Claude Auchinleck

Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE , nicknamed The Auk, was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become CommanderinChief of the Indian Army by early 1941. In July 1941 he was appointed CommanderinChief of the Middle East theatre, but after initial successes the war in North Africa turned against the British, and he was relieved of the post in 1942 during the crucial Alamein campaign. In June 1943 he was once more appointed CommanderinChief India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for Slims Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. He served as CommanderinChief India until Partition in 1947, when he assumed the role of Supreme Commander of all British forces in India and Pakistan until late 1948. He retired to the United Kingdom but at the age of 84 emigrated to Morocco, where he died at

Auchinleck attended the Staff College, Quetta between 1920 and 1921. He married Jessie Stewart in 1921. Jessie had been born in 1900 in Tacoma, Washington, to Alexander Stewart, head of the Blue Funnel Line that plied the west coast of the United States. When he died about 1919, their mother took her, her twin brother Alan and her younger brother Hepburne back to Bun Rannoch, the family estate at Innerhadden in Perthshire. Holidaying at Grasse on the French Riviera, Auchinleck, who was on leave from India at the time, met Jessie on the tennis courts. She was a highspirited, blueeyed beauty. Things moved quickly, and they were married within five months. Sixteen years younger than Auchinleck, Jessie became known as the little American girl in India, but adapted readily to life there.

Source: Wikipedia