He lost an eye, a hand and part of an ear, escaped a POW camp and survived a plane crash… LORD ASHCROFT pays glowing tribute to Britain’s unkillable soldier

The word ‘legend’ is overused. But on Remembrance Sunday, it is worth telling the story of a truly remarkable officer for whom the word barely comes close to honoring a lifetime of extraordinary bravery.

During a highly decorated military career spanning almost half a century, Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart briefly gained the reputation as the ‘unkillable soldier’; a man who relished war, who continued to fight despite whatever the enemy could throw at him, and in doing so earned Britain’s most prestigious gallantry medal, the Victoria Cross.

Carton de Wiart survived three major global wars, was injured more times than he can remember, including being shot in the face, and shrugged off the loss of various body parts (a hand, an eye, and part of an ear) as inconveniences.

Instead of retreating from the battlefield, he immediately returned after each new wound was healed, which proved to be his point.

Commanders and fellow soldiers learn to pull the pin on a grenade with their teeth and reload a gun with one hand.

Even if he wasn’t under fire, he couldn’t be suppressed. He survived plane crashes, swam into enemy-occupied territory, and undaunted was tunneled out of a prisoner of war camp when he was captured in his 60s.

He had such a reputation for heroism that Evelyn Waugh reportedly used Carton de Wiart as the model for the character of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook, the eccentric fire-eating officer in the Sword Of Honor trilogy.

But his life was much more fascinating and contained more adventures than any fiction could ever dream of.

He was born into an aristocratic family in Brussels in 1880 and went to Oxford to study law before giving up his degree to fight in the Second Boer War in 1899.

During the violent conflict in South Africa, he suffered the first of many injuries when he was shot in the abdomen and groin.

This required only a temporary respite: he was sent back to England for medical treatment, returning soon after and receiving a regular commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards.

After some time in India, he became a British citizen, married an Austrian countess, and was promoted to captain.

But it was in Somaliland that he suffered some of his most serious injuries in the early days of World War I.

In November 1914, a British fort was attacked by the forces of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, leader of the Dervish movement that sought to liberate the Horn of Africa from colonial rule, and Carton de Wiart was shot in the face, losing his left eye and part of his left ear.

One comrade said, with slight disdain, that although the painful incident did not stop Carton de Wiart’s fighting, ‘his language was awful.’ This endurance earned him the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the first of many awards given for his bravery.

He once again found himself in a London hospital and was given a glass eye for appearance’s sake. However, he was so disturbed by this that he threw it out the window of a taxi and replaced it with the black eyepatch often described as ‘an elegant pirate’.

At the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, Sir Adrian was shot in the leg; It was such a serious injury that his leg was nearly amputated.

Sir Adrian was born into an aristocratic family in Brussels in 1880. He went to Oxford to study law before giving up his degree to fight in the Second Boer War in 1899.

Undaunted, he landed on the Western Front in February 1915, where he commanded three infantry battalions and three brigades for the next three years.

Seven more war wounds left their mark, including a devastating injury to his left hand in May 1915. When the doctor refused to cut off his fingers, he pulled two of them away and threw them away.

That same year, a surgeon removed the entire hand.

In the early days of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, then aged 36 and commanding the 8th battalion as a temporary lieutenant colonel of the Gloucestershire Regiment, he was shot again, this time in the skull and ankle.

His “fearless bravery” that day, which saw him take command when three other battalion commanders were injured and expose himself to intense fire “without fear”, led to him being awarded the Victoria Cross. His quote said: ‘His courage was an inspiration to everyone.’

Following his recovery, he returned to combat once again, but became target practice for the enemy. He was shot in the hip at the Battle of Passchendaele, in the ear at the Battle of Arras, and in the leg at the Battle of Cambrai; It was such a serious injury that his leg was nearly amputated.

Every time he returned to Sir Douglas Shield’s Nursing Home in London to recuperate, which he was such a regular, the nurses kept a pair of his pajamas for his inevitable next visit. There is no doubt that he was one of the most battle-wounded soldiers in the history of the Army; this was partly because he believed in leading from the front, with his distinctive rallying cry: ‘Follow me!’

It says a lot about his character that, when describing his experiences of the Great War in his memoirs, he states: ‘Frankly, I enjoyed the war.’

In the early days of the Battle of the Somme (pictured) in July 1916, Sir Adrian, then 36 and serving as a temporary lieutenant colonel in the Gloucestershire Regiment and commanding the 8th battalion, was shot again, this time in the skull and ankle.

The Victoria Cross was awarded to Sir Adrian. Lord Ashcroft is launching a website on Tuesday (Armistice Day) so visitors can virtually tour the Victoria Crosses and George Crosses exhibition at the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, which was closed by the Imperial War Museum in September.

When the agreement was completed he was appointed CBE and given the role of aide-de-camp to George V, before leading the British mission in Poland fighting against the Russian Red Army in 1920.

But 16 years later, as World War II approached, even his retirement in 1923 could not curb his ambitions. Later, approaching his early 60s (more than twice the age of the average soldier), he headed an operation in Norway in 1940 and was posted to Yugoslavia the following year. But in an astonishing tale of courage and survival, he escaped the wreckage of a Wellington plane that crashed into the Mediterranean off the coast of Italian-controlled Libya after its engines failed.

He remained above water until one of the plane’s wings broke in half, forcing him to swim to the nearest shore and also – somehow – helping a crew member who broke his leg in the crash. The land they reached was, of course, enemy territory and the duo was captured by the Italians.

As a prisoner of war, however, Carton de Wiart proved to be entertaining company.

His fellow captive, General Sir Richard O’Connor, 6th Earl of Ranfurly, described him in his letters as a ‘pleasant character’ and said he ‘should hold the record for foul language’. Remarkably, given his many disabilities, he made five attempts to escape, including the seven months he spent digging a tunnel, and once evaded recapture for eight days by dressing as an Italian peasant, despite not speaking a word. He was finally released two years later. Sir Winston Churchill, who admired Carton de Wiart as ‘a model of chivalry and honour’, sent him to China to become the personal representative of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. He finally retired from the army in 1947 after breaking his back in an accident.

Following the death of his first wife, he remarried and settled in Ireland, where he spent his remaining years fishing and hunting until his peaceful death in 1963 at the age of 83.

In his autobiography he wrote: ‘We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose.’

We will never see anyone like him again.

Lord Ashcroft is launching a website on Tuesday (Armistice Day) so visitors can virtually tour the Victoria Crosses and George Crosses exhibition at the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, which was closed by the Imperial War Museum in September. A new website in the coming months – www.lordashcroftmedalcollection.com – Will be enhanced to include details of all gallantry medals in Lord Ashcroft’s collection.

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. For more information, visit: lordashcroft.com. Follow him on X/Facebook @LordAshcroft