Claude Nicholson (2 July 1898 – 26 June 1943)Death Certificate, Registry Office of Rotenburg an der Fulda No. 47/1943. was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer who fought in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Early life and military career
Claude Nicholson was the elder son of Richard Francis Nicholson, a distiller from
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, and was born on 2 July 1898 in
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Chelsea histori ...
. He was educated at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
and in 1914 entered the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...
. On being commissioned as an officer in 1916, he served with the
16th Lancers
The 16th The Queen's Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922.
History
Early war ...
in France and Belgium during the First World War.
He later served in Palestine, India and Egypt. After attending the
Staff College, Camberley
Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...
from 1928 to 1929, he served at the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
from 1930 to 1931 and then commanded cadets at the Royal Military College. He was promoted to brevet major in 1934. On 31 December 1935, he married Ursula Katherine Hanbury-Tracy.
In 1938, Nicholson was promoted to lieutenant colonel and taught at the Staff College, Camberley and then commanded his regiment, the 16th/5th Lancers, in India from 1938 to 1939.
Second World War
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Nicholson was given command of the 30th Infantry Brigade, which was raised on 20 April 1940 to serve in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
.Dennis Talbot, later a major general, was Nicholson's brigade major. Nicholson's brigade left
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and reached Calais on 23 May 1940 to keep the Calais port open and relieve the defenders at the
Battle of Boulogne
The Battle of Boulogne in 1940 was the defence of the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer by French, British and Belgian troops in the Battle of France during the Second World War. The battle was fought at the same time as the Siege of Calais, just befo ...
. With the German advance, that became impossible and Nicholson held Calais.
The Germans advanced on the town and laid siege to it, shelling the town and drawing closer. This was just before the start of
Operation Dynamo
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France. The Germans resumed their fire. Soon after, Nicholson received a telegram from
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
, Secretary of War: "Defence of Calais is of vital importance to our country and BEF and as showing our continued co-operation with France. The eyes of the whole Empire are upon the defence of Calais, and His Majesty’s government is confident that you and your gallant regiments will perform an exploit worthy of the British name." He received and refused another offer to surrender from the Germans: "The answer is no, as it is the British Army’s duty to fight as well as it is the Germans'." Nicholson continued visiting the troops at the front lines. That night,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
telegrammed Nicholson:
Churchill later wrote that he felt physically sick after sending the telegram. On 26 May, the German barrage continued and in the afternoon, the Germans broke through, taking Nicholson and many soldiers prisoner. He was taken to a prisoner camp near
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
, then later to one in
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
.
On 4 June 1940, Churchill spoke to Parliament about Nicholson's defence:
Katyn incident
While imprisoned, Nicholson was asked to be an independent witness that the Germans did not perpetrate the
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
, where around 20,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia were killed by the Soviets. Nicholson, the senior British officer at his camp, and the senior American officer, Colonel John H. Van Vliet (later the author of the " Van Vliet report" implicating the Soviets in the massacre) refused, not wanting to be part of a German propaganda effort. Van Vliet and another American officer were later forced to go.
Death
Nicholson died in captivity in 1943, in the German city of Rotenburg an der Fulda where he was kept as a prisoner of war. According to his death certificate, he threw himself out of a window after suffering from depression, suffering a
skull fracture
A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the human skull, skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near ...
. He was taken to the city hospital, where he died in the early morning hours of 26 June; he was buried at Rotenburg Civil Cemetery. His date of death is given as 26 or 27 June in his obituary in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
''.
He was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Companion may refer to:
Relationships Currently
* Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance
* A domestic partner, akin to a spouse
* Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach
* Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...
for his services at Calais in 1940.
Historical reaction
In 1949, Churchill wrote that the defence of Calais led by Nicholson delayed the German attack on Dunkirk, helping to save the British Expeditionary Force, a claim that German General Heinz Guderian contradicted in 1951. In 1966, Lionel Ellis, the British official historian, wrote that three panzer divisions had been diverted by the defence of Boulogne and Calais, giving the Allies time to rush troops to close a gap west of Dunkirk. In 2006,
Karl-Heinz Frieser
Karl-Heinz Frieser (born 1949 in Pressath, Bavaria) is a German military historian and a retired colonel of the German Army.
Life
Frieser joined the German Army in 1970 and started studying political science as well as history in 1978. In 1981 ...
wrote that the halt order issued to the German unit commanders because of the Anglo-French attack at the Battle of Arras (21 May) had a greater effect than the siege. Hitler and the higher German commanders panicked because of their fears of flank attacks, when the real danger was of the Allies retreating to the coast before they could be cut off. Reinforcements sent from Britain to Boulogne and Calais arrived in time to forestall the Germans and hold them off when they advanced again on 22 May.
Nicholson is portrayed by Richard Glover in the 2017 film '' Darkest Hour'' about
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
during the War Cabinet Crisis in 1940. In the film, Churchill orders Nicholson to hold out and delay the Germans so that the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force can be evacuated from Dunkirk. Churchill's dictating of the telegram, and Nicholson's receipt of this communication in his bunker defenses, feature as notable scenes in the film.