Soldier, Conservative MP, sportsman and PPS to the disgraced John Profumo to whom he remained loyal
James Allason was a professional soldier, a member of the Far East strategic planning staff during the Second World War and, later, a Conservative MP. He was an old-fashioned politician, uncomfortable with the media and driven more by a sense of public duty than personal ambition. But he was perceptive of men and events.
As Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Profumo when the latter was Secretary of State for War, he was a close observer of the sequence of events leading up to Profumo’s resignation in 1963 after lying to the House of Commons, and reached conclusions substantionally different from those of his fellow parliamentarians and the public.
James Harry Allason was born in 1912 in South Kensington. His mother died in an accident at home when he was an infant. He was educated at Haileybury, Hertfordshire, then the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, claiming — with the flash of the self- assurance that seldom if ever deserted him — that he took the Woolwich rather than the Sandhurst examination “because it was more difficult”. His father, Walter, was a brigadiergeneral and his grandfather an admiral.
While serving in the Army in the 1930s Allason hunted and shot when on leave at the family’s country home in Chacombe, Northamptonshire; he skied in winter and raced his sports car at Brooklands in summer. Commissioned into the Royal Artillery on leaving Woolwich in 1932, five years later he transferred to the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales’s Dragoon Guards), who were serving at Sialkot in the Punjab and soon to exchange their horses for light tanks.
As British and Indian Army units in India prepared to go to war in Egypt’s Western Desert, the social and sporting life in the subcontinent continued — at least until the Japanese entered the conflict in December 1941. Shortly after that, Allason joined the Joint Planning Staff at GHQ in Delhi.
He, as a major and General Staff Officer Grade 2, and his colleagues drafted papers analysing the feasibility of ideas and drew up plans to defeat the seemingly invincible Japanese. On one occasion a yellow-faced young man visited the team, demanding to see the plans for driving the Japanese out of Burma. On the point of detaining him, Allason learnt he was an intelligence officer recovering from jaundice — Major (later Brigadier) Enoch Powell.
In early 1944 Allason arranged to accompany General Sir George Giffard, commander of 11th Army Group, on a visit to General Bill Slim’s 14th Army prior to an offensive into Arakan in Burma. Staying on after Giffard had left, he was wounded in the arm and evacuated to Calcutta.
A period on Lord Mountbatten’s planning staff in Kandy, Ceylon, was followed by return to England at the end of 1944. Despite strenuous efforts to see some action in the North-West Europe Campaign, he was assigned to another staff job in the War Office. A course at the Joint Services Staff College, to which he was able to contribute significantly from his own experience, led to yet another War Office staff appointment — this time in the discipline department.
This involved providing briefs for the Secretary of State on such issues as the sentencing of soldiers found guilty of murder and other serious offences. By then a lieutenant-colonel, Allason was appointed OBE for his services. He decided to leave the Army in 1953 with a view to entering politics. In the meantime, he moved house to Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, with his wife and two young sons and enjoyed the London round of parties, the San Moritz ski slopes, summer in the Mediterranean and his house on the Isle of Wight.
Having secured a Conservative nomination he cut his political teeth in the 1955 general election for the safe Labour seat of Hackney Central, which he lost. His election as a councillor for Kensington in 1956 broadened his political understanding. Meanwhile he kept a sharp lookout for a Conservative seat in which the sitting MP was planning to stand down.
Eventually, he learnt that Lady Davidson, wife of the former party chairman Lord Davidson, would be vacating Hemel Hempstead. Over lunch with Davidson and already primed, he made a point of talking of “the Empire”, rather than “the British Commonwealth”. The impressed Davidson concluded the lunch with the verdict: “The seat’s yours.”
As an MP he concentrated on housing and local government and in 1970 began a four-year term as chairman of the Conservative backbench Housing Committee. He was an early advocate of selling off council houses, a policy which became a Conservative success after 1979.
Elected in 1959, he was appointed PPS to Profumo, the Minister for War, for which his military background and experience of the War Office made him well suited. Allason worked closely with Profumo and always felt he had been unfairly treated over the events leading to his resignation.
Profumo’s association with the call girl Christine Keeler drew attention from the press and quickly gathered pace when it became known that she also knew — to express the matter in the language of the day — Captain Eugene Ivanov, the assistant naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in whom MI5 had an interest as a possible defector.
When the matter became public through an unrelated criminal investigation in which Keeler appeared to be peripherally involved, Profumo made a statement to the Commons about his relationship with her that he was subsequently obliged to withdraw, and resign. Allason remained firmly of the opinion that, aside from an indiscreet relationship, Profumo had acted honourably throughout.
Boundary changes in 1970 changed Hemel Hempstead from a safe Tory seat into a marginal. Allason held on by 185 votes in the February 1974 general election but lost by 485 at the election in the following October.
After departure from Parliament he resumed his earlier pursuits. Until late in life he continued to shoot and sail and, as a former MP, represented Britain in the Anglo-Swiss parliamentary ski race held at Davos. He skied until his 90th year undeterred by deteriorating eyesight, although it occasionally alarmed others on the slopes.
He was active in his old constituency association and served on the Town and Country Planning Association Council for nine years, only resigning over its opposition to nuclear energy. A keen traveller, he visited cities with opera houses and art galleries.
His marriage in 1946 to the Irish actress Nuala Elveen was dissolved in 1974. He did not remarry. He is survived by his two sons, Julian, an author, and Rupert, also a Conservative MP — for Torbay (1987-1997) — and, as Nigel West, a writer on military history and espionage.
Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Allason, OBE, MP for Hemel Hempstead 1959-1974, was born on September 6, 1912. He died on June 16, 2011, aged 98
Commander David Hankinson
Former Naval officer who embraced Carnaby St and painted Princess Diana
Hankinson served at sea in seven destroyers, off Suez in 1956 and Cyprus (1955-58), and during the First Cod War off Iceland in 1959. He specialised in gunnery in 1958 and attended the Royal Naval Staff Course, Greenwich, in 1962.
In 1963 he was promoted captain of the destroyer Cambrian. During 18 months as part of the Far East Fleet, he steamed 63,000 miles. He took part in the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and in January 1964 fired rockets and air bursts from his 4.5in guns over Dar es Salaam to frighten Tanganyikan soldiers who were in mutiny, while Royal Marine commandos landed to capture the mutineers’ barracks.
Air Commodore Peter Cribb
Master bomber who won two DSOs and made an unauthorised raid on Hitler’s Bavarian retreat
In July he was put in command of the newly-formed No 582 Squadron and flew 16 daylight sorties in support of the Normandy landings. On July 18 he was the deputy master bomber when more than 1,000 aircraft pulverised the German panzer divisions in front of Montgomery’s stalled army at Caen.
Cribb also controlled more than 700 bombers which attacked the V-1 sites before the bombing campaign resumed its efforts against major oil targets in Germany.
On October 3 he was master bomber for the attack on the sea walls of Walcheren Island. Coastal gun batteries dominated the approaches to the important port of Antwerp; the aim was to breach the walls and flood the island, most of which was reclaimed polder below sea level.
As the first to arrive at the head of 252 Lancasters, he orbited the target and directed eight separate waves of bombers, correcting the aiming point with flares and markers to widen the initial breach. The sea poured in, forcing the German defenders to abandon their carefully prepared positions. Cribb was the last to leave the target after a brilliantly controlled attack, which allowed Canadian ground forces to capture the island and open Antwerp to the Allies. Newspapers hailed the achievement with the headline “RAF sinks an island”.
Ralph Barker
Air gunner who flew perilous wartime missions and wrote authoritative books on aviation and cricket
After completing his training in 1941 Barker joined a Beaufort torpedo bomber squadron, flying from Scotland, but was soon posted to the Middle East with Nos 47 and 39 Squadrons. Flying from airfields on Malta and North African desert landing strips, it was the task of these squadrons to sink the Axis ships supplying Rommel's Panzers in the Western Desert.
Colonel John Kynaston
Officer who reconnoitred a minefield under heavy fire and carried on regardless when deafened by a bomb
During the Battle of El Alamein in October and November 1942, Kynaston, then a major, was serving with the 5th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (5 RHA). On one occasion he carried out a most hazardous reconnaissance over a mined area under heavy shellfire in order to find the best position from which his regiment could give support to the 24th Armoured Brigade.
John Kynaston being decorated by General Montgomery On another, there was a determined Stuka raid on his regimental headquarters and a bomb fell a few feet from the slit trench in which Kynaston was taking cover. This burst an eardrum, which completely deafened him in one ear, but he carried on his duties as if nothing had happened. He was awarded an immediate MC .
Lord Middleton
Twice-decorated peer who devoted himself to soldiering, public service and country pursuits
Captain Michael Willoughby, as he then was, took part in the Normandy landings in June 1944 as second-in-command of a company whose commander was soon wounded. Willoughby took over, and in July, when the company came under intense fire while being relieved by a unit from another regiment in pitch darkness, he had to evacuate casualties and reorganise the operation under very difficult conditions.
He was awarded a Croix de Guerre, the citation paying tribute to his coolness and efficiency in a critical situation and to the courage and endurance that he had shown throughout the advance.
The battalion moved forward to enter Brussels in September and to cross the Rhine in March 1945. On April 11 Willoughby led his company in an attack near the village of Böen, south-west of Cloppenburg. Their objective was to clear the north bank of the River Hase, which was not thought to be strongly held.
When the attack was launched across open ground it came under fire from a garrison which was able to shoot at it from the front, flank and rear. Willoughby rallied his forward platoons, who were taking casualties, then went to his reserve platoon and helped them deal with the most threatening enemy positions.
As a result 40 members of the German 61st Parachute Regiment were killed or captured, and Willoughby was awarded an immediate MC.
Major General John Alison
American fighter ace who fought with the Chindits and pioneered US airborne special operations
A combat veteran with seven enemy aircraft to his credit, Alison was appointed at the end of 1943 to join his friend, Lt Col Philip Cochran, to form the 1st Air Commando Group, a secret and highly innovative flying unit.
Alison (centre) with pilots of No1 Air Commando in Burma Alison's composite wing of fighters, bombers, transports, gliders, and helicopters was assembled to support Major General Orde Wingate, the unorthodox British commander of the Chindits long-range penetration force, who planned to land a force of 9,000 men almost 200 miles behind Japanese lines in Burma.
Alison trained his air transport and glider-towing force in preparation for this mission, codenamed Operation Thursday, and the assault took place on the night of March 5 1944. Men and mules were carried in Waco gliders towed in pairs behind C-47 transport aircraft. Alison had only flown a glider on two previous occasions, and never at night, but was determined to participate in the landing of Wingate's force.
He piloted one of the gliders in the first wave, taking 15 men of the assault team. After casting off from the tug aircraft, he brought his glider down safely on the rough "Broadway" landing ground before grabbing his rifle and a sack of grenades and leaping out to join battle with the enemy.
After three weeks in the jungle he was recalled. To get back he flew a damaged C-47 transport aircraft from a jungle airstrip, despite never having flown the type before. On arriving over his destination airfield he had to ask for instructions on how to lower the undercarriage and landing flaps. For his services in support of Operation Thursday, King George VI awarded Alison the DSO.
Captain Geoffrey Brown
Artillery officer at Arnhem who swore a string of Anglo-Saxon oaths to avoid being cut down by friendly fire
In September 1944 Brown took part in Operation Market Garden with 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, Royal Artillery. He was in one of the first two gliders to reach the landing zone. These clipped one another as they descended and it was fortunate that there were no casualties.
Brown was one of the survey party and used his jeep to retrieve containers dropped by air supply. He recovered a container from a roof under enemy machine gunfire but was refused a medal for gallantry on the grounds that his unit had used up its allowance.
On another occasion, he was held up at a crossroads by a German military policeman while an enemy convoy crossed in front of him. The policeman then waved him across. Brown said afterwards that he and his comrades were saved by the similarity of the uniforms worn by airborne forces.
The fighting left Brown so exhausted that, when Allied survivors were withdrawn across the Rhine, he was asleep on some hay in a barn. Woken by German soldiers, he lay doggo until they left. After dark he emerged to find Germans all around him and was forced to hole up for another day.
The following night, he came across two other British soldiers in the same plight. One could not swim and they scoured the bank of the river until they found some wooden packaging.
They placed the non-swimmer on this, together with most of their kit, but a quarter of the way across, their raft began to sink and they were forced to abandon it and return to the German side, cold and sodden.
The non-swimmer begged them to leave him behind but they refused and, after stealing a recce boat, they approached the further bank.
They were in great danger of being shot by their own comrades but Brown solved the problem by shouting a string of oaths that he felt was beyond the scope of any German.
Rear-Admiral John Templeton-Cotill
Naval character who restored a fort, set up an auction room and was filmed for an on-board documentary
John Atterill Templeton-Cotill was born on June 4 1920, the son of a First World War tank officer, and educated at Canford School and New College, Oxford. "TC" as he was universally known, joined the RNVR in 1939 and served in the corvette Crocus in 1940-41. He showed early talent as a diplomat and linguist, and, after the French minesweeping sloop Chevreuil was seized by the Royal Navy on July 3 1940 in Portsmouth and transferred from the Vichy to the Free French Navy in September 1940, he served in her as British liaison officer.
Chevreuil was sent to the Pacific to secure French possessions for de Gaulle, and TC was on board when, in November 1940, en route to Tahiti, she reached Sydney, New South Wales.
There he contrived to join the staff of the American General "Sandy" Patch for the Guadalcanal Campaign, the first major attack by Allied forces against the Japanese in the Second World War. When Patch was sent to Europe to take command of the US Seventh Army, TC was lent to the American embassy in London to continue his liaison work.
Next he was flag lieutenant to the flag officer, Malta, Vice-Admiral Sir Louis "Turtle" Hamilton, but soon volunteered for the greater excitement of operations in motor torpedo-boats. In the winter of 1944-45 he served as first lieutenant of MTB 421, fighting in some minor actions in the Mediterranean.
Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor
Writer and SOE hero whose combination of action and learning marked him as a latter-day Byron
On the outbreak of war Leigh Fermor first joined the Irish Guards but was then transferred to the Intelligence Corps due to his knowledge of the Balkans. He was initially attached as a liaison officer to the Greek forces fighting the Italians in Albania, then – having survived the fall of Crete in 1941 – was sent back to the island by SOE to command extremely hazardous guerrilla operations against the occupying Nazis.
For a year and a half Leigh Fermor, disguised as a Cretan shepherd (albeit one with a taste for waistcoats embroidered with black arabesques and scarlet silk linings) endured a perilous existence, living in freezing mountain caves while harassing German troops. Other dangers were less foreseeable. While checking his rifle Leigh Fermor accidentally shot a trusted guide who subsequently died of the wound.
His occasional bouts of leave were spent in Cairo, at Tara, the rowdy household presided over by a Polish countess, Sophie Tarnowska. It was on a steamy bathroom window in the house that Leigh Fermor and another of Tara's residents, Bill Stanley Moss, conceived a remarkable operation that they subsequently executed with great dash on Crete in April 1944.
Dressed as German police corporals, the pair stopped the car belonging to General Karl Kreipe, the island's commander, while he was returning one evening to his villa near Knossos. The chauffeur disposed of, Leigh Fermor donned the general's hat and, with Moss driving the car, they bluffed their way through the centre of Heraklion and a further 22 checkpoints. Kreipe, meanwhile, was hidden under the back seat and sat on by three hefty andartes, or Cretan partisans.
For three weeks the group evaded German search parties, finally marching the general over the top of Mount Ida, the mythical birthplace of Zeus. It was here that occurred one of the most celebrated incidents in the Leigh Fermor legend.
Gazing up at the snowy peak, Kreipe recited the first line of Horace's ode Ad Thaliarchum – "Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte" (See how Soracte stands white with snow on high). Leigh Fermor immediately continued the poem to its end. The two men realised that they had "drunk at the same fountains" before the war, as Leigh Fermor put it, and things between them were very different from then on.
Kreipe was eventually taken off Crete by motorboat to Cairo. The exploit was later filmed (in the Alps) as Ill Met by Moonlight (1956), with Dirk Bogarde implausibly cast as Leigh Fermor, who was awarded the DSO for his part in the mission. Such was his standing thereafter on Crete that in local tellings of the deed Kreipe was heard to mutter while being abducted: "I am starting to wonder who is occupying this island – us or the British."
