James Marshall-Cornwall
Encyclopedia
General
Sir James Handyside Marshall-Cornwall KCB
, CBE
, DSO
, MC
(27 May 1887 – 1985) was a British Army officer and linguist.
and his wife Agnes Hunter.
and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery
, during his first spell of annual leave he travelled to Germany to study German. He later passed the Civil Service Commission examination as a first-class German interpreter, the first of the eleven interpreterships he was to gain. He passed as first-class interpreter in French, Norwegian, Swedish, Hollander Dutch, and Italian.
Cornwall joined the Intelligence Corps at Le Havre
. In 1915 he was appointed to the rank of Captain at 2nd corps headquarters in the Second Army. In 1916 he was promoted to temporary major at the general headquarters of the British expeditionary force, under Sir Douglas Haig
. In 1918, Cornwall was posted to the War Office
as head of the MI3
section of the military intelligence directorate, where he remained until the armistice. He was decorated with the Military Cross
in 1916 and the Distinguished Service Order
in 1917.
In 1919, Cornwall was sent to the peace conference
in Paris
, where he worked with Reginald Leeper
and Harold Nicolson
on the new boundaries of Europe. Several jobs in the Middle East in the 1920s gave him the opportunity to study Turkish and modern Greek.
In 1927, Cornwall was sent to China with the Royal Artillery
(Shanghai Defence Force
), to protect British life and property in the Shanghai International Settlement
. This enabled him to learn Chinese and to travel extensively in the Far East with his wife.
From 1928 to 1932 he held the post of military attaché in Berlin
. In 1934, after two years as commander of the 51st Highland division, Royal Artillery, based at Perth, Scotland, Marshall-Cornwall was promoted major-general. He spent the next four years travelling in Europe, India, and the United States, then two years in Cairo as head of the British military mission to Egypt
. Here he qualified as an interpreter in colloquial Arabic.
In 1938, he was promoted to lieutenant-general, in charge of the air defence of Great Britain. In May 1940 he went to France to help evacuate British troops from Cherbourg, boarding the last ship to leave the port. He took over command of III Corps in England in June 1940 holding the post until November 1940. In 1941 he was sent by Winston Churchill
to Turkey in an attempt to persuade the Turks to join the war, a mission which failed.
Marshall-Cornwall took over Western Command
in November 1941, but was dismissed in the autumn of 1942 for going outside the proper channels to secure the safety of the Liverpool docks. He spent the rest of the war with the Special Operations Executive
and MI6
, attempting to promote better relations between them. He retired from the army in 1943.
Between 1948 and 1951, he was editor-in-chief of captured German archives at the Foreign Office, and wrote military history. He was president of the Royal Geographical Society
(1954–8).
n refugees, while encamped in the Izmit
peninsula. They were married in Wales in April 1921. In 1927 he inherited a small estate in Scotland from his uncle William Marshall, on condition that he should assume the surname of Marshall. As Marshall was one of his forenames, this was achieved by the insertion of a hyphen. The Marshall-Cornwalls had a son and two daughters. Their elder daughter died aged fourteen in 1938 after an operation for appendicitis in Switzerland. Their son was killed in France in 1944. He is buried on the spot where he fell in a Normandy orchard, purchased by Marshall-Cornwall to protect his son's grave. His other daughter Janet married Digby Willoughby, 12th Baron Middleton in 1947.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Sir James Handyside Marshall-Cornwall KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(27 May 1887 – 1985) was a British Army officer and linguist.
Early life
James Cornwall was born in India, only son of James Cornwall, the post-master general of United ProvincesUnited Provinces of Agra and Oudh
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1947; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces, by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of...
and his wife Agnes Hunter.
Education
Cornwall went to Rugby SchoolRugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery
Royal Field Artillery
The Royal Field Artillery of the British Army provided artillery support for the British Army. It came into being when the Royal Artillery was divided on 1 July 1899, it was reamalgamated back into the Royal Artillery in 1924....
, during his first spell of annual leave he travelled to Germany to study German. He later passed the Civil Service Commission examination as a first-class German interpreter, the first of the eleven interpreterships he was to gain. He passed as first-class interpreter in French, Norwegian, Swedish, Hollander Dutch, and Italian.
Career
On the outbreak of the first world warWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Cornwall joined the Intelligence Corps at Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. In 1915 he was appointed to the rank of Captain at 2nd corps headquarters in the Second Army. In 1916 he was promoted to temporary major at the general headquarters of the British expeditionary force, under Sir Douglas Haig
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC, was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the War...
. In 1918, Cornwall was posted to the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
as head of the MI3
MI3
MI3, the British Military Intelligence Section 3, is a division of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. It was originally set up to handle geographical information...
section of the military intelligence directorate, where he remained until the armistice. He was decorated with the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
in 1916 and the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
in 1917.
In 1919, Cornwall was sent to the peace conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he worked with Reginald Leeper
Reginald Leeper
Sir Reginald Wildig Allen Leeper was a British civil servant and diplomat. He was the founder of the British Council....
and Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
on the new boundaries of Europe. Several jobs in the Middle East in the 1920s gave him the opportunity to study Turkish and modern Greek.
In 1927, Cornwall was sent to China with the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
(Shanghai Defence Force
Shanghai Defence Force
The Shanghai Defence Force was a tri-service military formation established by the British Government to protect European nationals and their property in Shanghai from Chinese communist forces.-History:...
), to protect British life and property in the Shanghai International Settlement
Shanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...
. This enabled him to learn Chinese and to travel extensively in the Far East with his wife.
From 1928 to 1932 he held the post of military attaché in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In 1934, after two years as commander of the 51st Highland division, Royal Artillery, based at Perth, Scotland, Marshall-Cornwall was promoted major-general. He spent the next four years travelling in Europe, India, and the United States, then two years in Cairo as head of the British military mission to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Here he qualified as an interpreter in colloquial Arabic.
In 1938, he was promoted to lieutenant-general, in charge of the air defence of Great Britain. In May 1940 he went to France to help evacuate British troops from Cherbourg, boarding the last ship to leave the port. He took over command of III Corps in England in June 1940 holding the post until November 1940. In 1941 he was sent by Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
to Turkey in an attempt to persuade the Turks to join the war, a mission which failed.
Marshall-Cornwall took over Western Command
Western Command (United Kingdom)
-History:The Command was established in 1905 and was originally called the Welsh & Midland Command before changing its name in 1906. In 1907 Western Command relocated to Watergate House in Chester...
in November 1941, but was dismissed in the autumn of 1942 for going outside the proper channels to secure the safety of the Liverpool docks. He spent the rest of the war with the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
and MI6
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
, attempting to promote better relations between them. He retired from the army in 1943.
Between 1948 and 1951, he was editor-in-chief of captured German archives at the Foreign Office, and wrote military history. He was president of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
(1954–8).
Personal life
Cornwall met Marjorie Coralie Scott Owen, who was driving an ambulance for a Red Cross mission to White RussiaWhite Russia
White Russia or White Ruthenia is a name that has historically been applied to a part of the wider region of Ruthenia or Rus', most often to that which roughly corresponds to the eastern part of present-day Belarus including the cities of Polatsk, Vitsyebsk and Mahiliou. In English, the use of the...
n refugees, while encamped in the Izmit
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
peninsula. They were married in Wales in April 1921. In 1927 he inherited a small estate in Scotland from his uncle William Marshall, on condition that he should assume the surname of Marshall. As Marshall was one of his forenames, this was achieved by the insertion of a hyphen. The Marshall-Cornwalls had a son and two daughters. Their elder daughter died aged fourteen in 1938 after an operation for appendicitis in Switzerland. Their son was killed in France in 1944. He is buried on the spot where he fell in a Normandy orchard, purchased by Marshall-Cornwall to protect his son's grave. His other daughter Janet married Digby Willoughby, 12th Baron Middleton in 1947.