Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1984 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
1 file
Scope and content
Copy of 'A soldier's story', a memoir of his life and career, 1905-1984, notably his service in India, 1935-1938, North West Europe, 1939-1940 and 1944-1945, including the arrest of the Grand Adm Karl Doenitz (Operation BLACKOUT) in May 1945, Palestine, 1947, Germany, 1948, and Egypt, 1954-1957, including the Suez Crisis, 1956, written in 1984. Photographs relating to the arrest of Doenitz, Germany, 1945.
System of arrangement
1 file
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born in 1905; educated at Wellington College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; 2nd Lt, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 1925; Lt, 1927; Assistant Instructor, Small Arms School, Netheravon, 1931-1934; served in India, 1935-1938; Capt, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 1936; attended Staff College, Camberley, 1939; served in North West Europe, 1939-1940, and 1944-1946; various staff appointments, 1940-1942, including General Staff Officer Grade 2, Canadian Corps; Maj, 1942; commanded 1 Bn, Hereford Regt, 1942-1944, 159 Infantry Bde, 1944-1946, and 43 Div, 1946; commanded Northumbrian District, 1946; commanded 2 Div, Far East, 1946, 3 Div, Palestine, 1946-1947, and 5 Div, Germany, 1947-1948; attended Imperial Defence College, 1948; Brig, General Staff, Western Command, 1949-1951; ADC to King George VI, 1949-1952, and Queen Elizabeth II, 1952; Chief of Staff, Southern Command, 1951-1954; Maj Gen, 1952; General Officer Commanding 3 Infantry Div, Egypt, 1954-1957; Director of Military Training, War Office, 1957-1959; retired, 1959.
Repository
Custodial history
Copies made by the Centre from originals lent by Churcher in 1991.
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.
Existence and location of copies
Shropshire Regiment Museum holds a copy of the memoir.
Note
Decorations: CB, DSO
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Armed forces
- Canals
- Documents
- Information sources
- International conflicts
- International relations
- Memoirs
- Military engineering
- Military operations
- Military organizations
- Operation Blackout (1945)
- Organizations
- Photographs
- State security
- Transport infrastructure
- Visual materials
- War
- Warfare
- Waterways
- World wars (events)
- World War Two (1939-1945)
- Wars (events)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Churcher, John Bryan, 1905-1997, Major General (Subject)
- Donitz, Karl, 1891-1980, German Admiral (Subject)
- British Army (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.