Walter Cawthorn
Sir Walter Joseph Cawthorn | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Bill |
| Born | 11 June 1896 First World War
Second World War
|
| Awards | Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Early life
Walter Joseph Cawthorn was born in the suburb of
Military career
Bill Cawthorn, as he was known to his friends, enlisted in the
He transferred to the Indian Army as a lieutenant on 25 March 1918.[3] He served with the 46th Punjabis in Palestine from September to October 1918 and was mentioned in dispatches in The London Gazette on 12 January 1920. He joined the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment on 25 September 1925 and attended the Staff College at Camberley in 1929–30.[4]
Cawthorn married Mary Wyman Varley in 1927 in London and they had one son, Michael John Douglas Cawthorn, who was born 10 March 1930.
Cawthorn served on the Staff of Baluchistan District as a General Staff Officer 3rd grade (GSO 3) from 15 December 1930 to 29 February 1932.[7] He was appointed Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General (DAQMG) on the Staff of Western Command at Quetta 1 March 1932 to 20 January 1935.[7] He served on the Mohmand operations on the North West Frontier in 1935.[7] He was appointed a General Staff Officer 2nd grade (GSO 2) at the War Office in London from 6 January 1937 to 2 August 1939. On 3 August 1939 he was appointed a local colonel and temporary General Staff Officer 1st grade (GSO 1).[8]
With the rank of Brigadier, Cawthorn took charge of the Middle East Intelligence Centre, at the start of the
Cawthorn worked well with Peter Fleming and the ultra secret double agent network at GSI(d), the network faced earlier in the war at Rangoon. Unlike Ormonde Hunter, a previous chief he was entirely sympathetic to the agency's aims. Cawthorn had none of these suspicions about the counter-intelligence activity. He was brought to London in March 1943 to discuss double-agents with MI5, before leaving with Churchill's team for the Trident Conference (19-30 May 1943), where he was one of the four-man British negotiating team.[10] Hunter joined them on 28 May to sketch an outline for Operation Saucy, a plan for Japanese deception. The full plan was fleshed out at New Delhi with Fleming, which they dubbed Ramshorn. It was devised as a tactic to divert the Japanese Air Force away from MacArthur's main forces, but predictably John Bevan back in London shot the plan down in flames. Cawthorne had been too ambitious; all that they could do was create 'an illusion of an amphibious landing'.[11] Cawthorn was appointed a temporary major general on 21 November 1943.[12]
When the Partition of India occurred in 1947, Cawthorn opted for the Pakistan Army and from 1948 to 1951 he was Deputy Chief General Staff, Pakistan Army under Lieutenant General Ross C. McCay. Cawthorn left Pakistan in 1951.
Intelligence career and later life
From 1951 to 1954, Cawthorn was the Director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB), within the Defence ministry. He came back to Pakistan in 1954 as Australia's High Commissioner to Pakistan. He was knighted in 1958, and in 1959 appointed as High Commissioner of Canada until September 1960, when he was brought back to head the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) until 1968.[1][2]
Cawthorn died in Melbourne in 1970, at the age of 74.[1][13][14]
References
- ^ ISBN 0522845126.
- ^ ISBN 9781910220122.
- ^ January 1919 Indian Army List
- ^ July 1929 Indian Army list
- ^ "Michael John Douglas Cawthorn". Commemorative Roll. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
- ^ February 1950 Half Yearly Army List
- ^ a b c d 1941 War Services Supplement to Indian Army List
- ^ October 1939 Indian Army List
- ^ October 1942 Indian Army List
- ^ Holt, The Deceivers, pp. 269–71
- ^ Holt, p. 339
- ^ April 1947 Army List
- ^ Deaths: Cawthorn, The Age, (Monday, 7 December 1970, p. 14.
- ^ Casey, R.G.G., "Major-General Cawthorn dies", The Age, (Monday, 7 December 1970, p. 2; Diplomat dies at 74, The Canberra Times, (Monday, 7 December 1970, p. 3.
