Adrian Carton de Wiart

Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963) was a British Army officer of Belgian and Irish descent. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; 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 refused to amputate them. He later wrote that "Frankly I had enjoyed the war" when describing his service in the First World War.

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

Carton de Wiart was thought to be a model for the character of Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in Evelyn Waugh's trilogy Sword of Honor.  The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described him thus: "With his black eye patch and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart looked like an elegant pirate, and became a figure of legend."

 

"Governments may think and say as they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose."

"Frankly I had enjoyed the war...and why do people want peace if the war is so much fun."