Claude Auchinleck
Mohmand Campaign
Second World War
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE (21 June 1884 – 23 March 1981) was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army by early 1941. In July 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East theatre, but after initial successes the war in North Africa turned against the British, and he was relieved of the post in 1942 during the crucial Alamein campaign. In June 1943 he was once more appointed Commander-in-Chief India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for Slim's Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. He served as Commander-in-Chief India until Partition in 1947, when he assumed the role of Supreme Commander of all British forces in India and Pakistan until late 1948.
Born at 89 Victoria Road in Aldershot, the son of Colonel John Auchinleck and Mary Auchinleck, Auchinleck attended Eagle House School at Crowthorne and then Wellington College on scholarships. After attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Auchinleck was commissioned as an unattached second lieutenant in the Indian Army on 21 January 1903 and joined to the 62nd Punjabis in April 1904. He learnt some Punjabi and, able to speak fluently with his soldiers, he absorbed a knowledge of local dialects and customs: this familiarity engendered a lasting mutual respect, enhanced by his own personality. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 April 1905 and then spent the next two years in Tibet and Sikkim before moving to Benares in 1907 where he caught diphtheria. After briefly serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Aldershot he returned Benares in 1909 and became adjutant of the 62nd Punjabis with promotion to captain on 21 January 1912.
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