130040 Lt Adrian Harry Austin GARDNER, Cameronians: Court martial details sought

I am looking to find out why Captain Adrian Harry Austin Gardner Cameronians serving with MELF in 1943 was court martialed. He was in Beruit summer 1943.

He was cashiered in Feb 1944.

I am struggling to find out what he was charged with but as he was cashiered it must have be something serious.

 

Welcome to the forum
Have you applied for copy of his service records?

There should be at least a note in them of which King's Regulations the CM related to.

edit
Just posting links / his full details in LG for the record
London Gazette : 24 May 1940
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34855/supplement/3098/data.pdf
The undermentioned Cadets, from 166th, 167th, 168th and 170th Officer Cadet Training Units, to be 2nd Lts. Except as otherwise stated. 18th May 1940:—
Cameronians.
Adrian Harry Austin GARDNER (130040).

London Gazette : 21 March 1944
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36431/supplement/1316/data.pdf
Cameronians.
War Subs. Lt. A. H. A. Gardner (130040) is cashiered by sentence of a Gen. Court-Martial, 2nd Feb.1944.

See also

• Cashiered / Dismissed the Service
• cashiered | WW2Talk
• Court martial records
  
• courts martial | WW2Talk

 

You've posted elsewhere, mainly family research, which appears to involve bigamy. Nowt there explained what the discipline matter was. See: Captain Adrian H Gardner Beruit 1943

I found a link there for the Gazette item: Page 1316 | Supplement 36431, 17 March 1944 | Londo...

He appears in the London Gazette 24/5/1940 when he was commissioned 18/5/1940 in The Cameronians: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34855/supplement/3098/data.pdf

Plus:

I note the NAM short history is slightly different:

From: The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) | National Army Museum

Possible from his old public school journal:

Their War Diary is available (££) on Ancestry. From Post 32: Ancestry - War Diaries

Have you tried their museum? They might have regimental journals, The Covenanter which could mention his time. See: The Cameronian Museum - Low Parks - Hamilton Lanarkshire

 

Thanks. Yes Rootschat has been very useful but I have been struggling to find details on the CM online as the electronic records are incomplete.

Any idea what L.F.G is?

The thing is his 2nd wife gets pregnant after he is cashiered. So if he was caught out on bigamy did she stay with him and get pregnant only to return to UK without him to have the baby? At some point he leave her and goes to Africa to marry wife number 3.

 

Yes, it is LRDG aka Long Range Desert Group (a Commonwealth special forces unit, that operated in the North African desert till May 1943 when the war ended there and it went onto more SF operations - well documented online, in books etc).

Due to secrecy then it may not have appeared in The London Gazette.

It is the only abbreviation close on the "go to" website: WW2 Abbreviations and Acronyms | Researching the Lives and Records of WW2 Soldiers

There is also a link to his regiment with my bold:

From: http://www.cameronians.org/_covenanter_editions/Covenanter 2002.pdf

The LRDG did mountain and ski training in The Lebanon during WW2, as did other units destined to serve in Italy. There is a recently updated thread on the subject: LRDG Lebanon 1943

Force War Records (££) is supposed to have a full list of wartime court martials; I say supposed as there was recent post observing another FWR was in fact incomplete.

It does not seem his wartime conviction harmed afterwards: Mini Biographies of Scots and Scots Descendants - Gardner, Adrian Hunter

 

LFG = Land Forces Greece.
Listed in this list of abbreviations : Abbreviations & Acronyms

 

Richard,

I would argue that LFG is not Land Forces Greece.

I cite our own expert on the British involvement in the Greek Civil War gmyles; he stated in a 2025 post:

From Post 4 in: Researching - 3717449 Gnr Wilfred Williams, KORR, RA - Service Records help This is partially from: H.Q. Land Forces Greece: war establishment, organisation and administration. | The National Archives

More on: https://www.britishmilitaryhistory....s/124/2020/09/III-Corps-History-Personnel.pdf

The OP author refers to a London Gazette entry which states:

 

His 'Hunter' clan connection is total fabrication. The H was for Harry which was his father's name. His ancestry was not Scottish but Essex and Wiltshire going back for generations. Cad and bounder in old parlance applies to this man.

 

It is that he has dates from 1942-3 with the Central Mediteranean Force but there is no date for the LFG entry. As he was up for Court martial at the end of 1943 I wonder if the LFG entry is spurious.

Thank you all for your help.

 

I assume he would be restricted in some way, rather than being held in custody - especially as an officer. What better place to keep him out of the way than at mountain training school. Plus a Cameronian officer to vouch for him.

 

David, You are absolutely spot on with that thought that he would be held in Mess arrest as the offence was serious enough to warrant cashiering. He met his 'wife' when she was working in one of the MELF HQs where she worked as a civil servant so I know he was in Beruit in the summer of 1943. His 'wife' only arrived in Beruit in early May as she left Liverpool on a ship on 16 April 1943. They married mid August which was only 6 months before he was discharged.

She is pregnant in the summer of 1944 and returned to UK to have a child in Mar 1945. Adrian did not return to the UK and the next sighting of him is when he returns to UK in 1948 from West Africa with a new wife in tow.

 

Here’s the entry from ‘The Register of Tonbridge School from 1861 to 1945’.



As David points out the dates for LFG don’t tie up. I would imagine that Tonbridge School would not like to have an entry for an Old Tonbridgian showing serious misdemeanours.

 

I do wonder who gave them this information as it is clearly not correct: presumably he sent it in himself? Another question is what 1932-34 Gazetted to the Tank Corps is about? As it overlaps with his civilian job do we assume this is TF service and he never actually commissoned? And then if he has done 2 years in the RTC why did he not rejoin as an officer in 1939 but instead is a Private soldier in RWK. His maternal grandfather had a lot of connections in the Cameronians with lots of officers in the family in that regt, which explains why he ended up there.

 

Perhaps the RTC (TF) regarded him as not being officer material. Not sure what Supplementary Reserve of Ffficers (as per school entry) means. Did he join up in 1939, amidst wartime mobilization and was accepted before his possible TF record was known?

 

Hi

I have had a quick look through the weekly lists of Officers of 2nd Cameronians WDs on ancestry for the whole of 1943 and not found anyone named Gardiner.

There are no 2Cams WDs for 1944.

Hope this helps

Gus

 

It is spelt Gardner. I think he was probably in the same HQ as his 'wife'

 

Court Martial Index record:

Full Name :Gardner, A H A
Incident Date :4 May 1944
Rank Name :War Substantive Lieutenant
Rank (2nd) Temporary Captain
Additional Information:-
An unusual case, plea of guilty, legally in order. This statement was not signed.
Date of Court Martial 3 Jan 1944

Nature of Charge :-
The accused was charged under Section 41 of the 1881 Army Act. This section of the act specifies the "offences punishable by ordinary law of England which may be awarded for the most serious offences, treason, murder, manslaughter, treason-felony and rape". Bigamy

Remitted Or Commuted :
6 months imprisonment with hard labour remitted on confirmation

Sentence :
1 years imprisonment with hard labour and cashiered

Where Held : In the field
Primary Unit :Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
Archive Reference :WO86/118


Kyle

 

Thank you for confirming that.

 

Kyle
Can you explain what 'Incident Date :4 May 1944' refers to? The marraige is on 14 Aug 43 so he must have been found out between then and December 1943. I can't see what the incident date relates to?