I am also grateful to Brigadier Jack Thomas, Chairman of the Commando Benevolent Fund and President of the Commando Veterans Association, and to Joe Murtagh, until recently the National Secretary of the CVA, for their help, and to Pete Rogers, the CVA web site archivist, for allowing me to publish a number of photographs from the site.
I had a number of very useful discussions with Philip Eade, who was in the course of writing his new book, Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited. Although we also debated the circumstances of Waugh’s resignation from the Commandos, our main focus was on the events on Crete and I must thank Philip for helping me to clarify my own views on this critical episode.
For Bob’s governorship of Malta, my main source was David Hall, who was Bob’s ADC for more than half his term. I had a long interview with him, at which Martha Mlinaric was also present, as a consequence of which I came away much better informed on the events, personalities and general background, as well as on the private life of the Governor and his family. I am most grateful to David for his time then and subsequently.
For information on Bob’s Lord Lieutenancy of Nottinghamshire I must thank Sir Andrew Buchanan, himself a former Lord Lieutenant, and Gaynor Brown of the Lieutenancy Office. As far as Bob’s colonelcy of the Sherwood Rangers was concerned, I am grateful to Colonel Jonathan Hunt, the historian of the regiment and one of Bob’s successors as its Honorary Colonel. Colonel Hunt also pointed me in the direction of Stanley Christopherson’s diaries, which enabled me to track the wartime movements of Bob’s brothers, Peter and Michael. On Bob’s association with the post-war SAS I was helped by Colonel John Waddy, the Regimental Colonel for much of Bob’s term as Colonel Commandant.
Apart from the material produced by the family, the single most important source for the book was the Laycock Papers in the Liddell Hart Archives at King’s College, London, and I spent long hours there. I am most grateful to Diana Manipud and her colleagues for the most efficient and friendly way in which they satisfied my requirements, which included copying reams of documents. I would also like to thank the staff of the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum, two organizations I appreciate greatly for their standards of service.
At Pen & Sword Henry Wilson has been unfailingly supportive, whilst Matt Jones has handled all the issues relating to the production of the book with the minimum of fuss. I have also been very lucky to have George Chamier as my editor once again.
I could not write without the encouragement of my wife, Sheelagh, and my sons, Tim and Rupert. As ever, Rupert was the first reader of all my drafts, making time in the midst of his very busy professional and family life, for which I am most grateful.
Sources and Bibliography
Interviews
David Hall
Ben Laycock
Martha Mlinaric
Desirée Roderick
Emma Temple
Primary Sources
The National Archives
ADM 1/18084 Definition of responsibilities of Admiralty & COHQ.
ADM 202/402 Crete: Despatches of Major General Weston.
CAB 80/55/12 Employment of 3 Commando Brigade: Memorandum by CCO.
CAB 80/76/87 Directive to CCO 28.11.43.
CAB 120/414 Combined Operations: General.
CO 967/352 Malta: Extension of term of office for Sir Robert Laycock.
CO 1017/478 Malta: Extension of term of office for Sir Robert Laycock.
DEFE 2/43 Combined Operations War Diaries.
DEFE 2/48 RM Commandos War Diaries.
DEFE 2/54 SS Brigade HQ War Diary October 1940–August 1941.
DEFE 2/55 SS Brigade HQ War Diary September 1941–October 1943.
DEFE 2/205 Supplementary report on Operation Flipper.
DEFE 2/699 Early history of Combined Operations.
DEFE 2/710 Evolution, Development & Organization of COHQ.
DEFE 2/711B Miscellaneous COHQ papers.
DEFE 2/1051 Role & reorganization of SS Brigade and SS Group.
DEFE 2/1066 Laycock biography and other papers.
WO 193/384 Independent Companies.
WO 201/716 Layforce Adjutant General Questions.
WO 201/717 Layforce Commander Personal Papers.
WO 201/720 Report on Operation Flipper.
WO 201/2652 Inter Services Committee Report on Crete.
WO 205/47 Functions of CCO May1943–June 1944.
WO 218/8 8 Commando War Diary June–November 1940.
WO 218/29 SS Brigade War Diary January–December 1942.
WO 218/44 1 SS Brigade War Diary January–December 1943.
WO 218/50 2 Commando War Diary January–December 1943.
WO 218/166 HQ Z Force/Layforce War Diary January–July 1941.
WO 218/168 A Battalion Layforce War Diary January–May 1941.
WO 218/169 B Battalion Layforce War Diary May–June 1941.
WO 218/170 B Battalion Layforce War Diary January–March 1941.
WO 218/171 C Battalion Layforce War Diary March–October 1941.
WO 218/172 D Battalion Layforce War Diary January–May 1941.
Imperial War Museum
The Papers of Major General T. B. L. Churchill, Major General F. C. C. Graham, Major General J. C. Haydon, Captain F. R. C. Nicholls.
Interviews with Earl Jellicoe, Sir Carol Mather, Lieutenant Colonel J. M. T. F. Churchill, Major W. A. Smallman, Lieutenant J. B. Sherwood.
Liddell-Hart Centre, King’s College, London
The Papers of Major General R. E. Laycock.
Eton College Library
Term calendars, school lists and Eton College Chronicle.
Hartley Library, University of Southampton
Mountbatten Papers.
Private Laycock Papers
Draft memoirs.
Diaries 1927–1932.
Letters from Bob to Angie, Emma Laycock (later Temple) and Martha Laycock (later Mlinaric).
Letters from Brigadier General Joseph Laycock to his mother and sister 1899–1900.
Diary of the voyage of Herzogin Cecilie August–November 1931.
List of books read 1928–1968.
Army Service Record.
Other Sources
Army List
Dictionary of National Biography
London Gazette
The Times Digital Archive
Who’s Who
Wikipedia and other web sites
Books
Anon, Log of the Valhalla, privately published 1894.
Anon, The Story of 46 Division 1939–1945, Graz 1946.
Asher, Michael, Get Rommel, London 2004.
Asher, Michael, The Regiment – The Real Story of the SAS, London 2007.
Beevor, Antony, Crete – The Battle and the Resistance, London 1991.
Bryant, Arthur, The Turn of the Tide – 1939–1943, London 1957.
Bryant, Arthur, Triumph in the West – 1943–1946, London 1959.
Churchill, Tom, Commando Crusade, London 1987.
Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War, Volumes II to VI, London, 1949–1954.
Connell, John, Auchinleck, London 1959.
Cowles, Virginia, The Phantom Major, London 1958.
Cunningham, Andrew, A Sailor’s Odyssey, London 1951.
Danchev, Alex & Todman, Daniel (Eds.), War Diaries 1939–1945 – Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, London 2001 & 2003 (paperback).
Davie, Michael (Ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, London 1976.
D’Este, Carlo, Bitter Victory – The Battle for Sicily 1943, London 1988.
Dunning, James, It Had To Be Tough – The Origins and Training of the Commandos in World War II, Barnsley, 2012.
Durnford-Slater, John, Commando – Memoirs of a Fighting Commando in World War Two, London 1953.
Eade, Philip, Evelyn Waugh – A Life Revisited, London 2016.
Fergusson, Bernard, The Watery Maze – The Story of Combined Operations, London 1961.
Fraser, David, And We Shall Shock Them – The British Army in
the Second World War, London 1983.
Hall Spencer, John, Battle for Crete, Barnsley 2008.
Hastings, Selina, Evelyn Waugh – A Biography, London 1994.
Hickey, Des and Smith, Gus, Operation Avalanche – The Salerno Landings 1943, London 1983.
Hoe, Alan, David Stirling, London 1992.
Holland, James (Ed.), An Englishman at War – The Wartime Diaries of Stanley Christopherson, London 2014.
Ismay, Hastings, Memoirs, London 1960.
Joslin, H. F., Orders of Battle – Second World War 1939–1945, London 1960.
Kemp, Anthony, The SAS at War 1941–1945, London 1991.
Keyes, Elizabeth, Geoffrey Keyes, London 1956.
Keyes, Roger, Amphibious Warfare and Combined Operations, Cambridge 1943.
Konstam, Angus, Salerno 1943, Barnsley 2007.
Ladd, James, The Royal Marines 1919–1980, London 1980.
Lavery, Brian, Churchill Goes to War, London 2007.
Lovat, Simon, March Past – A Memoir, London 1978.
Macpherson, Tommy (with Richard Bath), Behind Enemy Lines, Edinburgh 2010.
Mather, Carol, When the Grass Stops Growing, Barnsley 1997.
Maund, Loben, Assault from the Sea, London 1949.
Messenger, Charles, The Commandos 1940–1946, London 1985.
Messenger, Charles (with George Young and Stephen Rose), The Middle East Commandos, London 1988.
Mitchell-Innes, Barbara, Joseph Frederick Laycock, privately published 1936.
Morgan, Frederick, Overture to Overlord, London 1950.
Owen, James, Commando, London 2012.
Ranfurly, Hermione, To War with Whittaker, London 1995.
Rostron, Peter, The Military Life & Times of General Sir Miles Dempsey, London 2010.
Saunders, Hilary St George, The Green Beret, London 1949.
Stannard, Martin, Evelyn Waugh – No Abiding City 1939–1966, London 1992.
Vian, Philip, Action This Day, London 1960.
Waugh, Evelyn, Men at Arms, London 1952.
Waugh, Evelyn, Officers and Gentlemen, London 1955.
Waugh, Evelyn, Unconditional Surrender, London 1961.
White-Spunner, Barney, Horse Guards, London 2006.
Young, Peter, Storm from the Sea, London 1958.
Ziegler, Philip, Mountbatten – The Official Biography, London 1985.
Ziegler, Philip (Ed.), Personal Diary of Admiral The Lord Louis Mountbatten – Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia 1943–1946, London 1988.
Notes
Chapter 1
1. Mitchell-Innes, Joseph Frederick Laycock p.11.
2. A younger son of the 8th Duke of Leeds. He died in 1895, but Annie lived for another forty years.
3. Letter from Joe to his mother 15.12.1899.
4. ‘Bendor’ was a reference to the ancient arms of the Grosvenors – ‘Azure, a bend d’or’ – before they lost a famous case in the Court of Chivalry in 1389, in which the Scrope family, rival claimants to identical arms, was victorious.
Chapter 2
1. Mitchell-Innes, Joseph Frederick Laycock p.55.
2. Ibid. p.56.
3. Joe had been appointed CMG in 1917. The Order of St Michael & St George is now awarded for specifically non-military services on foreign and Commonwealth affairs, but in the Great War it was used as a general award for military services.
4. Letter from A. E. Foot to Bob 5.8.25, Family Papers.
5. DEFE 2/1066.
6. Laycock Papers LHA 9/1/1.
Chapter 3
1. The creation of the title was as ‘Earl Erne’, but ‘Earl of Erne’ is in common use, not only in the press, but in most works of reference.
2. Cornet was the lowest commissioned rank in some cavalry regiments and was equivalent to second lieutenant. It is now only used in the Blues and Royals and the Queen’s Royal Hussars.
3. The First and Second Life Guards had been amalgamated into a single regiment in 1922.
4. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment continues to provide Short and Long Guards to this day.
5. Memoirs pp.1–2.
6. By coincidence, Turnor and Smith-Dorrien died within six weeks of each other in the summer of 1930, both as the result of accidents. Turnor had only recently succeeded Innes-Ker as Commanding Officer of the Blues.
7. This was by no means universal. Each of the four officers immediately senior to Bob – Henry Abel Smith, Walter Sale, Eion Merry and Peter Grant Lawson – remained in the service, did well in the War and subsequently became the regiment’s Commanding Officer.
Chapter 4
1. The film was based on the theatrical version of Hornung’s books, which had first been staged in 1903, with Sir Gerald du Maurier in the title role.
2. The donkey man was the crewman responsible for the machinery aboard ship, notably the motors to raise the anchor and pump out water. On the Herzogin Cecilie he was a jack of all trades.
Chapter 5
1. Laycock Papers LHA 2/1.
2. Laycock Papers LHA 9/1/1.
3. Now renamed Hyde Park Crescent.
4. Diary 6.12.28.
5. Letter from Bob to Angie 20.9.34.
6. Letter from Bob to Angie 6.10.34.
7. Memoirs p.8.
Chapter 6
1. Three years is Bob’s recollection in his Memoirs. However, the Military Secretary’s Department’s communication to London District of his selection referred to his tenure lasting until 31 March 1939, just over fifteen months.
2. Memoirs p.18.
3. Ibid. pp.49–50.
4. Ibid. p.60.
5. Ibid.
6. Letter from Bob to Angie 20.10.39.
7. Letter from Bob to Angie 8.10.39.
8. Memoirs p.90.
9. Ibid p.108.
10. The course was subsequently changed to three periods of six weeks each, with short breaks between them.
11. He took part in the defence of Boulogne in May 1940, in which he earned a Military Cross, and was then appointed GSO2 at the newly formed Guards Armoured Division.
Chapter 7
1. CAB 120/414.
2. Ibid.
3. Clarke, Seven Assignments p.207.
4. WO 193/384.
5. Niven, The Moon’s a Balloon p.225.
6. Sergison-Brooke was the cousin and a very close confidant of Alan Brooke, later CIGS. It is quite possible, albeit documented nowhere, that he was helpful to Bob’s later career.
7. This is not strictly true. Bob was only in Beira for a week and, although he did work in the hold of the Herzogin Cecilie on unloading from time to time, it was by no means the full-time job which was the impression conveyed.
8. Memoirs pp.152–3.
9. The first mention of White’s appears to have come on p.17 of Virginia Cowles’ biography of David Stirling, The Phantom Major, published in 1958. Cowles, an American journalist, biographer and travel writer, was a friend of Bob’s even before the War. She would have relished the unorthodox myth over the more prosaic reality.
10. Letter from Bob to Angie 15.10.40.
11. Their fathers were Lord Astor of Hever, who owned The Times, and Viscount Camrose, who owned the Daily Telegraph.
12. He had an illustrious career in the law after the War which included leading the prosecution in the Lady Chatterley trial.
13. Memoirs pp.170-1.
Chapter 8
1. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing p.29.
2. WO 218/8.
3. Ibid.
4. Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat and Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat, was always known as ‘Shimi’, a corruption of the Gaelic MacShimidh (son of Simon).
5. WO 218/8.
6. Nos. 1–9 & 11. No 12 Commando was also raised specifically to help counter a German invasion of Northern Ireland, but did not come under Combined Operations until later.
7. Letter from Bob to Angie 26.8.40.
8. Churchill, The Second World War, Volume II p.413.
9. HMS Glengy
le was one of three ‘Glen’ ships, 10,000-ton, 14-knot cargo vessels converted to LSIs, which could carry twelve LCAs, one LCM (later two) for vehicles and stores and 700+ men in addition to her crew. The others were Glenearn and Glenroy.
10. Memoirs p.232.
11. Ibid. p.234.
12. Young, Storm from the Sea p.24.
13. Memoirs p.241.
14. Davie (Ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh p.491.
15. Jellicoe IWM interview.
16. There is no hotel of that name now on Arran: it is possible that it was actually the Douglas Hotel.
17. Churchill, Commando Crusade p.60.
18. Davie (Ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh p.492.
19. Ibid.
20. Memoirs p.263.
21. DEFE 2/43.
Chapter 9
1. Sherwood IWM interview.
2. Laycock Papers LHA 3/4.
3. WO 218/166.
4. Memoirs p.266.
5. Ibid.
6. Memoirs p.271.
7. Ibid. p.273.
8. Ibid. pp.292–3.
9. It appears to have originally been called Operation MANDIBLES, which is how Bob refers to it in his memoirs, but the Layforce war diary refers only to CORDITE.
10. Courtney was awarded the Military Cross for this.
Chapter 10
1. Cunningham had served as Cowan’s Flag Captain from 1926 to 1928 when the latter was C-in-C West Indies. He was later to say that he had spent no happier years at sea.
2. Memoirs p.320.
3. Ibid. p.332.
4. Laycock Papers LHA 6/3.
5. Davie (Ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh p.494.
6. Memoirs p.354.
7. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing pp. 41–2.
8. Memoirs p.356.
Chapter 11
1. Ibid. p.357.
2. Ibid. p.366.
3. Ibid. p.369.
4. Ibid. p.370.
5. Ibid. pp.370–1.
6. Ibid. pp.372–3.
7. WO 201/2652.
8. Memoirs p.374.
9. Messenger, Young and Rose, The Middle East Commandos p.87.
10. Davie (Ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh p.507.
11. WO 218/166.
12. Memoirs p.379.
13. Ibid. pp.382–4.
14. Papers of Major General F. C. C. Graham IWM.
15. WO 218/166.
16. ADM 202/402.
17. Ibid.
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