Pug – Churchill's Chief of Staff: The Life of General Hastings Ismay KG GCB CH DSO PS, 1887–1965

By Andrew Sangster

General Hasting Ismay, invariably referred to as ‘Pug’, was one of the most intriguing, yet less well known, leading military characters of his era. This overdue biography describes how an officer who fought tribesmen in India and Dervishes in North-East Africa, thereby playing no significant role in The Great War, found himself as Winston Churchill’s Chief of Staff throughout the Second World War.

In this hugely influential position, he eased the often fraught relationship between a determined and obstinate Prime Minister and his top military advisors. His tact and diplomacy were tested to their limits oiling the wheels with our American allies, both political and military, even those with Anglophobic tendencies. Based in 10 Downing Street, Pug accompanied Churchill on his overseas visits and to the major conferences.

Post-war Ismay assisted Mountbatten in the partitioning of the Indian sub-continent before becoming the first NATO Secretary General, a measure of the high regard the United States and other nations held him in.

Despite the influence he wielded during and after the Second World War, Ismay remains a mysterious figure who somehow managed to maintain the trust of those with whom he worked and dealt with under the most testing and stressful conditions. This insightful biography is a most welcome and valuable addition to the history of the period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Jun 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399045797

Book preview

Preface

General Hastings Ismay seldom emerges in popular history books, always hovering somewhere in the background and for many he remains an unknown person. Everyone who knew him called him by his nickname ‘Pug’ in an affectionate way. The name ‘Pug’ was not cynical or demeaning, and as such this writer has chosen to use his nickname throughout the text because it proved impossible not to appreciate his character. Having written about Goebbels, Himmler, Göring, Franco, and even the head of the Soviet secret police Beria, it felt like a pleasant holiday researching this enigmatic military bureaucrat. Pug has left his memoirs, although he barely mentions his last post with NATO, and there was one biography written about him over half a century ago. It was possible to find out more about him in the archives of King’s College London, and even in the Foreign Relations of the United States files in America than in any published material.

Pug started life fighting tribesmen on the Northwest frontier of India and never saw combat in the Great War as he was fighting Somali Dervishes from the back of a camel. He worked his way through an army college in India, became a minor bureaucrat in the War Office, and assisted a Viceroy in India. However, from 1939 his position changed from these minor roles to those of significant importance, raising the question as to how and why this seemingly insignificant beginning should lead him so close to the top of the national leadership, which concluded with him having an international reputation. It was in business terms the same as asking how the caretaker was suddenly elevated to the board of management, or in church terms how did an assistant curate become a suffragan bishop overnight. Pug managed a close friendship with Britain’s most famous Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, as well as with Eisenhower even when President of the United States of America. The question of his rise from insignificance was not truly resolved in this writer’s mind until the closing moments of research, when it became apparent it all had to do with personality.

From 1939 Pug held three highly significant posts which cast him onto the international stage, though seldom were the floodlights focused on him. First, he was one of the very few men who held the same post for the duration of the Second World War as Churchill’s Chief of Staff, where only those at the top really understood his importance. He was regarded by many as a mere backroom bureaucrat who wore an army uniform, but he proved indispensable to Churchill and many others as this book will explore. After the war he remained a close friend of Churchill, helped him write his six-volume history, served on his cabinet when he returned to power, and was consulted constantly by Churchill as well as Clement Attlee. For a time he was considered for the post of Viceroy to India preparing the way to independence, but Mountbatten was selected, and Pug in his second significant post, travelled with him as his Chief of Staff and witnessed the devastating process of the partitioning of India and Pakistan, and his insights were curious and perceptive. On his return Attlee asked him to be chairman of the Council for the Festival of Britain, then Churchill made him Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. However, in 1952 he took on his third significant task when he was appointed Secretary-General of NATO helping to forge the Western defence during the early Cold War years, which was a vital time for the foundations of NATO.

All this from a soldier who started life as a mere subaltern battling tribesmen from his horse, missing the Great War because he was fighting Dervishes from the back of a camel. This book will explore not only his life, what others thought about him, but why he was always selected to major posts. It was not just his hard work, his ability to communicate, his loyalty and trustworthiness, but an aspect of his character which this exploration will unfold as an insight into human nature.

Introduction

The Introduction has three sub-sections. The first explains the layout of the book including the chronology of Pug Ismay’s life, the second part provides an explanation as to why he is barely mentioned in popular history, and the various sources, including major archives, where the information was gleaned. The final sub-section gives a brief sketch of Pug to cast some light on him and explain why he was worth exploring.

Layout of Book

In writing about a significant figure in history who is not a household name, it is often difficult to work out the approach and the most suitable angle to take. The book is in three distinctive sections, with Part One dealing with a brief look at Pug’s background, school, and Sandhurst and next his life as a young soldier in India and then Somaliland fighting with the Camel Corps. He missed the Great War in Europe which was from a cynical point of view probably safer for him, attended a staff college for those with potential, and started to walk the corridors of the War Office in Whitehall, and after a brief stint working for the Viceroy Willingdon in India returning to Whitehall as the dangers of Nazi Germany were becoming evident.

Part Two explores his work during the Second World War, first with Neville Chamberlain and then with Churchill whose Chief of Staff he became. King George VI later said to Pug that only three people held the same post for the entire duration of the war, himself, Pug and Edward Bridges (head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary) and given the strain of these years it was a remarkable achievement working alongside the often-tempestuous Churchill who frequently clashed with his Chiefs of Staff and their American counterparts. It was during these years that Pug was recognised and referred to as the ‘oil-can’ who soothed the way at fraught meetings, attended nearly all the major international conferences, met the world leaders, and somehow kept his stability and was so appreciated that he had hardly any critics following his years of service, which was remarkable, if not unique. He was often regarded as the ‘bridge’ across the stormy waters of Churchill’s administration at home and abroad. He developed a close relationship with Churchill which lasted until death, always at his side even at the personal level. Pug all but venerated Churchill who in return trusted him, used him on many occasions, treating him as a confidante and friend.

Part Three of the book examines his post-war activities which continued until he was 70 years of age. He held some voluntary posts, but in 1947 he was asked to be Chief of Staff to Mountbatten overseeing India’s independence. This led to the partitioning of India and Pakistan which proved to be an unmitigated disaster costing literally countless lives. When he returned, he held some minor posts, not least being Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. His hopes for retirement were dashed when in 1952 he was appointed Secretary-General of NATO, helping bring West Germany into the Western defence system during the early years of the infamous Cold War era, and made the work of NATO more publicly known and acceptable. In his memoirs he barely mentions this work for NATO for reasons which can only be speculative, but archival research in Britain and America revealed his role was significant. The next chapter concludes with his ‘end-days’ which were inundated with lengthy correspondence from others seeking information and his views. He was fortunate that his wife Darry (Laura Kathleen) was as committed and had the same sense of duty, because for years of their marriage he was often thousands of miles away and yet she always supported and encouraged him in every aspect of his work.

Part Three then explores his unique relationship with Churchill, one of business, occasionally difficult, but more often sheer pleasure if not fun, and which eventually transpired to be one of deep friendship and trust. This final part of the book explores how Pug was regarded by some of his contemporaries, selecting those who worked alongside him or observed him in action. In life when we hear a person’s opinion, we often weigh the value of their views by who they are, begging the question of trustworthiness and therefore the value of their thoughts. If we want to hear about a leading politician or soldier, it is best to avoid a person who relies on second-hand hearsay or is bigoted, but someone who had met the person in question and has sound reasons to have an opinion in the first place, and whose words can be trusted. As an historian it is always tempting and necessary to find the denunciations of the subject being explored, not least to avoid the criticism of writing a hagiography, and Pug undoubtedly had his weaknesses which are noted. Eight people were eventually selected. Only one person (Lord Moran) was cynical about Pug but finding the views of politicians proved difficult for reasons ranging from them not understanding Pug’s role, to their propensity to want to concentrate on themselves, a classical example was chosen in Harold Macmillan.

However, from reading the views of leading Americans such as Eisenhower, George Marshall, and even the Anglophobic General Mark Clark it becomes clear Pug was highly respected and appreciated. His British colleague General John Kennedy described Pug ‘as one of the most remarkable men of the war’, and Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke with whom Pug frequently argued during and after the war remained on good friendly terms with mutual admiration. Two critical civil servants, John (Jock) Colville, Churchill’s secretary, and Alan Lascelles (King George VI’s Secretary) kept open and honest diaries, and their reflections proved to be both interesting and incisive.

The final part of the book takes a sweeping look at Pug, his weaknesses, his strengths, and attempts to answer the question concerning his historic value, and the very human question as to why such a person living through the years of turmoil of the Second World War, its aftermath including the start of the Cold War, could have survived as a person who was so widely liked and loved, making him ‘one of the few’.

Historians and Sources

Twelve popular histories of these years were explored to discover the number of references to Pug. Together they amounted to nearly 10,000 pages, but Pug was only mentioned twenty times, a mere 0.21 per cent, but nine of these twenty references only noted his presence making it a more realistic 0.11 per cent. History books naturally take different perspectives and concentrate their efforts in varying areas. The more military inclined historian concentrates on field commanders and battles, others on strategy and tactics, some on international politics, some are more focused on one nation, while others can be nationalistically inclined. The historians Norman Davis, Liddell Hart, Max Hastings (in his second book), William Shirer, and Gordon Corrigan never mention his name at all.¹ Martin Gilbert in his huge volume mentions Pug three times but in passing, Andrew Roberts once, referring to when Churchill first commented to Pug that ‘never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’.² Michel Henri refers to Pug once, describing him as Churchill’s ‘Military Adviser’, and Gerhard Weinberg refers three times to Pug, twice just listing his presence, but one time quoting Pug from his letter to Wavell as he speculated on various people’s thinking about Operation Overlord.³

Antony Beevor mentions Pug five times, twice because he was accompanying Churchill, twice making phone calls, one of which was to check that the Americans were correct when telling Churchill Tobruk had fallen, and the interesting time Pug communicated with his assistant over the phone in Hindustani in case the line had been tapped.⁴ Max Hastings in his second major history of these years quotes Pug’s reaction to ‘the cringing subservience of Russian generals when he first visited the Kremlin in 1941’.⁵ Unlike most historians Michael Burleigh has six references to Pug, and they refer to him for a purpose and not just listing his attendance at meetings. He relates Pug’s account of a British soldier released by the Russians, quotes Pug’s words describing Stalin, the way Churchill sought his views, how Pug advised him, outlined his role and explained the American Admiral Leahy’s post with Roosevelt as being best described as that of Pug’s relationship with Churchill.⁶ Later, when helping Churchill with his memoirs in 1951, Pug acknowledged the same similarity comparing Leahy’s relationship with Roosevelt as similar to his own work with Churchill.⁷

Burleigh is unusual, but with the enormity of events it is not surprising that Pug has so few references amongst most historians, despite the fact he was close to Churchill, known to Roosevelt and Stalin. He was not a field commander, did not make major decisions, did not appear to influence major events which begs the question as to why he is worth any attention. Historians of the war years 1939–45 understandably tend to dwell on the main events, and not those behind the stage curtains. In the early years of the war Churchill was a key figure on the world stage, becoming a junior partner to Roosevelt and Stalin for logistical reasons near the end of the war, but he was still deemed a critical man during this period of world history. As is generally known, Churchill was impulsive, often quarrelled with his Chiefs of Staff, never suffered fools, caused many of the tensions within the Anglo-American coalition, and while accepting Stalin as an ally he despised him and his form of communism. He often made himself ill through overwork, but not even his most hardened critics could deny his determination to win one way or the other. Churchill needed a man like Pug, not just as a ‘whipping boy’, but as a trusted and loyal confidant who frequently acted as a bridge, an intermediary between Churchill and his own military staff, a person of information, advice, often described as the ‘oil-can’ who smoothed the way, prepared the explanations, the arguments, the presentations, checked the speeches and reports, and through his staff could activate necessary decisions. Given Churchill’s character, Pug was a critical cog in the machinery of war, but generally hidden from public and wider historical consideration.

The published sources for some understanding of Pug and his role arise from his own memoirs, his 1970 biographer who had the benefit of knowing Pug, and most importantly from the views of some of his contemporaries which will conclude the exploration of this unusual and generally unknown backroom general, this genial bureaucrat who was Churchill’s bridge to resolve so many issues.

Another major source were his thousands of papers held in the Liddell Hart Centre, King’s College, London. These invaluable archives reveal the family man, the sort of person he was, and to a degree explain how a man who had fought tribesmen on the Northwest frontier, and missed the Great War by fighting with the Camel Corps in Somaliland, could become Churchill’s Chief of Staff during the whole of the Second World War, assist Mountbatten in the independence and partitioning of India, become Secretary General to NATO and hold many other posts when he really wanted to retire. The NATO years were further enlightened by the American archives checking their papers relating to their foreign policy in Western Europe. However, by all accounts he was an unusual person, significant in the parts he played, but generally unknown to the public and underplayed in popular history.

A Brief Oversight of Pug

During the Second World War he was Churchill’s number one military bureaucrat and his personal Chief of Staff, remaining close friends to the end of Churchill’s life. As noted in the Preface he was a member of the Camel Corps fighting in Somaliland and better acquainted with India and North-East Africa than Britain, and yet his critical years were alongside Churchill during the most dangerous times in British history. His journey to the Second World War makes Part One of this book more like a subplot, but it shaped the man who would mix with the main personalities of 1939–1957, and he proved to be a man committed to duty and service, from assisting Mountbatten in the independence and partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, to a minor role as a Secretary of State, then becoming Secretary-General of NATO during the early stages of the Cold War.

Pug was a sociable and amenable person, and he often regaled his friends during the trauma of the Second World War with stories and anecdotes from his unusual exploits in India and Africa. He loved talking of polo, horses, playing backgammon and described his dream of keeping his ideal cattle, Jersey cows. He was a born soldier but one whom civilians liked, with such men as Churchill’s secretary John Colville, King George VI’s Private Secretary Alan Lascelles, and many others, even including politicians even if, like Attlee they were of the opposite party to Pug’s natural political inclinations, although this must be speculative because he always remained neutral in party politics. This determination to remain impartial added to his reputation of trying to be fair when he stood apart from the bitter Hindu-Muslim conflict. He was known for his hard work, his dedicated loyalty, especially to Churchill whom he almost venerated. He had a reputation for telling the truth, he dealt with many minor issues as a matter of honour and with major issues which historically have often passed unnoticed. As far as can be ascertained, Pug seemed to have no enemies, unlike many of his contemporaries, and this was undoubtedly because of his pleasant personality and charitable disposition. Colville recorded that the only person he ever heard ‘speak ill of Ismay’, was Moran, but then Churchill’s doctor was well-known for being critical not only of many people but even of military operations.⁸ Pug, on the other hand, could be critical of a person’s performance but he was not known for speaking badly of another person.

Unlike General Brooke and many others Pug never kept personal diaries, his letters to his wife Darry tended to be personal but they offered occasional insights into his thinking. He was intensely security-minded, and during the Second World War and in the postwar period when he assisted Mountbatten in giving India and Pakistan independence, he kept no diary, and his memoirs provide only broad sweeps of the brush, avoiding personal criticism of others enjoyed by most people. In these memoirs he barely mentions his time in NATO. Much of his work must be gleaned from those who worked with him, from their inferences or an overview of his involvement in major events. Even in his memoirs it soon becomes evident that he was self-deprecating, humble in the best sense of the word, and apart from the enemy very rarely spoke or wrote unkindly about anyone. Most of the time he was full of praise for military commanders, the administrative civilians and even politicians on both sides. He was critical of Field Marshal Brooke for allowing his forthright diaries to be published after the war, but instantly balanced this criticism by adding that he was the best of all the CIGS (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) ever appointed.

Pug describes himself as a cog in the machine, he was Churchill’s personal Chief of Staff and his top military bureaucrat who often acted as a bridge between the Chiefs of Staff (COS) and Churchill who frequently clashed. He must have been good in his work to survive the duration of the war and continued serving until he had turned 70. He was Churchill’s source of information, his personal textbook for military details, often advice, and one of his tasks was checking Churchill’s speeches on military matters for mistakes or omissions. He worked very hard and for long hours and was known for his gentlemanly disposition, for being kind and friendly, and this undoubtedly accounted for Churchill’s affection for him. It raises an issue occasionally addressed in this study, that he tended to look at the past through rose-coloured glasses, and people and events as seen by Pug are not the same as viewed by many historians. Nevertheless, Pug produced some interesting insights into major and relatively minor events with some amusing anecdotes on the way, and which to one degree or another challenge some better-known historical insights, or he managed to paint the other side of a person or an event to give it a different perspective.

He was often known as Churchill’s favourite ‘Pug’ and there is no doubt that he was intensely loyal to Churchill from the start of their relationship to the very end. According to one of Churchill’s severest critics, after the war Churchill tried to cover up mistakes, one being his refusal to acknowledge the fiasco of Dieppe. While it is certain that the disaster resulted from Mountbatten’s poor planning and over-enthusiasm, it is less certain as to how far Churchill was aware of the operation which had previously been cancelled. This critic, Nigel Knight, suggested that Churchill during the writing of his book had been told by Pug that he had recalled Churchill’s knowing about the raid, but he was ignored and Churchill drafted his own version.⁹ Whether this was true or not is difficult to ascertain, but either way it is certain that Pug would have stood by Churchill whom he virtually adored. There is no question that the failure at Dieppe pre-occupied Churchill’s mind and following a difficult episode at Chequers with a bitter argument between Brooke and Mountbatten, it was Pug who tried to mollify the anger, then and later. Even in other people’s bitter contentions Pug tried to smooth the way.¹⁰ When after the war Pug had hoped to retire to his Jersey cows and live the ‘good life’, he continued to serve his country, and when Churchill was again elected to the premiership, he called back the reluctant Pug, who promptly came at his bidding.

As this exploration will reveal Pug’s role was a technical desk job, or on the surface a minor one, heading a critical and efficient war administrative structure, and arranging the necessary secretariats for the famous war conferences and for many other important occasions. He was assisted by two deputies, Joe Hollis from the Royal Marines, and Ian Jacob a major-general, who were both loyal to Pug and efficient. However, the gift of Pug Ismay was in acting as a bridge between the one-time soldier and now politician Churchill and the military leaders in COS, and later the combined British and American COS, which elevated him, most agree, including Churchill, to a person of substance and historical interest. He was one of the few men who understood and respected Churchill’s petulant nature in demanding his way even with the top military experts. He understood Churchill well enough to pick the right moment or mood to present a COS decision to the prime minister, which if given at the wrong moment could have explosive consequences. He was also capable as a fellow military man of being able to convey Churchill’s views to the COS in such a fashion they did not all resign. He was often the only man who could calm the unsettled moments in times of crisis, not just within the British camp, where he smoothed ‘rocky relations between Brooke and Churchill’…as ‘Dill managed for relations between Brooke and Marshall’, but Pug always did his best to ensure the Anglo-American coalition worked.¹¹ He was such a mediator that later, when John Dill, the British military representative died in post in Washington, Lord Halifax, off the record, informed Churchill that Marshall had suggested Pug should be the replacement; Halifax warned Marshall that Churchill would not want to lose Pug and he was right.¹²

This book is about Pug the man, it explores his role as far as possible, the way he regarded matters, and reminds us that he was the archetype of the legendary English gentleman.

Part One

India to the War Office

Part One traces Pug Ismay’s life from his family background, through school to Sandhurst and out to fight on the North-West Frontier. He reluctantly missed the Great War by fighting with the Camel Corps in Somaliland, after which he married, returned to India and attended Staff College. He had a brief spell in the Indian equivalent of the War Office (Simla), then to the London Whitehall War Office, hoping for a military command but was sent in a ceremonial military role back to India to assist Viceroy Willingdon. He was invited back to London under the guidance of Maurice Hankey, where slowly but surely his character and aptitudes were noticed, and by 1939 he became a key component in the war administration. From fighting tribesmen in North-West India and Somaliland, he had suddenly risen to be close to the centre of administrative power during the whole of the Second World War.

Chapter One

From Cradle to the North-West Frontier

Pug’s father Stanley Ismay (1848–1914) whose family seat was near Sittingbourne in Kent, lost his family fortune through gambling, escaping the embarrassment by joining the Indian Civil Service where he could earn a living to the standards which he thought fit for his class as a gentleman. He was a distant cousin of the shipowner Thomas Henry Ismay, but despite his early problems Stanley rose through the ranks with a distinguished career and after his retirement became the Chief Judge of the Mysore Court and knighted. He had married Beatrice Eileen in 1875, daughter of Hastings Read of the East India Company, (she died in 1932) they had four children, thus Ismay’s Christian name of Hastings,