Adrian Carton de Wiart

Adrian Carton De Wiart

Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963), was a British officer of Belgian and Irish descent. He fought in the Boer War, World War I, and World War II; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip and ear; survived a plane crash, tunneled out of a POW camp, and bit off his own fingers when a doctor wouldn't amputate them. He later said "frankly I had enjoyed the war."

After returning home from World War II, he was sent to China as Winston Churchill's personal representative. While en route he attended the Cairo Conference.

de Wiart was thought to be a model for the character of Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in Evelyn Waugh's trilogy Sword of Honour.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described him so, "With his black eyepatch and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart looked like an elegant pirate, and became a figure of legend."