Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1908-[1960] (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
1 box, 1 volume or 0.02 cubic metres
Scope and content
Papers and photographs relating to Caunter's career, 1908-[1960], including one photograph album, containing 90 photographs, newspaper cuttings and invitations, 1908-1933, notably photographs of Crefeld POW camp, Germany, 1916, Caunter's return to UK following his escape from Schwarmstedt POW camp, Germany, 1917, group photographs of officers, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1922-1923 and Senior Officers Course, Hythe, Kent, 1927, with thirty five loose photographs, 1909-1941, including Salonika, 1918, Iraq, 1920-1921, Egypt, 1936, and Western Desert, Libya, 1941. Papers relating to the First Libyan Campaign, Western Desert, 1940-1941, and Caunter's command of 4 Armoured Bde in the capture of Fort Capuzzo, Battle of Beda Fomm, Libya, Feb 1941, including typescript memorandum by Caunter entitled 'Notes on the disposal of prisoners captured by AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicle) units', 1 Oct 1940; two typescript 7 Armoured Div intelligence summaries, Dec 1940; typescript memorandum by Caunter entitled 'Some lessons from the campaign', [1941]; typescript account entitled 'The story of the 4th Armoured Brigade in the First Libyan campaign', Western Desert, 1940-1941; two letters from Capt Basil Henry Liddell Hart, dated Jan 1947 and Dec 1951, relating to Caunter's deployment of armoured forces in the Battle of Beda Fomm, Western Desert, Feb 1941. Memoranda and reports relating to Caunter's service as Brig General Staff and Deputy Director of Staff Duties, Armoured Troops, General Headquarters, India, 1941-1943, including typescript memorandum by Caunter, 'Defence of the North West Frontier of India and appreciation' [1942]; typescript report by Lt Col Rothwell H Brown, US Army, 'Report of conditions noted in armoured units and ordnance establishments by the US Army Tank Training Detachment', 10 Nov 1942; edition of Tanks and tank folk by Eric Kennington (Country Life, London, 1943).
System of arrangement
The collection is arranged in sections as outlined above.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1889; educated at Uppingham School, Leicestershire, and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into The Gloucestershire Regt, 1909; served in Bombay, India, 1910; Lt, 1911; service with 7 Bn, The King's (Liverpool Regt), Territorial Force, 1913; served with 1 Bn, The Gloucestershire Regt, Bordon, Hampshire, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; service with 1 Bn, The Gloucestershire Regt, 3 Infantry Bde, 1 Div, 1 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 1914; captured by German forces, 1914; POW, 1914-1917; Capt, 1915; awarded MC, 1916; escaped to the Netherlands from Schwarmstedt prison camp, Germany, 1917; service on Western Front, Macedonia and Turkey, 1917-1918; awarded Bar to MC, 1918; General Staff Officer 3, General Headquarters (Operations and Intelligence), British Salonika Force, 1918-1919; Brevet Maj, 1919; General Staff Officer 3, British Salonika Force and British Army of the Black Sea, Russia, 1919-1920; General Staff Officer 3, 6 Div, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, Iraq, 1920-1921; Capt, Royal Tank Corps, 1923; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1923; Maj, 1924; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), Germany, 1925-1927; Senior Officers School, Sheerness, Kent, 1927; General Staff Officer 2, Northern Command, 1927-1929; Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Northern Ireland District, 1930-1933; Brevet Lt Col, 1933; Lt Col, 1935; Commanding Officer, 1 Bn (Light), Royal Tank Corps, Egypt, 1935-1939; Col, 1936; temporary Brig, 1939; commanded 1 Army Tank Bde, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; commanded Armoured Bde, Egypt, 1939-1941; commanded 4 Armoured Bde, 7 Armoured Div, Western Desert campaign, 1940-1941; commanded 4 Armoured Bde in capture of Fort Capuzzo, Battle of Beda Fomm, Libya, Feb 1941; awarded CBE, 1941; Brig General Staff and Deputy Director of Staff Duties, Armoured Troops, General Headquarters, India, 1941-1943; retired 1944; member of Looe Urban District Council, Cornwall, 1952-1967; member for Great Britain, International Committee of the International Game Fish Association; died 1981. Publications: 13 days. The chronicle of an escape from a German prison camp (G Bell and Sons, London, 1918); A short guide to shark angling at Looe, and other places in SW England (Published by the author, Looe, Cornwall, 1958); Shark angling in Great Britain (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1961).
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by the family in 1981.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description.
Related materials
Note
Decorations: CBE, MC
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Armed forces
- Armoured warfare
- Higher science education
- International conflicts
- International relations
- Military education
- Military engineering
- Military intelligence
- Military organizations
- Motor vehicles
- Organizations
- Photographs
- State security
- Tanks
- Vehicles
- Visual materials
- War
- Warfare
- War prisoners
- War victims
- World War One (1914-1918)
- World wars (events)
- World War Two (1939-1945)
- Wars (events)
- Pharmaceutic aids
- Specialty uses of chemicals
- Chemical actions and uses
People and Organisations
- Caunter, John Alan Lyde, 1889-1981, Brigadier (Subject)
- Brown, Rothwell H, fl 1942, US Lieutenant Colonel (Subject)
- British Army (Subject)
- US Army (Subject)
- Hart, Sir Basil Henry Liddell, 1895-1970, Knight, Captain, military historian (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.