula River, but was unsuccessful. Carton de Wiart, ordered by
Sir Winston Churchill 
arrived back at the British naval base of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on his 60
th birthday, 05-05-1940, shortly for the unexpected German invasion of Holland (see
Ackermans).

who died age 74 on 06-11-1974 and Lieutenant General Philip Neame, VC

who died age 88, on 28-04-1978, in Selling, Kent. The four were committed to escaping. He made five attempts including seven months tunneling. Once Carton de Wiart evaded capture for eight days disguised as an Italian peasant (which is surprising considering that he was in northern Italy, couldn’t speak Italian, and was 61 years old, with an eye patch, one empty sleeve and multiple injuries and scars). Ironically, Carton de Wiart had been approved for repatriation due to his disablement, but notification arrived after his escape. As the repatriation would have required that he promise not to take any further part in the war, it is probable that he would have declined anywa. When Italy changed his role in the war, Carton was released in August 1943. He arrived in the headquarters of the Nationalist Chinese Government, Chungking, in early December 1943 and as a diplomatic, he got on well with
Chiang kai Shek.

In Rangoon as a guest of the army commander, coming down the stairs, he slipped on coconut matting, fell down, broke his back and several vertebra and knocked himself out. A sad end for an old warrior returning home. He eventually made it to England and into a hospital where he mended. The doctors succeeded in extracting a remarkable amount of shrapnel from his old wounds and generally patched him up. But the old warrior was not through yet. Sheer will got him on his feet and soon he was on the road again, to Belgium to visit relatives. His wife died in 1949 and in 1951, at the age of 71, he remarried and settled in County Cork, Ireland, to resume a life with fishing rod and shotgun.

Carton de Wiart in the Cairo Conference, behind Soong Mei-ling on the right. From left to right: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, US President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soong Mei-ling. Back row, Chinese Generals Chang Chen and Ling Wei; American Generals Somervell,
Joseph Warren “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell
and
Henry Harold “Hap” Arnold;

and senior British officers, Field Marshal
Sir John Greer Dill,

Admiral Lord
Louis Mountbatten.

De Mountbattens met Mahatma Gandhi in 1947. Mountbatten died on 27-08-1979, age 79, while on holiday in Ireland after a bomb explosion on his ship Shadow V.

The attack was claimed by the IRA. Three others were killed: Patricia’s youngest son Nicholas, her mother-in-law Lady Doreen Brabourne (83) and Paul Maxwell (15), who assisted as a boatswain. On 23-11-1979, the perpetrator, Thomas McMahon,

was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in 1998 after the Good Friday Agreement. After a state funeral and service in Westminster Abbey, London, Louis Mountbatten was interred in Romsey Abbey, Hampshire.
Death and burial ground of Carton De Wiart, Adrian.
His wife Joan died in 1949 and in 1951, at the age of 71, he married Ruth Myrtle Muriel Joan McKechnie, a divorcee known as Joan Sutherland, a woman 23 years his junior (born in late 1903, she died 13-01-2006 at the age of 102), and settled at Aqhinagh House, Killinardish, County Cork, Ireland, taking up a life pursuing salmon and snipe. The old hero died at the good age of 83, on 05-06-1963 and is buried with his wife Joan, on the Caum Killinardish Churchyard, County Cork, Ireland. The grave site is just outside the actual graveyard wall on the grounds of his own home Aghinagh House.
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