Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay
Hastings Lionel "Pug" Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay was a British politician, diplomat and general in the British Indian Army who was the first secretary general of NATO. He also was Winston Churchill's chief military assistant during the Second World War.
Ismay was born in Nainital, India, in 1887, and educated in the United Kingdom at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After Sandhurst, he joined the Indian Army as an officer of the 21st Prince Albert Victor's Own Cavalry. During the First World War, he served with the Camel Corps in British Somaliland, where he joined in the British fight against Somali military leader and founder of the anti-colonial Dervish movement Mohammed Abdullah Hassan. In 1925, Ismay became an Assistant Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence. After being promoted to the rank of colonel, he served as the military secretary for Lord Willingdon, the Viceroy of India, then returned to the CID as Deputy Secretary in 1936.
On 1 August 1938, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Ismay became the committee's secretary and began planning for the impending war. In May 1940, when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he selected Ismay as his chief military assistant and staff officer. In that capacity, Ismay served as the principal link between Churchill and the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Ismay also accompanied Churchill to many of the Allied war conferences. For Ismay's advice and aid, "Churchill owed more, and admitted that he owed more" to him "than to anybody else, military or civilian, in the whole of the war."
After the end of the war, Ismay remained in the army for another year, and helped to reorganise the Ministry of Defence. He then retired from the military and served as Lord Mountbatten of Burma's chief of staff in India, helping to oversee its partition. From 1948 to 1951, he served as chairman of the council of the Festival of Britain, helping to organise and promote the event. Then, in 1951, when Churchill again became prime minister, he appointed Ismay Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.
Ismay accepted the position, but resigned after only six months to become the first secretary general of NATO in 1952. While Secretary General, Ismay is also credited as having been the first person to say that the purpose of NATO was "to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down," a saying that has since become a common way to describe the dynamics of NATO. He served in this role until 1957, and helped establish and define the position. After retiring from NATO, Ismay wrote his memoirs, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, served on a variety of corporate boards, and co-chaired the Ismay–Jacob Committee, which reorganised the Ministry of Defence once again. He died on 17 December 1965, at his home, Wormington Grange, Gloucestershire.
Early life
Ismay was born in Nainital, Kumaon, India, on 21 June 1887. His father, Sir Stanley Ismay, was a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council, and his mother, Beatrice Ellen, was the daughter of an Army colonel, Hastings Read. Ismay began his education in Britain at the Charterhouse School, and his parents hoped that after completing his education there he would attend Cambridge and enter the civil service.Ismay, however, "had a sneaking desire to be a cavalry soldier", and after doing poorly on his final examinations at Charterhouse, he was ineligible to attend Cambridge. As a result, he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1904. Ismay would later write: "Sandhurst never meant nearly so much to me as Charterhouse had", but he enjoyed his time at the college and studied alongside many men who went on to become important military officers, including Lord Gort, Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt and Cyril Newall.
Indian Army
After completing the course at Sandhurst, Ismay was placed fourth overall in its examinations and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Indian Army. Ismay was then attached to the Gloucestershire Regiment of the British Army in Ambala, where he served a one-year mandatory apprenticeship. After leaving the regiment, Ismay did not immediately find a place in the Indian cavalry, so he spent nine months floating among positions with various British and Indian units.In 1907, Ismay found a permanent position in the Indian cavalry, joining the 21st Prince Albert Victor's Own Cavalry, based at Risalpur. Ismay thoroughly enjoyed his time with the regiment, describing it as "blissful." In 1908, he saw his first action with the regiment, when it was sent into Afghanistan, pursuing Mohmand raiders who had taken several Hindu women as hostages. Immediately after Ismay's regiment returned from action, he was hospitalised in Peshawar due to heat stroke, but he recovered quickly and, along with the rest of his regiment, received the India General Service Medal.
In 1910, after a reorganisation of the Indian Army, Ismay's regiment moved from Risalpur to Jhelum, further from the frontier. Shortly thereafter, Ismay was appointed the adjutant of his regiment, a position which he held for four years, during which time he also read voraciously and developed a great admiration for Winston Churchill, whom he sought to emulate.
Somaliland
In early 1914, just before Ismay's appointment as adjutant was set to expire, he met C. A. L Howard, another British officer serving in India, who told him about an opportunity to serve with the King's African Rifles in British Somaliland. Ismay decided that this was "just the sort of job that wanted," and applied immediately. Due to his reputation "as a thorough and dependable officer of sound judgement," Ismay was appointed second in command of the Somaliland Camel Corps, a cavalry unit led by Thomas Cubitt.Ismay left India for Somaliland in late July 1914, and arrived on 9 August, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in Europe. Like other officers in Somaliland, Ismay was "unhappy at being left out of the great war" and repeatedly asked for a transfer to the European front. In the end, however, Ismay's superiors decided that he was "so indispensable that, despite his longing for action in Europe, he was retained in Somaliland until 1920."
In Somaliland, the Camel Corps and other British soldiers were ordered to subdue an uprising by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, pejoratively referred to by the British as the "Mad Mullah", who had been fighting against them for more than twenty years. Ismay's commander, Thomas Cubitt, was determined to end the rebellion forcefully and quickly, so on 17 November 1914, he launched a major assault against Hassan's fortress at Shimber Berris. In the attack, Ismay fought closely alongside Adrian Carton de Wiart, later an important British officer in both World Wars. Not long after the attack on Shimber Berris, however, the Camel Corps received orders from London "forbidding all offensive operations in Somaliland", due to the misfortunes of the Army elsewhere. As a result of this order, British operations were limited for the duration of the First World War, and Ismay's unit undertook no further major offensives.
Despite limited British activity, a few operations combined with the effort of local forces led to "a drastic weakening" of Hassan's forces by 1918. Thus, after the armistice ending the First World War, the government sent Major General Arthur Hoskins to take control of the forces in Somaliland and defeat Hassan conclusively in battle. After Hoskins arrived, his initial plan for dealing with Hassan focussed on the use of the newly formed Royal Air Force, so Ismay and the Camel Corps were consigned to a minor role. Hoskins's plans, however, were found "overscaled and far too costly", so they were shelved throughout most of 1918 and 1919.
In October 1919, plans for Hoskins's operation were finally approved, and on 21 January 1920, the attack against Hassan commenced. After several days of bombing, Ismay was ordered to lead an assault by the Camel Corps against Hassan's fortress at Jid Ali. On, Ismay's forces first attempted the attack and were repulsed by strong resistance. That night, however, Hassan and his forces fled Jid Ali to take refuge in the countryside. Ismay was assigned to track down and capture Hassan, but he "had no idea of where he was", and was forced to begin a large search.
Ismay pursued Hassan for nearly two weeks, and managed to capture many members of his family and people close to him, including seven of his sons. Hassan himself managed to evade Ismay and on, the effort to capture him was called off. Though Hassan was never captured, his power was broken, and he died in December 1920 of influenza. For his service in the effort against Hassan, Ismay received the Distinguished Service Order and was twice mentioned in despatches.
Interwar years
In April 1920, Ismay left Somaliland for England. While en route, he received word that he had been nominated for a place at the Indian Army's Staff College, Quetta. Depressed by the loss of life and destruction of the First World War, Ismay turned down the nomination, and "was even seriously thinking of resigning commission" in the Army. After arriving in London, Ismay was given twelve months of medical leave, and decided to stay in the army. He then attempted to reclaim his seat at the Staff College, but was told that it had already been given to someone else.Marriage and service in India
While on medical leave, Ismay met Laura Kathleen Clegg, with whom he quickly fell in love. The two were engaged only three weeks after meeting. After four months, however, Ismay was proclaimed fit for duty, despite his remaining eight months of leave, and ordered back to India, where he rejoined his old regiment. His time back in India was relatively quiet, as there was "no serious fighting" in the area of his regiment at the time. In February 1921, Ismay took the qualifying exam for the Staff College in Rawalpindi, and passed, earning himself a seat for the next year.In April, Ismay returned to London on leave, and married Clegg, with whom he eventually had three daughters. Ismay remained in London until February 1922, when he entered the Staff College at Quetta. Ismay excelled at the Staff College, and its commandant called him "one of the two best, if not the best, of the students who have passed through my hands." In his final thesis at the Staff College, Ismay correctly predicted that the next European war would be a total war, but he incorrectly predicted that cavalry would continue to play a role in future warfare.
After the Staff College, Ismay became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General of the Indian Army. In that position, he worked closely with Claude Auchinleck, beginning a long-standing personal and professional relationship between the two. Ismay found that his work as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General "was a valuable experience", but did not enjoy it.