Ian Stanley Ord Playfair

Ian Stanley Ord Playfair ( April 10, 1894 - May 21, 1972 ) was a British military historian and major general in the British Army .

biography

Playfair was educated at Cheltenham College and joined the Royal Engineers in 1913 . During the First World War he was used on the Western Front in both Belgium and France . In the course of his mission, Playfair was Mentioned in Despatches and received the Military Cross with clasp and the Distinguished Service Order .

In 1920 Playfair was appointed Commanding Officer of the Cadets in the Royal Marine Artillery . He held this post until 1924.

In 1930 Playfair married Jocelyn Malan, with whom he later became the father of two sons.

From 1930 to 1934 he was chief instructor for fieldwork and bridge building at the Royal School of Military Engineering . Then Playfair became a teacher at the staff college of the British Indian Army in Quetta . From 1938 he attended Imperial Defense College and the following year was commander of the Army Gas School at Porton Down , Wiltshire.

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Playfair was appointed director of planning in the War Office in 1940 . At the beginning of 1942 he was given the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff of the Land Forces in ABDACOM , a short-lived Allied command for Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific. From 1943 Playfair was a staff officer in the British 11th Army Group under the command of the Southeast Asia Command . In 1943 he became Companion of the Order of the Bath .

Playfair retired in 1947. He later co-wrote the official British documentary of World War II, The Mediterranean and Middle East .

Works

• The Mediterranean and Middle East
  • Volume 1: The Early Successes Against Italy, to May 1941 , London 1954, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, ISBN 1-84574-065-3
  • Volume 2: The Germans Come to the Help of Their Ally, 1941 , London 1956, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, ISBN 1-84574-066-1
  • Volume 3: British Fortunes Reach Their Lowest Ebb , London 1960, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, ISBN 1-84574-067-X
  • Volume 4: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa , London 1966, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, ISBN 1-84574-068-8

Web links

• Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives, King's College London, "PLAYFAIR, Ian Stanley Ord (1894-1972), Major General"
• L. Klemen, 1999-2000, Netherlands Indies Campaign 1941-1942 , "Major-General Ian Stanley Ord Playfair"
• National Portrait Gallery

Individual evidence

1. ^ Playfair at Dutch East Indies.Retrieved July 21, 2011