Charles Bonham Carter

Sir Charles Bonham Carter GCB CMG DSO (born February 25, 1876 in Paddington , † October 21, 1955 in Petersfield ) was a British officer with the last rank of general .

Childhood and youth

Charles Bonham Carter was born on February 25, 1876, the ninth of eleven children of Henry Bonham Carter and Sibella Charlotte Norman. His father was the director of an insurance company from 1861 to 1899, his mother the daughter of a senior administrator. Despite the high number of children, he grew up in a wealthy family and enjoyed an excellent education. He received his education at Clifton College in Clifton near Bristol , his military training at the Royal Military College Sandhurst . This was later completed at the Staff College of the British Army in Camberley .

Military career

As a soldier, he took part in the Second Boer War in 1900 and in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 . Most recently he was in the High Command of the British Armed Forces as a general responsible for training. In this position he was also responsible for aligning the American troops subordinate to the 2nd Corps. During the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917 and the Order of St. Michael and St. George immediately after the war . On June 9, 1918, Bonham Carter had already received the United States Congress' Army Distinguished Service Medal .

In 1926 he became Companion of the Order of the Bath . In the British War Office he held the post of Chief of Staff (Director of Staff Duties) from 1927 to 1931 . In 1931 he was given command of the 4th Division in Colchester, which he held until 1933. He then became Commander-General of the Territorial Army. He remained in this post until 1936.

Governor and Commander in Chief of Malta

This year, he followed the health ailing General Sir David Graham Muschet Campbel as governor and commander in chief (Governor and Commander-in-Chief) of Malta by, who died on 12 March. In 1937 he was promoted to general. At the beginning of his tenure, the island was marked by political unrest between pro-British and pro-Italian groups of the local population. The political climate had caused Campbell to dissolve the People's Assembly and the Senate. At the same time, the reputation of British administrators and the military had declined. Bonham Carter recognized the island's strategic importance to the British Empire, as well as the need to treat the local population appropriately. Bonham Carter therefore called on his subordinate soldiers and officials to restrain and to overcome racist prejudice. He recorded his impressions in detail in his diaries, which offer a unique view of Maltese society from the perspective of a British soldier.

In April 1940 Bonham Carter suffered a heart attack, as a result of which he returned to England and retired. While Malta initially found itself in a marginal military position after the outbreak of World War II and was not directly threatened, the situation changed suddenly after Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940. Although Bonham Carter had pointed out that the loss of Malta would soon lead to the collapse of the British Empire, the island was insufficiently prepared for the following military conflicts, as it was not assumed that the archipelago would be able to hold for long. It was up to his successor as governor and commander-in-chief, General William Dobbie , to organize an effective defense of the island.

Honors

After Bonham Carter had already become Knight Commander of the Bath Order in 1935 , he was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order in 1941 . He was also the King's Aide-de-Camp General from 1938 to 1941 . Introduced in 1910, this aide-de-camp was a military honorary title for senior British generals. His duties were of a ceremonial nature, a military or advisory function was not associated with this office. Bonham Carter has also been an Honorary Doctor of Law from the Royal University of Malta since 1937 .

family

Bonham Carter was married twice. In 1902 he married Gladys Beryl Coddington. The marriage, which resulted in two sons, was divorced in 1910. The following year, 1911, he married Madge Jeanette Fisher. From this marriage a son was born. His written estate is administered by the Churchill Archives Center at Churchill College , Cambridge.

Web links

• Entry of the Churchill Archives Center at Charles Bonham Carter (English)
• Entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (English)
• Address by the British Governor General Sir Charles Bonham-Carter to the officers of units arriving in Malta, 1936 (English)

literature

• John Manduca (Ed.): The Bonham-Carter diaries, 1936-1940. , Publishers Enterprises Group, San Gwann 2004. ISBN 99909-0-374-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Shared Tree Joanna Maria Smith (1792) (English)
2. ↑ Military Times Hall of Valor ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  
3. ^ Address by the British Governor
4. ↑ University of Malta, Register of Graduates 1972-1977, 1978 (English) ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.2 MB) 

predecessor	Office	successor
David Graham Muschet Campbell	Governor of Malta 1936–1940	William George Shedden Dobbie