Field Marshall Sir Claude Auchinleck Grave Morocco

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by spidge, Jul 3, 2007.

  1. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    I touched on this last week when checking the only RAAF FO interred there. I thought it odd that Auchinleck would be buried here.

    Does anyone have any detail as to why he wished to be buried here?

    Ben M'Sik European Cemetery contains 38 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. The Commonwealth plot also contains two war graves of other nationalities and seven non-war burials. Among the latter is the grave of Field Marshall Sir Claude Auchinleck who held a number of commands during the Second World War. He died in 1981 at the age of 96, and is buried alongside Galley Boy Raymond Steed, who at 14 years of age was the youngest known Commonwealth casualty of the Second World War.
     
  2. Gibbo

    Gibbo Senior Member

    He lived in Marrakech from his retirement to his death so must have chosen to be buried where he died. I read somewhere that he found the terrain of Morrocco to be similar to that of the North West Frontier of India where, as an Indian Army officer, he'd spent most of his career.
     
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  3. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Interestingly, I just noticed a photo of a letter from Auchinleck while in retirement.

    The content is quotidian, but it does give his home address.

    s-l1600-4.jpg
     
  4. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    My father was Defence Attaché in Morocco in the late 1970s and one of his responsibilities was to look after FM Sir Claude Auchinleck. As a FM, he was technically still a serving officer, if only on half pay.

    From my father's accounts, he was quite a fellow.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  5. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Brilliant--I love little 'brushes with history' like this. I knew for years that my friends' father was 'a soldier in Rhodesia' before they emigrated to Britain, but I only found out a few weeks ago that he was the C.O. of the Rhodesian Rifles and used to brief Ian Smith on security matters before Mugabe destroyed the place.

    I've never seen a photograph of Auchinleck as an old man. He was a fairly rugged looking chap when in India and the desert.
     
  6. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    "I've never seen a photograph of Auchinleck as an old man. He was a fairly rugged looking chap when in India and the desert."

    I just had a quick look in Aussie archives and there are 40 or 50 photos of him in 1941 / 1942 - but only 1 post-war shot from 1956 when he visited Australia (aged 70 ?)
     

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  7. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I came across a picture of him in old age.

    s-l1600-7.jpg
     
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  8. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    This thread stirred my memory. Years ago I walked past his statue in the public open space beneath a rather dire Birmingham city centre office block - one Auchinleck House. His statue was removed and later returned to a more open spot nearby. As the press report says: 'The statue was commissioned and paid for by the Murrayfield Real Estate Company Ltd., the developers of Five Ways Shopping Centre...(he) had been the chairman of Murrayfield’s since 1958. The statue was unveiled by Auk himself, on 27th April 1965.'
    Link:Return of The Auk - Birmingham Civic Society
     
  9. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  10. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Does anyone know the full text of the partly obscured inscription?
     
  11. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Chaucer.

    He never yet no vileiny ne said [In all his life, unto no manner wight.] He was a verray perfect gentil knight.

    Very apt.

    Can't be sure about spelling—it was pretty fluid in those days!
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2022
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  12. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Ahh, that's lovely. Thank you.
     

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