Charles Keightley
Sir Charles Keightley | |
---|---|
Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Dorset.[9] (29 October 1970 – 17 June 1974) |
Since Keightley‘s death, there has been much scrutiny of the methods he employed in 1945 to send thousands of Cossacks and White Russians to their death at the hands of Stalin.
Early life and military career
Keightley was born on 24 June 1901 at Anerley near Croydon, the only surviving son of Rev. Charles Albert Keightley, the local vicar, and his wife, Kathleen Ross. His early education was at Marlborough College.[10]
He graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in December 1921 into the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales's)[11] which through amalgamation with the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons became the 5th/6th Dragoons the following year, and later the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. He was promoted lieutenant at the end of 1923[12] and captain in April 1932,[13] having served three years as the regiment's adjutant.[14][15] He attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1935[16] to 1936,[17] and after a staff posting was in October 1937 appointed a brigade major of a mechanised cavalry brigade in Egypt.[18] He was able, however, in November to take part in the coronation of King George VI in London as a member of the procession accompanying the King and Queen.[19] In September 1938 his brigade became part of the new Mobile Division in Egypt commanded by the influential Percy Hobart.[20]
Keightley was able to benefit from Hobart's tutelage for only a brief period and, having been promoted to the rank of major, he was appointed in December 1938 to be an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley. Accompanying his new position was another promotion, this time to the local rank of lieutenant-colonel.[21][17]
Second World War
In 1940, during the
In late December 1941 he was promoted to acting major-general to become Commandant of the
In December 1943 he exchanged commands with Major-General Vyvyan Evelegh, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 78th Infantry Division, which had fought alongside the 6th Armoured in Tunisia was then serving in Italy, and which became his first infantry command. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in August 1944 and his success as a commander of both armoured and infantry divisions led to his promotion in August 1944 to acting lieutenant-general[28] when he was given command of the British Eighth Army's V Corps, succeeding Lieutenant General Charles Allfrey, in Italy. At the age of 43 he was the youngest officer in the British Army during the Second World War to command a corps in action.[29] Toby Low, the youngest brigadier in the British Army, was Keightley's Brigadier General Staff (BGS). He commanded this corps during Operation Olive, the offensive on the Gothic Line in the autumn of 1944, and also during the final spring offensive in April 1945, when it took a lead role in forcing the Argenta Gap. The corps moved into Austria with the surrender of the German Forces and forces that were fighting on the German side. On 8 May 1945, he signed a demarcation agreement with the Bulgarian First Army commander, General Vladimir Stoychev in Klagenfurt.
In
According to Nikolai Tolstoy’s Stalin’s Vengeance (2021)
Keightley… concealed the presence of White Russians from his superiors, who had issued repeated orders stipulating that only Soviet nationals should be handed over, and even then only if they did not resist. Through a succession of underhanded moves, Keightley secretly delivered up the leading Cossack commanders to the Soviets, while force of unparalleled brutality was employed to hand over thousands of Cossack men, women, and children to a ghastly fate.[31]
In mid-1945, Keightley was appointed
Post-war
In 1946, Keightley left Austria and reverted to his permanent rank of major-general (to which he had received promotion in February 1945),
In May 1951, he became the C-in-C
From 23 November 1947 to 23 November 1957,[45] he held the honorary post of Colonel of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. He also held the honorary post of Colonel Commandant, Royal Armoured Corps, Cavalry Wing until April 1968.[46]
In retirement Keightley was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar, a post he held from May 1958[47] until October 1962 when he retired from the army a second time since his role as Commander-in-Chief, although not paid for out of the army's budget, had technically returned him to active duty.[48] From 1958 he served a term as Honorary Colonel of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.[49]
From 1963 he was appointed Member of the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation.[50][51]
He died in Salisbury, Wiltshire, at Salisbury General Infirmary on 17 June 1974, a week before his seventy-third birthday.
Family
Keightley was married to Joan Lydia Smyth-Osbourne of Iddlesleigh in Devon in 1932. They had two sons, of which Richard was also a senior army officer, becoming Commandant of Sandhurst.[52]
Recognition
Keightley Way, a road and tunnel in Gibraltar was named in his honour.[53]
Publications
- Keightley, Charles (1957). Despatch by General Sir Charles F. Keightley GCB GBE DSO, Commander in Chief Allied Forces. Operations in Egypt, November to December 1956. London: Ministry of Defence. published in "No. 41172". The London Gazette. 10 September 1957. pp. 5327–5337.
References
- ^ "No. 39863". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 May 1953. p. 2942.
- ^ "No. 41092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1957. p. 3416.
- ^ "No. 36637". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 August 1944. p. 3605.
- ^ "No. 35020". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7175.
- ^ "No. 37368". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 November 1945. p. 5791.
- ^ "No. 41359". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 April 1958. p. 2357.
- ^ "No. 36125". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 August 1943. p. 3579.
- ^ "No. 37961". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 May 1947. p. 2287.
- ^ "No. 45225". The London Gazette. 3 November 1970. p. 12069.
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography 1971–1980
- ^ "No. 32589". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 January 1922. p. 724.
- ^ "No. 32892". The London Gazette. 28 December 1923. p. 9107.
- ^ "No. 33820". The London Gazette. 26 April 1932. p. 2719.
- ^ "No. 33489". The London Gazette. 26 April 1929. p. 2763.
- ^ "No. 33822". The London Gazette. 3 May 1932. p. 2888.
- ^ "No. 34126". The London Gazette. 22 January 1935. p. 547.
- ^ a b c Smart 2005, p. 175.
- ^ "No. 34446". The London Gazette. 22 October 1937. p. 6511.
- ^ "No. 34453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 1937. p. 7033.
- ^ a b Mead 2007, p. 227.
- ^ "No. 34580". The London Gazette. 16 December 1938. p. 7996.
- ^ "No. 35204". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 June 1941. p. 3739.
- ^ "No. 35406". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 January 1942. p. 129.
- ^ "No. 36120". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 August 1943. p. 3521.
- ^ "No. 36125". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 August 1943. p. 3579.
- ^ "No. 36160". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 September 1943. p. 3965.
- ^ "No. 36509". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 May 1944. p. 2171.
- ^ "No. 36669". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 August 1944. p. 3941.
- ^ Mead 2007, p. 229.
- ISBN 0-684-15635-0.
- ISBN 978-1-680-53880-9.
- ^ "No. 37161". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 July 1945. p. 3490.
- ^ "No. 36940". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 February 1945. p. 917.
- ^ "No. 38197". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 February 1948. p. 889.
- ^ "No. 38794". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1949. p. 6161.
- ^ "No. 39231". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 May 1951. p. 2797.
- ^ "No. 38929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1950. p. 2776.
- ^ "No. 39249". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1951. p. 3109.
- ^ "No. 39977". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 October 1953. p. 4249.
- ^ "No. 39930". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 July 1953. p. 4249.
- ^ "No. 40833". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 July 1956. p. 4191.
- ^ "Blitz in the Desert". Time. 12 November 1956. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
- ^ "No. 40990". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 January 1957. p. 719.
- ^ "No. 41158". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 August 1957. p. 5033.
- ^ "No. 41232". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 November 1957. p. 6773.
- ^ "No. 44558". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 March 1968. p. 3864.
- ^ "No. 41441". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 July 1958. p. 5327.
- ^ "No. 42813". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 October 1962. p. 8265.
- ^ "The Royal Gibraltar Regiment". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ "No. 43041". The London Gazette. 28 June 1963. p. 5535.
- ^ "No. 45667". The London Gazette. 9 May 1972. p. 5536.
- ^ Smart 2005, p. 176.
- ^ "Geology and the Tunnels of Gibraltar (Late Tunnels)". Vox. 12 January 2008. Archived from the original on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
Bibliography
- Blaxland, Gregory (1977). The Plain Cook and the Great Showman: The First and Eighth Armies in North Africa. Kimber. ISBN 0-7183-0185-4.
- Blaxland, Gregory (1979). Alexander's Generals (the Italian Campaign 1944–1945). London: William Kimber & Co. ISBN 0-7183-0386-5.
- Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: a biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II. Stroud (UK): Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0.
- Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. ISBN 1844150496.